Modern life.

Work, family obligations, the news, climate change.

Daily stress has left us feeling completely frazzled and takes a big toll on our wellness.

Can you cook to eliminate stress?

Nope, but you can cook to manage it and come out the other side feeling calm and serene.

I'll show you how as we go back to the cutting board today on Christina Cooks.

(upbeat music) ♪ (announcer) Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

Additional funding is also provided by Old Yankee Cutting Boards, designed for durability and custom crafted by hand with Yankee pride and craftsmanship.

♪ Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

♪ Additional funding is also provided by: Hi, I'm Christina Pirello, and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh, seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will they all be plant-based?

Yeah.

Will they be delicious?

You can bet on that one.

You know, there's an ancient Chinese curse that says, "May you live in interesting times," and it's never been truer than now.

All of us have stress.

Nobody gets out of life alive without stress, but the way you manage it begins with the foundation upon which you build your health, which starts in-- here's a surprise-- the kitchen.

The foods you cook determine how your organs function, and how your organs function determine how you manage stress.

The body is like any machine with moving parts.

So the harder it works, the more tired you get, the more tired you are, the more stress gets to ya.

Get it?

Okay.

So we're gonna start with a really simple soup that's gonna help you to manage stress in such a great way.

I call this "comfort in a cup."

And it's made with a grain that's called millet which is this yellow grain from Africa.

And this grain not only is high in protein, higher than all other whole grains in protein, but it also prevents the buildup of stomach acid, so it's really easy to digest, and it cooks up super creamy.

So let's make this soup.

This is wakame seaweed.

Sea vegetable.

I shouldn't say "seaweed."

Seaweed implies unwanted plant and these are, in fact, wanted.

So wakame is very mild.

You can buy it in any natural food store.

It's very mild flavor, but what it gives us is an amazing amount of minerals, and the more minerals we have, the better our blood quality is and the better we manage stress.

This is always about managing stress.

So, they go into the pot, the chopped wakame.

You have to chop it up because if you don't, people will have seaweed hanging out of their mouth and that's attractive.

That'll really stress you out.

The next thing to go in are yellow onions.

You can use shallots, you can use red onions.

I don't care.

But they're really nice.

Now usually I sauté onions to make them sweet, but in order to make these sweet, we're gonna add just a little bit of water because this is a no-oil soup.

You can sauté the onions if you want to, but in order for this soup to do its job, I want it to have no sort of inhibitions for digestion, so this is the kind we use no oil.

So they're just gonna simmer while I get the rest of the ingredients ready.

So I'm gonna clean off my cutting board.

You guys know, right?

Clean off your cutting board in between ingredients so that everything tastes like itself and your cutting board is never a mess so you don't get overwhelmed by cooking and stressed out.

If your cutting board has, like, stuff everywhere, you suddenly find yourself chopping over here, and you're completely stressed out.

So keep your board open and clean.

This is green cabbage.

Greatest anti-inflammatory in the world.

Simple, humble cabbage.

Greatest in the world.

So we're gonna take it and slice it thinly.

Right?

And then we're gonna cut across those slices to create a dice.

Now if your knife skills aren't great, which that can be a form of stress, you just run your knife around them so you get nice little pieces.

The goal of having a small dice is that there's more surface area on each piece of veggie to bleed into the broth to make it sweet.

In first goes organic corn.

So organic corn, please use organic.

This is frozen, so you don't have to take it off the cob, but if you want to do that, you can too.

And, now, in goes our cabbage.

This soup is so lovely and so sweet and delicious that you'll lose your mind over it.

I know I do.

This is a soup I could eat every single day.

And if you want to up the protein even more, you can add a couple tablespoons of red lentils because it'll still turn creamy and yellow.

And, now, in goes the millet.

Make sure you rinse your millet because it'll taste dusty if you don't.

And if you forget, it's okay, don't stress.

But if you can, it'll be sweeter.

And then you add water just to cover your ingredients.

Why just to cover?

Because this allows the soup to become sweeter because it's cooking in a more concentrated broth.

