Quick

Green bean recipes are a little like socks; everybody has a few. I came across a website that boasted 471 green bean recipes. By the time I linked to it a second later, they were up to 472, so clearly it’s a popular vegetable. This dish is dairy-free and delicious. Instead of a common cheese topping, I use finely ground Brazil nuts, which you’ll swear taste like Parmesan cheese. Why Brazil nuts? Because they’re an amazing source of selenium, a mineral that some scientists believe lessens chemo’s toxic effects on healthy cells.

Sometimes creating recipes is like dating. You have to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. I recently broke up with a chopped broccoli dish because we had no chemistry. It just wasn’t happening. I might have been depressed if not for another broccoli suitor that swept me off my feet. This guy—well, as mom likes to say, he cleans up nice. Maybe it’s the company he keeps as well; surrounding himself with fresh basil, red bell peppers, a little lemon … they’re a sprightly crowd, fun to hang with, and healthy, too, full of anti-inflammatories and other anticancer properties.

A lot of people have only had a close-up encounter with broccoli as raw crudités or boiled until it’s gray and limp, which is unappetizing and often difficult to digest. Here, sautéing the broccoli in olive oil, infusing it with broth, and then blending releases all of its sweetness and cancer-fighting properties and helps everything go down nice and easy.

I first became interested in soccas (chickpea flour crepes) because they are allergen-free, glutenfree, low-carb, high-protein, and delicious! Soccas go back to at least 1860. They are from southern France, but were most likely an import from northern Africa, where they eat a lot of chickpeas. In the nineteenth century, there were socca sellers at the markets and at work sites, where they provided the morning meal to the workers. The socca sellers used special wagons with built-in charcoal ovens to keep their wares hot while they announced them with the appropriate cries of “Socca! Socca! Socca!” I have kept my socca recipe simple, because I like the rustic flavor. You can top it with olive oil, salt, and fresh pepper, or go all out, topping it with things like caramelized onions and grilled red peppers.

The key to the very best gluten-free baked goods is Authentic Foods superfine brown rice flour; it is the Cadillac, or cashmere, of brown rice flours and is worth its weight in gold. It is not grainy like other rice flours, and bakes the most fantastic cookies, cakes, pie crusts, and so on. If you can’t find it at your local natural foods market or Whole Foods, order it online. Both Ener-G and Bob’s Red Mill brown rice flours will also work in these recipes, but they won’t turn out quite as well. I do not recommend Arrowhead Mills brown rice flour, which I find too gritty. The brands of potato starch and tapioca flour or starch are not important; I find them all interchangeable. (Please see Resources, page 177, for more information.)

Although dirt may not sound appetizing, this fun topping is perfect for dusting cakes and cupcakes. You only need one simple ingredient—dark chocolate chips. Just be sure to clean out your coffee grinder before and after making it so you don’t get coffee-flavored dirt or chocolate-flavored coffee—though I could think of worse things.