Cooking with diabetes

Smoked paprika slaps beans awake

When it comes to cooking fresh green beans, roasting has long been my favorite cooking method. The procedure is simple: Trim the beans, toss them with a bit of olive oil and season with salt, black pepper and garlic; spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roast at 425- to 450-degrees until beans are shrively and turning golden brown. Simple. Easy. Delicious.

This recipe from Whole Cooking and Nutrition: An Everyday Superfoods Approach to Planning, Cooking and Eating With Diabetes by Katie Cavuto from the American Diabetes Association takes that basic recipe and enhances the flavor with orange zest and juice, cumin and smoked paprika.

One thing I particularly like about Whole Cooking and Nutrition is that it focuses on natural ingredients to create satisfying dishes. For example, you won't find any artificial sweeteners in the dessert chapter. Instead, desserts rely on fruits' natural sweetness and, when needed, are enhanced with scant amounts of maple syrup. Egg dishes call for whole eggs rather than egg substitute. And proteins aren't limited to just fish and chicken.

My only complaint is that many of the recipes build upon other recipes in the book, expecting the cook to have "pantry staples" from the book such as flavored oil -- which takes five days to make -- on hand.

I think the same seasoning and method would work great with cauliflower or broccoli, though the cooking time would need to be adjusted.

Roasted Green Beans With Smoked Paprika

1 pound green beans, trimmed

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and ground black pepper

1 tablespoon fresh squeezed orange juice

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

In a bowl, toss the beans with the oil, zest, vinegar, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper.

Arrange beans in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast 8 minutes, stir and roast 5 minutes more or until browned and tender. Serve immediately tossed with the orange juice.

Makes 4 (1-cup) servings.

Nutrition information: Each serving contains approximately 70 calories, 2 g protein, 4 g fat, 8 g carbohydrate (2 g sugar), no cholesterol, 140 mg sodium and 3 g fiber.

Carbohydrate choices: 1/2.

Food on 09/14/2016

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