And once it comes to the boil, then you add the balance of your liquid.

And you let the soup simmer until the millet is soft.

It'll take about 30 minutes, and then when you see how we finish this off, it is like the greatest soup ever.

♪ All right, so 30 minutes has passed, and the soup has turned nice and creamy and yellow.

The millet has sort of melted, which is what you want.

So now we're gonna take it down from the boil because we're gonna season it with miso.

And miso is a fermented, live food It's a Japanese product.

It has the consistency of peanut butter basically, and you use about a teaspoon for every cup of liquid in your soup.

And what miso does is provide the body with, um, digestive enzymes and live bacteria to help you to digest.

And trust me, if your digestion is not good, you're stressed.

Think about those commercials you see for, uh, laxatives, and before, the person is walking around with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

And then they have a movement, and now they're running through fields of daisies.

So, if you eat miso, you're always running through fields of daisies.

Or something.

So you just do this in hot broth from the soup so that the miso melts and no one bites down on a salty lump of miso.

You just put that back in the soup.

Give it a stir, and it's gonna simmer really super, super, super low for about 30 seconds.

And while that's happening, we'll take some leafy greens.

This is like an all-encompassing dish.

Leafy greens also help you to manage stress because they're flexible like this, right?

So we're gonna chop some Italian kale into fine pieces.

We're gonna stir that into the soup.

And then we're gonna take it, give it a little stir just so the kale wilts a tiny bit.

Pop it into a bowl.

This is such a nice soup.

If I could eat only one thing for the rest of my life in the soup department, this is it.

Garnish it with a few scallions, and you have a great stress buster right there.

♪ -Can a vegetable be a fruit?

-A fruit can be a vegetable.

What?

It can be both?

What happens if you swallow the seeds?

(unintelligible).

-I don't get it.

-I am so confused.

♪ So, we get a million e-mails, phone calls, and letters each week of people struggling with what they should do to not be so confused as they get started on their path to being well.

So, often, I answer those questions, but every now and then, I think, "Wouldn't it be great to bring in an expert who can help you to understand some of the things you struggle with?"

So, today, I'm here with Dr. Vicki Bralow who runs an MD VIP practice in Philadelphia, a family practice dedicated to health and wellness.

So she's gonna answer some questions for us today.

-Hi, Vicki.

-Hi, Christina.

-I'm so glad you're here.

-Thanks for asking me.

So, I hear a lot from people, and you're probably hearing it too now, about intermittent fasting.

Can you tell me in a thousand words or less what it is, how do we do it, and don't people naturally do it anyway?

Like, I know in our house, we stop eating two hours before we sleep.

We get up and do a few things around the house in the morning before we eat breakfast, so we kind of fast every night.

But what is intermittent fasting, and is it important for people to know about it?

Okay, so intermittent fasting is the new Paleo, I guess, because it is the hot topic everywhere.

-Everybody.

-Everybody is talking about it.

There's a few different ways that you can do intermittent fasting.

There's alternate day fasting, where every other day you fast.

There's the 5:2 fasting, where you eat for five days and then for two days you don't eat -more than 500 calories.

-Wow.

And, then, there is scheduled, timed fasting that's daily, and that's--when people talk about intermittent fasting, it's that one that everyone is talking about.

There was recently a huge article that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December and it talked about intermittent-- it was entitled "Intermittent Fasting and Its Effects on Health, Aging, and Disease."

So, that was a big, like, whoa, it sounds medical.

Like, this is--this is a real thing, right?

It's a good thing, it's been backed up.

So, when you look at intermittent fasting, they have found that you need to be fasting for about 16 to 18 hours total to really get the benefit, all right?

So you eat for six to eight hours, then you fast for 16 to 18 hours.

There is differences in the time of day that you do your fasting.

The earlier in the day that you do it is seen to have a better effect than if you do it later in the day.

Although, later in the day, you still are getting benefit from it.

(Christina) So if people--so if people fast, like they stop eating at a certain time of night and they wake up in the morning and still fast for a little while before they eat, is that, like, considered the early in the day part?

