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

This highly nutritious cabbage and kale dish is easily made and is very fresh tasting. It is a meal in one dish that is very satisfying and delicious with the chicken. By using our Healthy Sauté and stovetop braising techniques you get a healthier dish without heated oils that is still full of flavor.

Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch pieces.
• 4 cups green cabbage sliced thin,
• 4 cups finely chopped kale, stems removed
• 1 medium sized onion cut in half & sliced thin
• 1 TBS minced fresh ginger
• 2 medium cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup + 1 TBS chicken broth
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 TBS rice vinegar
• 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup chopped scallion tops
• 1 TBS sesame seeds
• salt and white pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare ingredients as listed above.
2. Heat 1 TBS broth in a stainless steel wok or large skillet. Healthy Sauté onion in broth over medium heat for about 5 minutes stirring frequently, until translucent. Add garlic, ginger and continue to sauté for another minute.
3. Add chicken pieces and cook for a couple of minutes. Add turmeric, coriander, and mix with chicken. Add kale. Sauté for another couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Add ½ cup broth and bring to a boil on high heat Reduce heat and simmer over low heat covered for about 3 minutes stirring occasionally.
5. Add cabbage, diced tomatoes, vinegar and simmer for another 4 minutes. Remove from heat, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.
6. Serve sprinkled with minced scallion and sesame seeds.
   Serves 4
   Serving Suggestion:
   Serve with
   • Seaweed Rice

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Sesame Braised Chicken & Cabbage

Daily Food Tip

Is it harmful to greatly exceed the RDA for vitamins and minerals by eating large quantities of fresh vegetables?

The RDA is a public health recommendation designed to meet the needs of the general U.S. population. To determine nutrient levels that are optimal for your personal health, a very different kind of evaluation process is needed, one that can only be conducted by your personal healthcare provider. However, when you are simply thinking on your own about the importance of RDA levels in your diet, here are some recommendations that you might find helpful.

I recommend that you pay attention to some nutrients more than others. The nutrients of special concern include the vitamins folate and niacin (vitamin B3), and the minerals calcium, magnesium, sodium, chloride, boron, nickel, and vanadium. Here's why I recommend some extra caution with respect to these nutrients: In the case of these nutrients, an Upper Limit (UL) level has been established by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that is less than three times the recommended amount. In other words, if you get three times what you need in the case of these nutrients, you've gone overboard.

For certain vegetables, that's not a wide margin of safety. For example, among the World's Healthiest Foods, asparagus is an excellent source of folate. One cup of cooked asparagus can provide you with about 250 micrograms of folate. One and one half cups could provide you with about 375 micrograms-an amount that is very close to the daily recommendation of 400 micrograms. But four cups could put you right at the Upper Limit of 1,000 micrograms. Unless the rest of your diet contained no folate whatsoever, you could exceed the UL amount in this way.

On the other hand, for many other nutrients, it's almost impossible to go overboard from food. For example, you would have to consume more than 10 times the recommended amount for vitamin C or vitamin E before you exceeded the UL. That would be very unlikely when it comes to your vegetables. Here's an example with vitamin C: red bell peppers are an excellent source of this vitamin and contain about 175 milligrams per cup. That's almost 300% of the daily recommended amount! Even so, you would still be under the UL of 1000 milligrams for vitamin C if you went overboard and ate 11 cups! In the case of almost all B vitamins-including vitamins B1, B2, B5 (pantothenic acid), B6, B12, choline, and biotin-there is no UL whatsoever. That situation also holds for the minerals chromium and potassium. In the case of these nutrients, you have much more of a green light when it comes to your diet, because it is very difficult (or actually impossible) for you to exceed the recommended upper limit.

What I recommend is that you balance your vegetable intake. Nutrients don't usually work independently-they work together in special combinations and ratios. If you consume enormous amounts of collard greens, for example, you're likely to get substantial amounts of copper, one of the key antioxidant minerals. This World's Healthiest vegetable is such an excellent source of copper that each cup of cooked collards is going to provide you with about 18% of the DV (recommended Daily Value) for copper. But at the same time, you'll be getting less than 2% of the DV for zinc in every cup of collards. If you indulge yourself too much on collards alone, you may be providing yourself with an undesirable ratio of copper to zinc. This ratio is very important, since some key antioxidant enzymes (like superoxide dismutase, or SOD) only function properly when copper and zinc are provided in the proper ratio. The way to assure the proper ratio is not to give up collards! The way to achieve an optimal balance is to vary your intake of the World's Healthiest vegetables, and to make collards just one of many vegetables you include in your Healthiest Way of Eating.