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

If you never thought to combine salmon with black beans, try this blend of the sweetness of the salmon, richness of black beans and the zestiness of the topping for a taste treat.

Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1½ lb salmon cut into 4 pieces,
• skin and bones removed
• 1 small sized onion minced
• 1 small sized red bell pepper diced 1/4 inch
• 4 medium cloves garlic pressed
• ½ cup + 1 TBS chicken or vegetable broth
• 15oz can black beans, drained
• 1½ TBS red chili powder
• about 2 cups shredded romaine lettuce, outer leaves discarded
• 1 medium avocado cut into cubes
• Sauce:
• 2 TBS fresh cilantro chopped
• 1 TBS fresh mint chopped
• 1 TBS fresh basil chopped
• 3 TBS fresh lemon juice
• 3 TBS olive oil
• 1 TBS chopped pumpkin seeds
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Season salmon with a little salt and pepper. Set aside while you chop and sauté vegetables.
2. Mince onions and press garlic and let sit for at least 5 minutes to bring out their hidden health benefits.
3. Heat 1 TBS broth in a 10-12 inch stainless steel skillet. When broth begins to steam add onion, bell pepper and garlic and Healthy Sauté on medium heat for about 5 minutes stirring frequently.
4. Add ½ cup broth, drained beans, and red chili powder. Cook for another 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. While beans are cooking preheat broiler on high. Place a stainless steel or cast iron skillet large enough for salmon under the heat to get hot. This takes about 10 minutes.
6. In a bowl mix together cilantro, mint, basil, lemon juice, olive oil, pumpkin seeds, salt and pepper.
7. Place salmon in the hot pan and return to broiler about 5 inches from the heat source for best results. Broil salmon for about 3-4 minutes for medium doneness. This is our Quick Broil cooking method. Serve salmon, beans, lettuce and avocado together on a plate. Top salmon and lettuce with cilantro topping.
   Serves 4
   

    

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Southwestern Salmon & Black Beans

Daily Food Tip

What is fiber, how is it digested, and why is it important for health?

"Fiber" is a term that sounds quite simple and straightforward, but it's actually been a term of great controversy in nutrition. Traditionally, researchers have described fiber as a group of polysaccharides that resisted breakdown in the digestive tract. However, this definition is not completely accurate since (1) polysaccharides are not the only type of nutrients that share the characteristics of fiber, and (2) many fibers can actually be used by the body after being fermented by bacteria in the large intestine. I like to think about fibers as unique nutrients that belong to several different chemical categories but that share in common one special feature-their tendency to go through the digestive tract in a way that is well protected from digestion and allows them to play roles that other parts of food cannot play.

Another key identifying characteristic of fibers is their exclusive presence in plants and plant foods. Animal foods do not provide us with fiber, only plant foods do. The carbohydrate fibers include celluloses, hemicelluloses, pectins, and fructans (polyfructoses). The primary non-carbohydrate fibers are the lignins that make up an important part of many cell wall structures in plants. Many of the World's Healthiest plant foods contain one or more of these dietary fibers. You'll find dietary fibers in vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds. It's the unprocessed, whole food form of these foods that allows them to provide you with their fiber benefits, however, heavily processed, fiber-rich foods will often lose their fiber-rich qualities.

Much has been written about the health-promoting benefits of fiber, and ample numbers of studies support an association between high-fiber diets and a decrease in risk of many types of cancers, including colon cancer and breast cancer. Some of this benefit comes from the ability of fiber to bind and remove toxins and to promote healthy digestion. Recent research suggests, however, that fiber provides its health-protecting benefits in other ways as well, and one of the most important appears to be its ability to promote healthy intestinal tract bacteria.

Your large intestine contains a multitude of beneficial bacteria that are required for your body's health. They are called the "friendly flora," or the beneficial symbiotic microbes, and they support the health of your whole body by promoting healthy immune function and providing important molecules to your intestinal tract cells to promote their growth, thus sustaining overall intestinal tract integrity. These microbes use some of the fibers you eat as fuel for their own growth, and through their own metabolism produce molecules called short-chain fatty acids (SCFA). SCFA production by this friendly flora has been associated with a decrease in cancerous colonic cells, reduction of serum cholesterol, and maintenance of healthy blood sugar levels and healthy intestinal tract cell walls.

Not all fiber is fermented by the friendly flora in your intestinal tract. Some, as discussed above, goes through your entire system unchanged, binding toxins and waste products as it goes, and promoting healthy elimination. In either case, fibers are unique nutrients when it comes to their health benefits. In order to obtain all of their health advantages, however, it's important for your diet to provide you with a plentiful amount of fiber. This amount is at least 25 grams per day for adult women and 38 grams per day for adult men. The heavily processed nature of the average U.S. diet makes these goals virtually unattainable, and U.S. adults average less than 15 grams of fiber per day. But if you follow the Healthiest Way of Eating, and enjoy a wide range of the World's Healthiest Foods, you'll likely attain-and even surpass-these goals.