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

This dish is perfect if you want to eat a flavorful dish that is easy. It takes very little time to prepare and once it goes into the oven you have time to go do something else, and come back for a very warming meal on a cold day.

Prep and Cook Time: 20 minutes; baking time 1½ hours

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 TBS minced fresh ginger, or ½ tsp dried
• 1½ lbs lamb shoulder, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 3 tsp ground red chili pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp coriander
• ½ cup vegetable or chicken stock
• 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
• 4 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into 2 inch cubes
• 6 cups finely chopped kale
• 7 oz canned coconut milk
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Chop onion, garlic, ginger and lamb. Healthy Saute onion over medium low heat in medium pot for 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add garlic, ginger and lamb and continue to sauté for another 4-5 minutes.
3. Add turmeric, chili powder, cumin, and coriander and mix well.
4. Add stock and drained can of tomatoes.
5. Peel and cube squash and add along with coconut milk. Cover and put into oven to braise.
6. Remove stems from kale, chop and rinse. If you have a salad spinner, use to dry kale. If not use a towel to remove excess water from kale so it doesn't dilute the coconut broth. When kale is prepped, stir into rest of ingredients, and bake for the remaining 1½ hours. If you'd like you can check after 1 hour to see how it's doing. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
   Serves 4
   For optimum flavor and nutrition serve with:
   • Romaine & Avocado Salad

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Braised Red Curry Lamb & Vegetables

Daily Food Tip

I would like to know if juicing your greens is as healthy as eating them.

No, juicing your greens is not nearly as healthy as eating them, provided that you use healthy cooking methods when you eat the greens themselves. If you overcook the greens, you will lose too many of the nutrient they contain, and in that case, you might be worse off than if you used a juicer. But as long as you use the healthy steaming or other cooking methods we describe on our website, you'll get a far greater variety of nutrients in the whole greens than in the juice. That's because juicers usually separate the juice from the solids in the leaves or stems or stalks (which some people call the pulp), all of which are then discarded. Unfortunately, these portions of the greens often contain a majority - and even a large majority - of the total nutrients, including fiber, and many phytonutrients including certain carotenoids and certain flavonoids. If you added all of the discarded portions back into the juice, you would be getting very close to the same nutritional benefits as the vegetable itself. However, most people would find a juice with all of the processed parts to be unpleasantly thick and displeasing in taste.

We've seen websites promoting the value of live enzymes from freshly juiced greens, and even though we have not seen research to support this claim, there may indeed be some benefit inside of the digestive tract to the consumption of freshly juiced, organic greens. We do know that very fresh (not long from harvest) raw foods that are harvested and handled with care can deliver some functioning enzymes into our digestive tract when we eat those raw foods. However, there is no research showing that we would be able to absorb these enzymes into our body and make use of them outside of the digestive tract.

Many juicers come with a recipe book showing how the vegetable pulp can be used in recipes. This idea makes good sense to us, and would be a way of salvaging some of the nutrients that were lost during the process of juicing.

For more information on this topic, see:

• Healthy Steaming Cooking Method
• Dietary fiber
• Carotenoids
• Flavonoids