in a brightly colored box that you pick up in a drive-thru line?
Think again, kids.
Happiness comes from the kitchen where you cook fresh food to create strength and wellness.
It's time to get back to the cutting board and, you know, cook, today on Christina Cooks.
(upbeat music) ♪ (announcer) Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.
Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.
Additional funding is also provided by Old Yankee Cutting Boards, designed for durability and custom crafted by hand with Yankee pride and craftsmanship.
Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.
♪ Additional funding is also provided by: ♪ Hi, I'm Christina Pirello, and this is Christina Cooks, where every week we'll take fresh seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.
Will it all be plant-based?
Yeah, it will.
Will it be delicious?
Yeah, it will!
It's plant-based!
When I was a kid, my mother said the fast food trend would never last.
No one would forsake the table for dinner in a bag.
She was wrong, at least about that one.
The statistics are terrifying.
One in three Americans eats fast food every single day.
Every single day!
Now, we know better, right?
We do know better, right?
So, what if I could teach you to make a better burger, a potato side dish that was amazing, and a chocolate-covered coconut candy dessert that will rock your world?
Would you forsake the drive-thru?
At least I know right now, you're sitting up, paying attention, and going, "Wait, what?"
So stay with me.
We're gonna start with the side dish, and this one is, uh, creative, shall we say.
So we're gonna take a little bit of vegan butter substitute.
You may use whichever one you like, it doesn't matter.
Whatever brand floats your boat, it's okay.
Take a nice, generous amount into a skillet.
We're gonna combine it with olive oil.
Now, this is gonna give us a lovely, deep-fried flavor without actually deep-frying it.
Did you know that Americans don't eat enough vegetables every day, and when they do, it's in the form of fried potatoes?
Please!
So this will give you a little bit of an option.
We're just gonna let this start to melt, and as it's melting, we will do the smashing.
So you take a lovely, small potato, and this is not where you take out your stress of the day.
(banging) And you smash it till it cracks.
You don't want to turn it into a mashed potato.
Just smashed.
(banging) We'll do one more, for sound effects.
(banging) And to make sure that you're paying attention.
So then you're gonna take these lovely smashed potatoes and fill your skillet, but only one layer.
Let this really melt down, and as it's melting, you lay the smashed potatoes in, and they'll get all sorts of juicy.
And you want to kinda get these nice and tight in here so that they can cook.
Again, don't turn them into mashed potatoes.
They're cracked potatoes.
So we're just gonna let those simmer.
I'm gonna give them a tiny, little sprinkle of salt to start the cooking process, and I'll season them later.
Hear that, hear that, do you hear that?
(sizzling) Scott, are you getting this?
This sizzle, do you hear that?
Butter and olive oil?
Mmm, yum.
Except it's vegan butter, settle down.
Yeah, hello!
Thank you.
So that's gonna cook.
We're gonna put it a little bit lower, and we're gonna move on to our better burger.
Our burger's base is black beans.
So you're gonna take a simple, everyday fork and start smashing the beans.
Now, you may smash them completely, you can smash them halfway.
It all depends on what you want.
If you want a really smooth, sort of (unintelligible) texture to your burger, then you partially smash them.
I kinda like a really beany texture to the burgers.
Now, you can cook your beans, it takes about an hour.
You can use canned beans, which are really, really soft, and I recommend them if you're pressed for time.
You can leave them rougher if you like.
You just want them to have a nice texture and you want them to hold together.
If the beans are whole, you're in trouble.
Then we're gonna take some silken tofu.
Now, silken tofu is very, very soft because it's been pressed only for a few minutes, and so it's gonna be sort of our binder, right?
You might use an egg usually, but we're gonna use this.
You're gonna mix that in.
You're gonna also add in some breadcrumbs.
I use whole wheat breadcrumbs.
Some diced red onion.
Some frozen corn.
Texture, all about texture.
The thing you don't want to do is create a burger that's meaty 'cause then you may as well just have a burger.
I want one that has a nice texture and has some tooth, but I don't really want it to be meaty, right?
You get my drift.
So now you just mix all this in.
I tend to use the first utensil that's in my hand.
Is it usually the right one?
Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, but once it's dirty, I use it.
Then, we're gonna take some jalapeño pepper, and the jalapeño pepper is very mild.
On a scale of one to ten, it's a wuss, right?
But it's gonna give you a little bit of heat.
So, if you're really a wuss, take the seeds and the spine out so that you don't get too much heat, but we're not wussy.
So we're gonna chop it all together into a fine mince, and this also becomes part of the mix.
Now, you can also, if you're really feeling bold, you can add some hot sauce to this as well, but that can get a little... overwhelming for people.
So we have our jalapeño in, yum.
Season it with some salt.
A tiny bit of black pepper if you like.
I'm gonna use it because it's in the recipe.
Not a fan.
It's just on my very long and illustrious list of things I don't like to eat.
So now, once it's mixed, you can see that the mixture is formable, or you might say it's a nice, stiff dough, right?
So now, we'll take the real secret.
A lot of people complain that their veggie burgers don't hold together.
So a friend of mine came up with this great idea which I do all the time now and I love.
Take your mixture and press it into an onion ring.
Right, slice an onion crosswise and pull off one of the outer rings, and then you press your mixture right inside.
It does two things: A little more onion flavor, yum, and it also helps it to hold together.
You'll never have a veggie burger fall apart again.
It is--I must give him credit-- brilliant.
