Lazy Strawberry Cake, Spotlight on Olive Oil’s Polyphenols, Using Flax Seed, Diet Principals to Live By, and How to Achieve Your Best Sleep

For this issue of The Olive Oil Hunter Newsletter, I’m super-excited to introduce you to my inspirational friend Magdalena Wszelaki, certified herbalist, holistic nutrition coach, educator, author of Cooking for Hormone Balance, and founder of the nutrition practice Hormones Balance and the Wellena line of all-natural supplements and skin care products.

Magdalena experienced a condition that affects a huge number of women: estrogen dominance. It’s not just an overabundance of estrogen. As she explains it, it’s often an imbalance among the many hormones vital to women’s health, and it can lead to health issues throughout the body. She’s dedicated her life to helping women conquer it.
Magdalena Wszelaki
What’s really interesting about Magdalena’s new book, Overcoming Estrogen Dominance, is that her nutrition-based program is a healthy way for everyone to eat because it focuses on a healthy gut, a well-functioning liver, and stable blood sugar—as she describes it, the three-legged stool for good hormonal health.

I love that the new book has dozens of recipes that are free of gluten, dairy, and other allergens, and focus on foods that are anti-inflammatory, so they fit into many diet strategies. Here’s one of her delicious desserts along with healthy tips excerpted from the book.

Lazy Strawberry Cake

• Lazy Strawberry Cake

  Strawberries are naturally rich in antioxidants and vitamin C, which keep our immune system healthy. This is a gluten-free cake that those with a dairy intolerance can enjoy as well. And it’s an impossibly easy-to-make cake, which is why it’s called “Lazy Strawberry Cake.” There’s very little hands-on prep—you probably already have all the ingredients required to make it—and it’s oh so good. It’s best served warm.

  Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the baking dish
  • 1 1/2 cups (8 ounces) organic strawberries
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • Pinch of sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar*
  • 1/2 cup plant-based milk, such as almond or oat milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup gluten-free flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

  Directions

  Step 1

  Preheat the oven to 350ºF and grease an 8-inch baking dish (it can be round or square) with some olive oil. Place the strawberries in a medium bowl and add the 2 tablespoons brown sugar, the pinch of sea salt, and vanilla extract. Using your hands or the back of a fork, lightly press the strawberries to release their juices (not too hard—they should retain their shape). Set aside.

  Step 2

  In a large bowl, whisk together the 1/3 cup olive oil and the 1/3 cup brown sugar, milk, and salt. Add the flour and baking powder and continue whisking just until the batter is smooth. Transfer the batter (it’s not much) to the greased baking dish, and spread it evenly into the corners (otherwise the strawberry juice will seep out when baking). Spoon the strawberries and all their juice over the top of the batter.

  Step 3

  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Given that the strawberries will release water as they cook, the top of the cake will definitely be a lot moister than the sides and the bottom, but that is perfectly fine. Just make sure to bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out more or less clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 3 to 5 minutes before spooning into bowls.

  *If you would like to incorporate less sugar, feel free to cut the amount down to 1/4 cup.

  Yields 4 servings

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Olive Oil’s Polyphenols

We talk a lot about the healthy components of extra virgin olive oil. Here are the specific polyphenols that contribute to managing estrogen dominance and are noted for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties:

• Gallic acid
• Hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein (they also protect the liver)
• Oleocanthal (it blocks the production of inflammatory proteins called cytokines)
• Oleanolic acid (it also supports the liver)

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Flax Seed

Flax seed is a great source of both soluble and insoluble fiber, which are great for gut health. It is a powerful ally when it comes to dealing with estrogen dominance.

How to use it:

• Add it to salads, smoothies, soups, or a glass of water.
• Always use freshly ground. It keeps for a maximum of five days in an airtight container.
• Do not buy flax seed meal, because it’s old and likely oxidized.
• Do not cook it. The flax seed that you put into muffins doesn’t count. For liver-supporting benefits, the flax seed must be eaten raw.
• Consume 2 tablespoons per day.

For Your Best Health

Diet Principals to Live By

Need to address a sluggish liver, poor gut microflora, and lack of fiber, not to mention too much sugar and belly fat? Try these diet principles:

• Choose whole foods. The next time you go grocery shopping, make sure that 80% of your cart consists of fresh foods instead of packaged, processed items.
• Buy organic, non-GMO foods, including meat. Conventionally grown food contains high amounts of pesticides, fertilizers, growth hormones, and antibiotics that contribute to endocrine disruption.
• Try an anti-inflammatory diet. This way of eating cuts out the well-documented trigger foods—gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, corn, and nightshades—while also limiting sugar. When you eat inflammatory foods, you add fuel to the fire of your hormonal imbalances. Give it a try and you will feel a difference.
• Eat plenty of fermented foods. Look for lacto-fermented foods—those made using lactic acid bacteria—not vinegar—to break down the sugars. These include sauerkraut, dill pickles, and kimchi.

Fitness Flash

Achieve Your Best Sleep

If you’re not sleeping and your energy has tanked, no amount of supplements or good-quality food is ever going to bring you back into balance. To boost sleep quality: Eat to stabilize your blood sugar throughout the day. Stop caffeine by 3 pm or even noon. Use no screens from three hours to 30 minutes before bedtime. And sleep in total darkness—so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face. Cover up the red “power” light on your TV, block the light from street lamps with dark curtains, and cover your electronic clock. Once you start looking around the room, you’ll find sneaky light sources everywhere. If this sounds like too much work, try a sleep mask.

