The Northern Mexican diet is considered by many to be one
of the three healthiest diets in the world. Beans,
generally pintos, which by the way are the healthiest of
all beans, are paired in many dishes with corn, especially
corn tortillas. This amazingly simple diet is quite
sustainable and with the addition of chiles in salsa or
fresh or pickled chiles such as jalapenos—the diet is
quite tasty.
The benefit you receive from eating chiles in healthy
Mexican recipes coupled with a balanced diet and a moderate
amount of exercise is that weight loss or at the least
maintenance is assured. You will not be as hungry when you
eat spicy and will also eat less.
Chiles also act to reduce stress, reduce facial wrinkles,
increase heart health, assist with digestion and
circulation and have been known to cure endless amounts of
physical ailments. Cooking healthy Mexican recipes makes
it easy to begin the chile-a-day habit. You can learn lots
of healthy Mexican recipes during Jane Butel's weekend or
weeklong cooking schools or join "Cooking with Jane", Jane
Butel's cooking club. For additional information, join the
enewsletter mailing list for Butel's Bytes.
To select chiles for cooking, if you are searching for
milder chiles, always select ones that have broad shoulders
and blunt tips—conversely, select chiles with pointed
tips and narrow shoulders for hotter dishes. This is
important because you can have up to 35 different
piquancies on one plant at a time.
Mexican foods frequently contain chiles, though not as
spicy as north of the border New Mexican or even Tex-Mex
cooking. In Mexican cooking they use less chiles or
marinate them in lime juice if there is a concern they will
be too hot. The exception is in the Yucatan where the
Mayans have long used the really hot habenero chiles.
In Mexico, the ubiquitous sour cream and lots of cheese are
not found—those are basically commercialized
preparations of fast food American Mexican restaurants.
An example of a healthy Mexican recipe for sauce that is
used from morning to night, is the Pipian sauce, a
delightful, nut like tasting sauce that is really yummy on
eggs, tacos, as a dipping sauce, over vegetables and meats.
It is from Oaxaca and once made keeps well in the
refrigerator and can be frozen if desired.
Here's the recipe—
Pipian Sauce
Yield: 4 1/2 cups (approximately)
1 teaspoon ground chipotles
1 cup green pumpkin seeds or pipian
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup sliced scallions, including the greens
1/2 cup cooked or canned tomatillos, drained and chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a hot skillet until they
start to brown, taking care not to let them burn.
2. Combine the chile, toasted seeds, cilantro, scallions,
and tomatillos in a blender along with 2 cups of chicken
broth and puree until smooth. Keeps well in the
refrigerator for two weeks or frozen in a sealed container.
----------------------------------------------------
Jane Butel, the first to write about Southwestern cooking,
has published 19 cookbooks, several being best sellers. She
operates a full-participation weekend and week-long
vacation cooking school, an on-line school, a cooking club,
a monthly ezine, a mail-order spice, cookbook, Southwestern
product business and conducts culinary tours and
team-building classes. For more information on this article
go to
http://www.janebutelcooking.com/Public/Articles/index.cfm?
, 1-800-473-8226.
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