86% of People Skip Veggies – Let’s Fix That!

This month’s longevity tip reveals the Italian secret: delicious, daily vegetable preparations that significantly contribute to their renowned longevity. In fact, 80% of adults and 54% of children in Italy eat at least one vegetable every day.

Here are a few reasons why American’s are missing out on the nutritional value of this important class of foods.

✔️Vegetables are usually tasteless (especially when they are canned) and covering them up with sauces and spreads doesn’t help.

✔️Often, people don’t like preparing them, don’t know how, or do not want to spend the time doing it. (I know this from running my cooking school in the past – somehow preparing great tasting vegetables has escaped most cooks.)

✔️Restaurants do not focus on vegetables and most people eat out a lot, in fact one study revealed if you took all the restaurant food in the U.S. and analyzed it, only 10% is vegetables. (I once had a client that hired me exclusively to review restaurant menus to help with ordering food since they eat out regularly.)

Let’s fix the above issues so you can start getting the nutritional benefits of delicious grilled vegetables right in your own kitchen.

Here’s a photo of vegetables I grilled this past weekend. We can use it as a guide to grilling.

The grill pan isn’t cheap but it’s a lifetime pan, it’s stainless steel and will make beautiful looking veggies. Cheaper options are available, but they are made of aluminum and don’t heat the same.

Heat the pan on a low burner for about 5 minutes making sure it’s nice and hot when you begin. When grilling, use medium heat throughout and finish with a few grinds of fresh black pepper and/or white balsamic vinegar.

Now for the veggies:

Top left and bottom right – colorful peppers.

Buy a bag of small red, yellow, and orange peppers. Rinse and dry the peppers. Place them directly on the hot grill pan. Grill until they begin to char on one side and turn them over.

When they begin to collapse place them in a heavy bowl, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (I only use high quality Deliba EVOO) and cover with a lid from a pan that’s close to the same size of the bowl. What you want to do is let them steam. They should look exactly like the ones in the photo. No oil needed for the grill pan – just oil to drizzle while they are steaming in the bowl.

Bottom left and upper right – zucchini.

Remove the top and bottom of the zucchini and slice long thin pieces of zucchini. I usually cut the slides in half, so they aren’t so long. Brush a little oil on the bottom of the grill pan as these will stick otherwise, grill until you see lines on one side and turn over.

Middle of the tray – asparagus

All I did here was blanch the asparagus. You don’t need the grill pan for this.

You just need to blanch the asparagus by placing it (first cut the tough ends off) in hot water for 2 minutes and then transferring it to ice water. Here’s a link if you want to review instructions. After it’s completely cool, arrange it on the tray and top it with fresh ground pepper and a sprinkle of white balsamic vinegar.

Right side of the tray – grilled red onion

Remove the outer skin of the onion and cut across horizontally to make 3 or four thick sections of onion. Lightly brush the bottom of the hot grill pan with high polyphenol extra virgin olive oil and grill, one side at a time until they soften and have grill lines on them. I then loosened the sections to make spirals of onion.

While longevity encompasses more than just diet (as explored in recent publications) nutrition is a key factor, particularly the antioxidants found in colorful vegetables and fruits. Vitamins and supplements will never replace the real thing. Don’t miss out on these.

If you’d like to learn more about grilling vegetables outside this summer here’s a link to a video on my YouTube channel where I show you how to do it.

If you’d like to immerse yourself in longevity, Italian style, there are still some spots available. The details are here for what will be an extraordinary excursion to the very soul of Italy.

Just a quick note that I’ll be leading the spring “Authentic Italy” excursions and will be in Italy until the end of May. If you are considering traveling in the fall, please send a reply as the trips will likely fill up soon.

That’s it for now!

See you Again Soon with Another Longevity Tip!

Carol Amendola D’Anca

Master of Clinical Nutrition

Host of “Authentic Italy” Lifestyle Immersions

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