Healthy "Superfood" Recipes

It's easy to add healthful foods like red wine, salmon — even chocolate — to your menus. We've packed these and other superstar foods into tantalizing recipes like Roasted Garlic Soup and a spicy "Hot" Chocolate Cake. With dishes so appealing, we forget that the ingredients harbor good-for-you "phytonutrients," substances credited with warding off everything from the common cold to more serious ailments like heart disease and certain cancers. With flavorful and easy recipes to follow, indulge in foods that taste good and just happen to promote good health.

Whole roasted onions stuffed with creamy parsnip puree and topped with a sprinkling of toasted walnuts and pungent Roquefort cheese are satisfying alone or alongside roasted meats. As a bonus, onions pack a big dose of "flavonoids," a subclass of phytonutrients that might help ward off certain cancers and protect the heart.

Recipe: Roasted Onions with Parsnip Puree

The omega-3 oils in salmon are thought to promote healthy arteries and may also help treat depression and rheumatoid arthritis. Health benefits aside, there's no quicker weeknight supper than our Pineapple- and Soy-Glazed Salmon. Slipped into the oven, it cooks in less than 10 minutes. The glaze includes a fermented soybean paste, one of whose phytonutrients, isoflavone, seems to mimic estrogen and could prevent breast and prostate cancers.

Recipe: Pineapple- and Soy-Glazed Salmon

Our Preserved Lemon Chicken is a dish whose delightful flavors are a result of a marriage of sweet-tart preserved lemons and fresh whole lemons, buttery olives, fresh herbs, and tomatoes. Lemons contribute high amounts of vitamins C and B, which aid in the prevention of stomach cancer. All citrus fruits (especially the peel, as used in this recipe) contain generous quantities of disease-fighting phytonutrients.

Recipe: Preserved-Lemon Chicken

Strips of smoky bacon and sauteed collard greens are tossed with a warm vinaigrette for our Hot Collard Slaw. Easy to make but complex in flavor, this side dish is loaded with nutrients that keep your eyes and bones healthy. Preliminary research indicates that dark leafy greens support the immune system and may ward off certain types of cancer. These greens are also rich in folic acid, a nutrient critical for fighting anemia and preventing some birth defects.

Recipe: Hot Collard Slaw

For a good punch of infection-fighting garlic, which also lowers blood pressure and may help prevent stomach cancer, serve up bowls of Roasted Garlic Soup. It offers a mellow sweet taste and a smooth and soothing texture.

Recipes:
Roasted Garlic Soup
Fire-Roasted Tomato Soup

Bagna Cauda, a pungent dip, is loaded with heart-healthy olive oil and antioxidants. Plunge crisp vegetables or crusty bread into this warm blend of oil, anchovies, and garlic.

Recipe: Bagna Cauda

Made with an olive-oil crust and a drizzle of herb-infused olive oil, our Tomato and Camembert Tart provides a double dose of a healthful ingredient.

Recipe: Tomato and Camembert Tart

That one of life's great indulgences, chocolate, might also prove beneficial to health is good news, indeed. And what better way to enjoy those benefits than in chocolate cake? We call this one "Hot" Chocolate Cake because it pairs rich cocoa and bittersweet chocolate with a hint of spicy cayenne pepper--a warming choice for a winter snack. The cacao beans from which chocolate is extracted seem to have the same powerful antioxidants found in red wine and tea. At last, chocolate can be enjoyed fully guilt free.

Recipe: "Hot" Chocolate Cake

The well-publicized health benefits — reduced risk of heart disease and cancer — associated with consuming a moderate amount of red wine daily don't come only from sipping a little cabernet or merlot. Cooking or reducing wine concentrates its flavors without altering its potent antioxidants, called phenols. So add red wine to a winter dessert like our Spiced Figs in Port Wine. Port, a fortified wine, is simmered with honey, dried figs, and spices to create lusciously soft fruit and a thick, burgundy-colored syrup that adds complex flavors and dramatic color to a serving of frozen yogurt.

Recipe: Spiced Figs in Port Wine