Eat Your Colors

A good, well-balanced meal is easy to put together so long as you remember to fill your plate with color. There’s nothing fancy here, just a large selection of sautéed veggies with some noodles lightly fried and seasoned with mirin and soy sauce.

I started with celery, carrot, onion, and red bell pepper with some olive oil from a batch of garlic confit. Then I added some red cabbage and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Next came green beans and broccoli, then red and yellow grape tomatoes from the garden. I finished the veggies with some sweet snap peas and two kinds of parsley. For starch I made udon, then lightly fried the noodles with mirin and soy sauce. To add more crunch and flavor, I quickly fried some basil leaves from the garden in a bit of canola oil.

It’s important to include at least five colors in every meal; for fruits and vegetables, the outside color is what counts. Eating a broad spectrum of colors not only ensures that you’ll get plenty of micronutrients in your diet, it also ensures that you’ll be eager to eat because, as we all know, we eat with the eyes first.