The best result is when you stop eating -at about 3:00 p.m. -'Cause, let's face it, it's easier for people to fast when they're asleep.

(Vicki) That is very true.

And to stop eating at 3:00 p.m. is really hard.

Okay, unless you're on shift work or something like that, and then that's a whole other story 'cause your biorhythm is set differently, your circadian rhythm, rather.

(Christina) So, but is it-- is it good enough, would you say, as a wrap-up, that if people stop eating earlier in the evening and give themselves sort of a "break"... (Vicki) It is--if you--I always tell people start with, like, a 12-hour fast, okay?

Then bring it to 13 hours, 14 hours.

It is much easier for people not to eat in the morning and to maybe start eating, um, br--with lunchtime.

And it's easy to stop eating at 7:00 or 8:00 at night and just not picking at your food throughout the rest of the evening until you go to sleep.

So, that's the best way to start with intermittent fasting.

Well, that was great, thank you.

So there you go.

It's the latest, hottest thing.

Intermittent fasting.

But give it a try.

You might just see that you feel better.

♪ So, one of the big ways to manage stress is to eat a whole grain, like brown rice, but whole grains are challenging for some people.

They don't know what to do with them, how to eat them, how to make them.

I'm gonna show you a really easy dish to make that uses brown rice, and it's a great way to introduce it to your family, your friends, whatever.

It's a couple of steps, so don't stress.

In this pan, in avocado oil, I have, um, tempeh, and tempeh is a fermented soy product that we use instead of animal protein.

I'm gonna add to it a little bit of mirin.

It's optional, you don't have to.

'Cause you're gonna have to clean your stove, so don't stress over it.

And a little bit of soy sauce.

I kind of don't make marinades.

I do it like this.

I don't know where in my mind I think it's easier to clean the stove than to make a marinade, but that's how my brain operates, so there you go.

So we're gonna let that cook for a couple seconds.

And while that's cooking, before we flip it, we're gonna pickle some blanched red cabbage.

And we blanched it so it's easier to digest.

So I add a little lemon juice.

It's not really a pickle.

It's more like a light marinade.

So I guess I do marinate some things?

Anyway... And a little red wine vinegar.

And what this is gonna do is very simple and it's purely aesthetic, because it's not really a pickle, but it takes the red cabbage from looking purple to looking a little more pink and pretty.

And the prettier your food, the more people want to eat it.

Okay, so now we're gonna take a fork and turn the tempeh slices so that they can brown evenly.

And then we're gonna assemble the nori rolls.

We're making nori rolls, by the way.

Nori rolls are a great way to get sea vegetables, veggies, and whole grains into your family.

And see how this is browned and nice and sort of crunchy looking and smells really good?

That's what we're looking for.

Okay, so now we're gonna take a sushi mat which is this.

Can get it in any kitchen store.

You don't have to use one.

Don't stress.

You can use a dish towel.

You can use nothing.

At home, I basically use nothing.

And this is nori.

Nori is a sea vegetable that grows deep in the ocean, not in this shape.

So, it grows in big, long fronds, and it has these lines in it because they press it between sushi mats and dry it in the sun.

You'll also notice that nori has a shiny side and a dull side, and now you're thinking, "I'm stressed out just thinking about these nori rolls," but don't.

So the shiny side goes against your counter or your mat because you don't want it to crack.

And if the dull side is up, it'll crack.

So we're gonna take our tempeh out... (clicking) ...because now it's really browned, and it'll give a nice texture as well as flavor to the dish.

Slippery little suckers.

Okay.

So, that's that.

So now you're gonna wet your hands in some clean water as opposed to dirty water.

Anyway, you're gonna wet your hands, and you're gonna take some cooked brown rice.

And you want to cook your brown rice so that it's a little bit softer than usual so that it sticks together.

And what you're gonna do is press it against the dull side of the nori.

And you're gonna go end to end... ...but you're gonna leave a little strip of nori exposed at the top or furthest from you and closest to you.

It's not really the top.

And you're gonna press the rice pretty firmly, right?