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Sweet & Savory Lamb Boreks, Spotlight on Black Lime, Phyllo Dough: The Puff Pastry Alternative, Reach for Black Lime Instead of Salt

This stop on my first modern-day spice road journey is the most unusual one—the spice known as black lime. Black limes have a rich and storied legacy in Persian cuisine dating back centuries and have been used for everything from making a delicious tea to dyeing yarn. They’re popular in Iran (the modern-day heart of what was Persia) for soups and stews; in northern India; and in Iraq and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman, where they’re known as loomi or limu Omani. Still, many American cooks have never used black lime before, and it’s hard to find them whole, much less the ground spice made from them, outside of some ethnic food stores.

Surprisingly many of the Persian limes (Citrus latifolia) used to make this exotic spice are grown in Guatemala in Central America, where they’ve become an important crop to satisfy a growing global demand for this quintessential Middle Eastern ingredient. Ripe limes are dried in the sun until they naturally turn black. While black limes are added whole in many Persian recipes, the ground version is very handy to use, plus the grinding process releases their fragrant oils to the max. You can taste their zing in this wonderful recipe for boreks, savory Turkish meat pastries.

Sweet & Savory Lamb Boreks

• 
Sweet & Savory Lamb Boreks

  These cigar-shaped filled pastries are a Turkish specialty, traditionally made with sheets of a thin dough called yufka. I find that phyllo, which is very similar to yufka, makes the perfect wrapper—it crisps up nicely and really lets the lamb filling be the star. For appetizer portions, cut the boreks into bite-sized pieces just before serving. ​

  Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the phyllo
  • 2 cups diced yellow onion
  • 1 1/4 pounds ground lamb
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon black Urfa chili or red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon, preferably Vietnamese
  • 2 teaspoons black lime
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 cup raisins, sultanas if possible, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup unsalted pistachios, roughly chopped
  • Coarse sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 cups plain Greek yogurt
  • 3 eggs
  • 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 16-18 phyllo dough sheets, defrosted if bought frozen
  • 3 tablespoons poppy seeds

  Directions

  Step 1

  Heat the 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté the onions until soft and golden. Add the ground lamb and cook, stirring constantly. Just before the lamb is fully cooked through, fold in the Urfa chili, oregano, cinnamon, black lime, honey, raisins, and pistachios. When the lamb is done, remove from heat and taste. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Set aside to cool to room temperature. If there’s any liquid in the pan with the lamb, use a slotted spoon to transfer the mixture to a large bowl—liquid can cause the phyllo to tear.

  Step 2

  Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Place the yogurt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, beat two of the eggs with a whisk or fork and then fold into the yogurt along with the parsley. Beat the remaining egg in a separate bowl and set aside next to the poppy seeds.

  Step 3

  Set out a large piece of parchment paper on a countertop and place a sheet of phyllo dough on top of it. Lightly brush the phyllo with olive oil (you may need to dab rather than brush if the phyllo tears easily—don’t worry about small tears because they’ll be rolled up). Quickly place a second sheet of phyllo directly on top of the first and brush with more oil. Fold the double sheet in half and spread with a thin layer of the yogurt mixture, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Spoon a scant half-cup of the lamb mixture in a line along one of the short sides, about 2 inches in from the short edge and from both long sides. Turn in the longer sides about 2 inches so that they cover the outer edges of the lamb mixture, and brush the exposed phyllo with more oil. Fold the short edge of phyllo over the lamb and then roll it up into a cigar-like shape, brushing the phyllo with oil as you go. Place the borek on your baking sheet and cover with a kitchen towel. Repeat with the remaining phyllo sheets and lamb, placing them at least 2 inches apart.

  Step 4

  Once you’ve made all the boreks, brush them with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the poppy seeds. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the phyllo is browned and crispy.

  Yields 4 main-dish or 8 appetizer servings.

Healthy Ingredient Spotlight

Black Lime

Black lime is especially delicious on seafood, including grilled shrimp, salmon, and tuna, as well as on meat, rice and other grains, and vegetables. Besides delving into Persian foods, try it on ceviche, avocado toast, and soft cheeses; as an ingredient in vinaigrettes; in marinades, dry rubs, and za’atar for lamb and chicken…and on any food you usually like with a squeeze of lime. A fun way to enjoy its flavor jolt is to use it to rim the glasses the next time you mix up a batch of margaritas or Bloody Marys.

Healthy Kitchen Nugget

Phyllo Dough: The Puff Pastry Alternative

I love phyllo dough as a light and delicious alternative to puff pastry. If you’re lucky enough to live near a traditional Greek bakery, you may be able to buy it fresh. But it’s also readily available in the freezer case at most supermarkets—look for brands with the fewest added ingredients. When you work with phyllo, as you peel off sheets, keep the rest under a kitchen towel to prevent them from drying out. The great thing is that, with a light brushing of olive oil, any pieces that rip can be held together.

For Your Best Health

Reach for Black Lime Instead of Salt

It’s hard to say how many of the lime’s natural plant compounds, such as vitamin C and other antioxidants, remain intact or even become intensified by the drying process used to make black lime. One thing is certain: It’s a great way to season food without reaching for the salt shaker, and limiting salt has great health benefits, including keeping blood pressure in a safe zone, according to the American Heart Association.

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