Curried Chicken Over Spinach - Healthy Food Tip and Recipe

healthy food tip and recipe
August 29, 2013

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Today's Recipe

If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...

This is a great tasting dish that requires little work. The curry coconut complements the flavor of spinach and you can easily include more vegetables. Just increase the amount of sauce slightly and add along with the bell peppers.

Curried Chicken Over Spinach

Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces (6oz each)
• 1 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 TBS fresh ginger chopped, or 1/2 tsp dried
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 medium sized onion, cut in half and sliced
• 1 medium sized red bell pepper julienne about 1 inch long
• 1/2 cup coconut milk, make sure it is mixed well before using
• 4 bunches fresh spinach
• salt & white pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Bring water to a boil for spinach. While water is coming to a boil, cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Healthy Sauté onion in a medium sauté pan over medium low heat for about 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add garlic and fresh ginger and continue to sauté for another minute. Add turmeric, and curry and mix well. Add stock, chicken, and coconut milk. Simmer for 5 minutes and add bell peppers and other vegetables you desire. Cook until chicken is done, about another 5 minutes.
2. While chicken is cooking, cut ends off the bunch of spinach all at once. Don't bother trying to do it one stem at a time. It will take you too long and it is not necessary. Rinse spinach well and drop into boiling water for just 1 minute. Strain and press dry. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Place spinach on plates and top with chicken mixture.

Serves 4 For optimum flavor and nutrition serve with:

• Minted Carrots

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Curried Chicken Over Spinach

Healthy Food Tip

Do pickles have about the same amount of nutrition as raw cucumbers?

There is some nutrient loss that occurs when a vegetable, like a cucumber, is pickled. The exact nutrients that are lost and the exact percentage depends on (1) the liquids you use to pickle and marinate and (2) the length of time you keep the vegetables in the solution before consuming them. A certain percentage of some water-soluble nutrients, like vitamin C, can naturally transfer to the pickling liquid over time.
Here are some specifics regarding cucumber pickles:
A raw unpeeled 8-inch cucumber weighs about 300 grams, provides about 45 calories of energy, and contains about 8.4 milligrams of vitamin C. Two 4-inch pickled cucumbers (sour, not sweet) weigh about 270 grams, provide about 30 calories of energy, and contain about 2.8 milligrams of vitamin C. So you can see that there is a moderate amount of vitamin C loss involved with the pickling process. I say "moderate" here because pickles do not contain a very large amount of vitamin C to begin with, and even though the loss is fairly high in terms of percentage, we are only talking about 5-6 milligrams here.
This same type of nutrient loss applies to a vitamin like folic acid. In the 8-inch raw cucumber referred to above, there are about 21 micrograms of folic acid. In the sour pickle example, there are only 2 micrograms. Once again, this nutrient loss is very substantial as a percentage, but since DRI (Dietary Reference Intake) recommendation for adults is 400 micrograms of folic acid each day, these 19 lost micrograms, while still important to notice, only constitute about 5% of the DRI requirement.
Many of the minerals in cucumber are contained in the skins, and keeping the skins on when pickling would be important if you wanted to maintain the mineral content. (Of course, I would highly recommend organic cucumbers, especially when leaving on the skins, since it's the skin that gets the most exposure to potentially toxic sprays.)
I don't object to the pickling of vegetables and think they definitely can have a healthy place in your Healthiest of Way of Eating. However, I do see them as significantly different (in terms of nutritional value) both from raw vegetables and from minimally cooked vegetables.