They say, in Chinese medicine, that you can tell the condition of someone's intestines by how well they roll nori rolls.

We'll see, we'll see how I'm doing.

I'll be sharing much more information with you all than you may want to know.

Then, you're gonna clean your hands, and now they have to be really dry because if your hands are wet, you'll tear the nori.

Okay?

So... Now we're gonna take our tempeh, and you want to have your filling be end to end, right?

We're gonna take a scallion and split it so that it runs the length of your nori roll.

A cucumber spear, you can use whatever you want, but I really like to use things that are crunchy and cool as well as things like tempeh.

Then, we're gonna take some of our cabbage and lay that, you don't have to do a ton.

You can also eliminate it.

You can use whatever you want.

My niece, when she was young, used to use peanut butter and dill pickles in her nori rolls.

And if she wasn't four, I remember saying to her, "Are you pregnant," but she was four, so guess not.

And it's actually delicious.

So, now we're gonna sprinkle a little bit of hemp seed to give us some omega-3s which also help you to manage stress.

And, now, with super-dry hands, you take this flap of nori and you wrap it around the filling and the rice and you roll.

Now when I first made these, my very first nori roll, I rolled the mat into the nori roll 'cause I wasn't sure how to do this, and then I couldn't figure out how to get the mat out.

So, after four tries, I threw the nori roll away 'cause I was so stressed out.

And then you wrap the nori roll around this.

And then my husband came home and said, "Oh, here's how you do it," and I thought, "Oh my gosh, that was so easy."

So now you unroll it and it should feel pretty firm.

And you want to lay it seam side down.

Now it should be hard for you to find the seam.

Then you wet your blade so you don't tear the nori, and you're gonna cut the nori roll into eight pieces.

You cut it in half, in half, in half, and in half.

And the very ends, which are sort of a little bit loose and not real tightly wound, if you want to say that, are called "sushi tails," and those are for the chef.

So you take your nori rolls and you lay them onto a plate.

And since they're nice and tight and my filling is in the center, I guess my intestines are good.

So they go onto the dish, and then what I usually do, some people make dipping sauces, but I like to take soy sauce and just give a little sprinkle to each one so it's kind of a self-contained bite.

And it's one of the best ways to get organic brown rice into your body.

♪ So in my opinion, whole grains are the foundation upon which you build your health.

And you need a variety of them to get a variety of nutrients in your body.

So I have everything from barley to millet.

Barley helps the body to cleanse.

Millet helps the body to digest easily.

We have quinoa which is a perfect protein.

We have rolled oats for those quick breakfasts when you need to get out of the door quickly.

We have brown rice.

And, then, in my smaller jars I have things like farro or whole oats, things I don't use quite as much.

And what I do is I put everything in Mason jars so that when I open my pantry, all the shelves look the same and everything is very orderly.

And what I do is take a Sharpie and I mark the lid with what it is.

So this one is brown rice.

So that if I forget or someone else is using my pantry, they can figure out what's in each of the jars.

You can also label them if you want to.

And if Mason jars aren't your thing, you could also use a plastic container.

What you need is one that seals so that you keep the air out of the whole grains and they stay fresh.

On top of that, I put a bay leaf in each jar, and all the grains stay fresh and will last quite a long time until you use 'em all up.

♪ So, in my world, my life would be completely stressed out if there wasn't dessert.

And so I know I'm gonna make a tart now which involves a pie crust, and I can feel your shoulders coming up around your ears already.

Pie crust could not get easier.

It's flour, water, salt, and a little oil.

And you make a nice elastic dough, you roll it out, and in this case, we used a tart pan that has a removable bottom.

And the reason you're not seeing me make the pie crust is because we had to bake it and cool it to do the rest of the tart.

So, you have to bake it off, what's called "blind baking."

So you put four coals in it, you put it in the oven and then take it out.

So now what we're gonna do is get the apples ready.

And so what we're gonna add to the apples is some arrowroot, and arrowroot is gonna help the apples to make like a little bit of a gravy over them, some brown rice syrup... for sweetness.

