SUPERFOOD - Tomatoes

We all know the Mediterranean diet is healthy and guess what is a major staple in this way of eating?  
​Yup- tomatoes!  Tomatoes are a powerhouse of carotenoids with the best known one being lycopene, which by the way, is also high in last week’s featured food- watermelon.  Lycopene has high antioxidant activity. Translated: they protect our cells from damage.  Most notably, tomatoes have been shown to protect against prostate cancer, UV skin damage and even pancreatic cancer.  Some tips for getting the most out of your tomatoes: eat the skins where most of the carotenoids are and eat some fat with your tomatoes like olive oil or avocado.  The fat helps us absorb the beneficial compounds in tomatoes.

Food Facts:
These 8 AMAZING facts about tomatoes, and more info on their health benefits, and how to prepare are from:
https://fic.osu.edu/initiatives/foods-for-health/tomato.html
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EIGHT amazing facts about tomatoes!

1. Tomatoes are full of lycopene, a carotenoid that gives certain fruits and vegetables their distinctive colors. Carotenoids are antioxidants that protect cells from damage; research suggests they can have numerous health benefits.
2. Increased consumption of lycopene is thought to be associated with lower rates of several cancers including colon, rectal, prostate, and breast. Ohio State researchers seeking to understand how foods prevent cancer have discovered that consuming tomatoes or tomato products are more beneficial than lycopene alone (learn more in the "Bumper Crop" article below).
3. Based on the Aztec name "xitomatl,"or "plump thing with a navel," the tomato is said to come from Peru.
4. Botanically the tomato is a fruit since fruits are generally defined as the edible part of a plant containing the seeds, while a vegetable is the edible stems, leaves, or plant roots. To keep things interesting, legally and nutritionally the tomato is considered a vegetable. Read more about the juicy Supreme Court case that determined tomatoes' vegetable status back in 1893.
5. Tomatoes come in all sorts of colors besides red including yellow, pink, purple, black, and white.
6. In 1790, Catherine the Great's very own chef, Francesco Leonardi, introduced spaghetti with tomato sauce for the first time (Bloxham, 2010).
7. Every year in Buñol, Spain, thousands of people gather for a massive tomato food fight at the festival La Tomatina.
8. An international consortium of scientists recently sequenced the genome of the tomato. Learn more about the significance of this accomplishment.

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Your Recipe: Gazpacho

Try this amazing gazpacho recipe to use up all those summer tomatoes in your garden:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/gazpacho-recipe-1941264



​Ingredients

1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
4 plum tomatoes
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
23 ounces tomato juice (3 cups)
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess!

After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.

Copyright 1999 The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

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