Today's Recipe - 15-Minute Braised Fennel Salmon

Today's Recipe
If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...
This is a great way to enjoy fennel. The flavor of the fennel wonderfully complements the rich taste of salmon for a complete meal that takes only 15 minutes to prepare!

15-Minute Braised Fennel Salmon

Prep and Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 lbs salmon fillet, cut into 8 pieces, skin and bones removed
• 1 TBS + 1/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 large fennel bulb sliced thin, save 1 TBS chopped green tops to use for garnish
• 2 TBS fresh squeezed lemon juice
• salt and white pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Season salmon with a little salt and white pepper. Set aside.
2. Heat 1 TBS broth in 10-12 inch stainless steel skillet. Healthy Sauté fennel bulb in broth over medium heat for 1 minute stirring constantly.
3. Add 1/2 cup broth, lemon juice, pinch salt and pepper, and place salmon on top.
4. Reduce heat to low and cover. Cook for about 5 minutes. Do not overcook fennel, or it will lose its flavor. Sprinkle with chopped green fennel tops. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve.

Serves 4 Serving Suggestions: Serve with

• Pureed Sweet Peas

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for 15-Minute Braised Fennel Salmon

Healthy Food Tip

Can the way different nutrients react with each other be problematic for your health?

If you are asking this question very broadly-not necessarily in the context of food-the answer is definitely "yes." Nutrients can undergo what are called "antagonisms" with each other. Nutrient antagonisms are interactions that prevent each nutrient from being fully active in our metabolism. (The opposite of nutrient antagonisms are called "synergisms." Sometimes nutrients cannot be fully active unless they are present in combination.) There are literally hundreds of nutrient antagonisms-so much so that very large research volumes (like Bodwell and Erdman's Nutrient Interactions, Marcel Dekker, New York, 1988) have been written on this topic.

However, if you were asking specifically about food and food nutrients, I would not ordinarily worry about the interactions based upon levels of nutrients that are present in natural, whole foods.

All whole, natural foods contain many different nutrients, and there will be natural antagonisms and synergisms among nutrients found within every whole food. There may be situations in which you want to avoid some foods specifically because of the nutrient antagonisms involved. For example, if you were very deficient in copper, but very well nourished in zinc, you might not want to regularly consume zinc-rich foods because zinc and copper are minerals that can interfere with each other metabolically. However, this type of situation would be unique to a particular individual at a particular time for reasons of personal health history, lifestyle, and genetic predisposition. A balanced Healthiest Way of Eating focused on whole, natural foods could not create this type of imbalance. One of the reasons I like whole, natural foods is that nature has taken care of the nutrient interactions for us. Nutrients are supposed to interact with each other while we are digesting food and also after we have absorbed it. In fact, the nutrients found in food were interacting with each other long before the food was ever harvested. Provided that a food is whole, natural, organically grown, and carefully handled post-harvest and during the preparation of a meal in our kitchen, I trust the naturally occurring nutrient interactions to work in support of our health.