And I like brown rice syrup in this case because it's a liquid sweetener and it helps to juicify the apple filling.

That's a good word, I like that.

-Do you guys like that?

-Yeah!

Yeah, come on, right?

Okay.

And, now, a little avocado or olive oil.

It's your choice.

And this is gonna make your filling richer.

So you just now stir the apples... until they're coated with your sort of dressing, whatever you want to call it.

We should add a pinch of salt.

Why do we add a pinch of salt to baked goods do you think?

'Cause salt's job is to make food taste like itself, only better, so it makes the dessert sweeter.

You can add cinnamon, don't add cinnamon.

It does not matter.

So, now, if you're feeling fancy, you're gonna go in and you're gonna fan these apples like this.

You're gonna lay each piece in and do this.

It's very chef-y.

Here's how I make an apple tart.

I don't--I mean, I'm gonna fan if I'm cooking for a domestic goddess, but since I'm not, we don't fan.

So you're gonna take your apples and you're gonna spread them around.

You want them to look nice and neat, though.

You know what I mean?

You don't want your apples all over the place, so I kind of use my fingers, make sure they're filled in, all the little sort of curves of the... pie crust.

And now you're gonna make the best part of the tart, in my opinion, the streusel topping.

And that's a nice crumb topping, so you don't have to make two pie crusts.

See?

I de-stressed you already.

We're gonna take some coconut sugar, about, mm, half a cup, three quarters of a cup.

Whatever.

Some pecans.

Not "pea-cans," "peh-cahns."

They go in.

Another pinch of salt.

And a little avocado oil.

If you start with avocado oil, you make your crust with avocado oil, you dress your apples with avocado oil, stay with avocado oil.

And then we're gonna go in and just mix this until it becomes crumbly.

Some people like to add flour at this point.

Don't.

I want the crust to be, like, really crumbly on the top, so I don't add flour, but you can.

It's perfectly fine.

Now you take this and you just sprinkle it over, just like that.

It's completely brilliant and so easy.

Even if you have to make the crust.

And if you don't want to make the crust, you know, buy a crust.

Make sure it's whole wheat and doesn't have an ingredient panel that reads like a Russian novel.

But if it's just got, like, flour, oil, and water, and salt, you're good.

Go for it.

There's no law that says you have to make your own pie crust from scratch.

So, that's gonna go into the oven and bake for, like, 30 to 40 minutes.

And then we'll take it out of the tart pan, really stress myself out and show you how to serve it.

♪ Okay, so, after 30 or 35 minutes, it comes out of the oven, you let it cool for about ten minutes, and, then, this is where it can get stressful, so settle down.

You lift it out of the tart pan perfectly.

And then we can slice it up and serve it.

You want to let it cool before you try to slice it and serve it, though, because, otherwise, you'll kind of be sorry.

It'll fall apart, and it still may fall apart, and if it falls apart, eat it anyway.

It's a tart.

It's not rocket science.

So there's our apple streusel tart, and I like to do a little fancy garnishing on the plate.

So you fan a strawberry and set that out there so it has lots of nice color.

Let's do another one.

I just want to eat the tart, actually, but I'm trying to be nice and chef-y.

♪ That's the best way to de-stress.

These three dishes will keep you cool, calm, and collected.

Your shoulders down, not up around your ears.

Take your time.

Get your knife skills going.

And what are you waiting for?

Let's get back to the cutting board, and I'll see you next time on Christina Cooks.

♪ ♪ (announcer) Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

Additional funding is also provided by Old Yankee Cutting Boards, designed for durability and custom crafted by hand with Yankee pride and craftsmanship.

Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding is also provided by: ♪ You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at: And by following Christina on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

The companion cookbook, "Back to the Cutting Board," takes you on a journey to re-engage with the soul of cooking.

With more than 100 plant-based recipes, finding the joy in cooking has never been simpler.

To order your copy for $20 plus handling, call: Add Christina's iconic book, "Cooking the Whole Foods Way," with 500 delicious plant-based recipes.

To order both books for $39.95 plus handling, call: ♪