It's A Bird...It's A Plane...

No! It's a superfood!! Able to cure cancer and diabetes in a single bound! Destroy fat! Improve moods! Orchestrate world peace!!

... ...


Ok, so that last one might not be so true; and to be honest, most of the other claims are suspect as well. Any time someone claims that a single anything (food, job, class, movie, drug) is able to change your life, it should raise some red flags. Or at least some questions.


Most lists of superfoods (Oprah's had one, Dr. Gupta had one, the AOL newsfeed had one) make me roll my eyes. "You mean whole grains are better than processed ones? No way!" "And you say that the darker the fruits and vegetables the more vitamins and minerals? Well, that's just crazy talk!" These lists invariably include blueberries and pomegranates (for their many antioxidants and phyto-whatevers); less-popular (but still delicious) grains like barley, kasha, and quinoa; dark, leafy greens like chard, spinach, and kale; and fermented foods like miso. Now, I'm not knocking the health benefits of including these foods in your diet, it's just that, as a vegan, these are the things I'm eating every day. To me a superfood should be something not necessarily available in the grocery store, maybe something you've never even heard of before, something, well, super.

Aparently, I'm not the only vegan/raw foodie who thinks like this either. Many of the magazines/websites I read distinguish between "mainstream" or "conventional" superfoods and capital-lettered, excalmation-pointed, SuperFoods!! Often I suspect this a way of maintaining exclusivity/exoticness within a lifestyle that is quickly becoming more common. A way to prove moreover one's committment to the diet. Anyone can pop into Kroger for a pint of blueberries or a bunch of chard. It takes real dedication to find a place/webstore that sells Camu or Lacuma or Yacon. Like I've said before, I'm not one to eat something just because it's good for me, but I do like to try new things.

One of the first SF's I tried was Goji Berries. Not necessarily because I believed the hype (someone living for 250 years solely based on his daily consumtion of goji berry tea is a little far-fetched, even for me); or the labels (the successful marketing campaign calling them "Himalayan" or "Tibetan" just goes to show how many hippies are still swayed by advertising - most Gojis come from China), but because I'm a sucker for dried fruit. Oh, how I love dried fruit. And the gojis do taste pretty good, though it's a difficult flavor to describe. Powdery-sweet sort of. Or like a stale (but not spoiled) cherry fruit-roll-up. If craisins taste glossy (and in my mind, they do), then goji berries taste matte. I am currently looking for my very excellent Lemon-Goji Berry Muffin recipe and I will post it as soon as I find it. From what I remember, though, it was a basic lemon muffin recipe (lemon juice, some zest, vanilla, etc.) with gojis thrown in as you would frozen blueberries. Those were pretty super muffins.

My latest SF is Maca. Like many SF's, maca comes from South America where it was cultivated by the Incas because of it's ability to grow at high altitudes. Plus, it aparently has aphrodisiacal properties. There's a legend about Incan warriors using maca to get themselves ready for battle and the townspeople having to hide all the maidens upon the warriors' return since they were still so virile and "pumped." It's like the Andean version of a baby boom. Disregarding the mythology and the hype, I really do like maca. Like the gojis, it has a difficult-to-describe taste. It's not bitter but it's not sweet either. It kind of has an earthy taste to it. Maybe like a carrot or a sweet potato - but also, nothing like either of those. Weird.

I have experimented with maca powder in several dishes (juice: blech, soups: indifferent) but have found it blends best with strong, fatty flavors. A tablespoon of maca powder with a banana-carob smoothie. A sprinkle of the powder on almond-butter-filled celery sticks. And so on.

But nothing, and I mean nothing compares to my new favorite post-workout drink. I could drink this every day for a week and not get tired of it. I found the original recipe at a SuperFoods webstore and have been tweaking it as I see fit. The closest thing I can compare it to is a Wendy's Frosty: airy, vaguely chocolately, cold and icy. Here's the basic recipe.

Macashew Frosty

1/4 - 1/2 cup raw cashews
1 heaping tablespoon maca powder
1/2 teaspoon (or more) vanilla
1 cup nutmilk/coconut water/filtered water
1/4 cup date paste or 4-5 whole dates soaked an hour or more
2 cups ice

In a blender, pulse the cashews until they are finely chopped.
Add the maca, vanilla, and half the liquid. Blend well.
Add the date paste and the remaining liquid and blend very well, scraping the sides if necessary.
Add the ice and blend on high until smooth and combined. Add a little more liquid if needed to facilitate blending.

Possible variations: 2 heaping tablespoons of raw honey instead of date paste. Use chocolate nutmilk for a more chocolately shake. Half the vanilla and add a 1/4 tsp of almond extract.

So the next time the Spanish invade your empire looking for gold and trying to convert you to Catholicism, drink up a belnderful of maca smoothie and march headfirst into the fray.

Just behave yourself around the townspeople when you return.