Some Of The Top Alkaline Foods We Love To Cook With!
There is a lot of chatter about alkaline foods and their benefits for the body. We aren’t really going to dive into the science behind the claims of an alkaline diet or regulating bodily pH balance. Frankly, human blood is pretty neutral – around 7.35 pH between 0 and 14 – and meant to stay very close to that.
That said, the foods we ingest can absolutely have an effect on your body’s internal systems – like the organs that aid in digestion. We think that – as with most things in life – we should consume everything in moderation.
We typically eat healthy produce and limit our intake of meat, fats, and other animal-based products. We even eat a salad for lunch every day – seriously. Since lots of animal products are acidic, we like to include alkaline foods into our diet as well – these are some of our favorites.
Eggplant
Eggplant is a vegetable that Lisa used to cook with quite a bit in the past. Often times she would cut the eggplant into slices, put them on a baking tray, add some spices (Italian spices, salt, and pepper) and oil before putting them in the oven and baking them for a few minutes until browned.
Right now we don’t always have an oven available so we’re not using eggplant nearly enough but it is still a vegetable that we enjoy cooking with when we can. It also tastes great in salads or tomato sauce – just make sure to cook it first since eating raw eggplant is not always safe and generally not recommended!
Kale
Kale is definitely one of our staple greens that we use on a daily basis. Often times we just eat cut up kale raw by putting in into our lunch salads, but we also like to put it in soups, curries, or other stove top dishes. Lisa likes kale a lot more than Bruce so she often also makes herself a green smoothie that includes lots of kale.
We usually get cut-up kale from the grocery store which makes it easy to use since the kale leaves itself can be quite hard when whole. That’s why people usually recommend massaging kale before using it in a salad.
Avocado
Every millennial loves avocado – at least that’s the stereotype. We certainly enjoy eating avocados frequently but don’t usually eat it on toast. Instead, we eat it as a side with our salad to make it more filling or as a dip for other vegetables. Sometimes we also include it in our smoothies to give them a creamy consistency.
We actually wrote up a whole post on healthy snacks for the afternoon and it includes things that we have talked about like avocado toast and smoothies. You should have a look!
Spinach
While Lisa is a big fan of kale, Bruce really likes eating spinach. That’s why the base of our salads usually consists of a mix of kale and spinach. Spinach is often recommended because it contains a lot of calcium which is important for the body.
Next to eating spinach in salads, you can also use it in green smoothies or cook some great warm meals with it. Yesterday (from the time of post writing), for example, we made stuffed peppers filled with rice and spinach which tasted delicious. In time, we might write a whole blog post about the recipe.
Quinoa
Quinoa is probably one of the foods that has experienced the biggest hype over the last few years. We don’t eat it every day – also because it can be quite expensive – but we do use it frequently. We’re trying to limit the amount of processed grains that we eat, such as bread or pasta, so having a healthy alkaline alternative is great.
When cooking with quinoa we usually make a big vegetable stew that we then mix with the quinoa to make it a bit more filling. We’re always open for new recipes that include quinoa, so if you have some great ones please let us know!
Carrots
Carrots have to be one of Lisa’s favorite vegetables. They are just so easy to prepare and you can store them for a long time without having to worry about them going bad. You probably know that carrots are great because of their high content of vitamin A in addition to being an alkaline food.
We like to eat carrots either raw as a snack or in our salads. However, we also cook with carrots very frequently and use them in stews, soups, stir-fries, and even in our tomato-based pasta sauce.
Lisa sometimes likes to put too many carrots into dishes (since she likes them so much) so Bruce sometimes has to keep an eye on that.
Celery
Celery is another great alkaline food that also has few calories due to its high water content. We like to eat celery raw – celery sticks are probably one of Lisa’s favorite snacks – but also like to cook with it since it gives dishes a little bit of extra crunch which is always nice.
We know that some people also put celery into their smoothies. This is something we haven’t tried yet since our mixer is not the strongest so we’re not sure how well that would turn out. But, if you have a better mixer than we do, give it a try because it sounds like a great addition.
And there you have it – 7 of the top alkaline foods that we just love cooking with. The nice thing about most alkaline foods is that it’s easy to cook with healthy eating in mind.
Whole vegetables are always a good choice when preparing meals and we’re happy that we include so many into our daily diet. We’re not perfect, but who is, right? Just try your best!
As always, Stay Curious,
-L&E
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