Then, they're gonna go into the fridge for ten minutes.
You really want them to sort of set up.
After ten minutes, you want to take them out and uncover them.
You only cover them so they don't get a little sort of a dry skin on them, but if you forget to cover them, it's no big deal.
It's just ten minutes.
Take a little olive oil.
Get some heat under it.
I like a griddle pan for this one because it gives me a nice, flat surface for the burgers, and then, see, refrigerating them has let them really set up.
And these are gonna go in and cook about four minutes on each side, and the potatoes are gonna cook for like another six minutes.
Then we'll flip 'em, season 'em, and we'll feast.
-A fruit can be a vegetable.
-What?
It can be both?
(unintelligible) -I don't get it.
-I am so confused.
(bright music) (Christina) Since we're cooking with corn today, I thought it would be a great idea to try to clear up some of the confusion that exists around organic, Bt, glyphosate, with an expert.
This is my friend, Todd Napolitano, who's the Director of GMO Services at Mérieux NutriSciences.
-Perfect.
-Ah, grazie.
So, the confusion is, is corn grown for human consumption safe?
Is it glyphosate enriched?
Is it Bt?
And there's a lot of confusion on what we should worry about.
It's definitely a convoluted environment, so to speak, and pun intended, because what goes on in the ag industry by sheer volume is exponential.
So when we're talking about safe for human consumption, we really do need to understand that, if it is approved by FDA, it's considered safe for human consumption.
Now, you need to understand that as your starting point, no matter what your politics are, what your feeling is, or what your concerns are because everything else hinges on that.
All regulations, et cetera, hinge on the fact that it's "safe for human consumption."
Now, with regard to corn specifically, there are a variety of different modifications that are introduced into corn from other organisms that would not happen otherwise in nature, which is important to understand with the definition of GMO.
It is in vitro DNA technology, in the lab... -In the lab.
-...human intervention, to develop a trait that's desirable that you would not otherwise find in nature.
(Christina) So, just, not to interrupt you, but to say, you could not have what's occurring in corn in GM in nature?
(Todd) And that's key to understanding the concerns.
It's also key to understanding the benefits because what you're doing is you're taking some of the positive characteristics from, say, the cauliflower mosaic virus and introducing that into corn or soy, for example... -To what end?
-...to give it better yield, resistance to herbicides, resistance to pesticides, sometimes vitamin fortification.
(Christina) But are they clear in this modification of the impact long-term on human wellness and the planet?
This is really the rubric that needs to be unpacked further because--simply because FDA has approved it as safe for human consumption doesn't mean the data will warrant that five years from now.
-Okay.
-It's ongoing.
-Okay.
-We don't know, and that's part of the problem.
So for example, if you introduce an herbicide resistance into corn, what you're allowing to happen in theory is to administer, say, Roundup Ready or glyphosate, Roundup Ready 2, we hear a lot about that today.
And if you can administer glyphosate to your corn field and not hurt your corn, what you're really doing is you're killing the weeds, et cetera, and you are not damaging the corn.
Now, there's two problems with that.
The first is that, originally, the goal was to reduce-- to minimize your pesticide use, your cost of product.
(Christina) But that has not turned out to be true.
(Todd) This is the problem, because what happens is you get, in the field, and I've seen it, I've seen it first person, you get resistances and mutations happening immediately.
For example, with ragweed.
So your control in the lab, so you're using ragweed as a control, you're dousing it with Roundup Ready, I've seen it self-mutate.
So what happens is, if your weeds are developing a resistance to glyphosate, for example, do we use less or do we have to use more?
-Right.
-It's shifting.
So now what's happening is you're finding that you have to use more.
Now, originally, I do want to say, if you're in a lesser developed country, if you're working in a field and you actually have this pesticide strapped to your back, being able to use less is health beneficial.
-It is.
-Moreover, it is difficult for a Western country to say to a country where starvation is rampant, "You shouldn't be concerned with higher crop yield."
So there's a bit of perspective clash there.
Nevertheless, general consumer safety and health safety, what's happening with Roundup Ready resistance, the glyphosate resistance trait is backfiring a little bit, in my opinion.
We're starting to get, for example, ragweed as a control self-mutating in the field, so we have to apply more.
So that pesticide residue testing ought to show more and more pesticide residue over time.
That remains to be seen.
It's easy to get those tests done.
-And we should be doing it.
-They happen all the time.
And so, as long as we're doing it.
So, I'm not sure if this helped to un-confuse you, but at least it gives you real solid information to build your decisions on.
(upbeat music) ♪ Now, we're gonna season the potatoes and then make the topping for the burgers.
So... we're gonna take some fennel seed.
Now, fennel seed is gonna give it a nice sort of anise-type licorice flavor, but it's also gonna help you to digest the potatoes more efficiently.
Hello!
Brilliant and tasty, I love this.
A little garlic powder.
A tiny bit more salt.
Now, you don't need a lot of this.
You'll probably grind in the mortar and pestle more than you need, and you don't need to make it into a powder.
You just want to break open the seeds so that the flavor just goes... (whooshing sound) Beautiful.
They go right on top.
Right.
Then, a tiny bit of white wine, or you may use broth or water if wine's not on the menu.
Look at that.
Oh, if only you could smell it.
Yay!
And now we'll get our burger dressing ready.
So the way we're gonna do that is really simple.
We're gonna take a little extra virgin olive oil.
And before we turn the flame on, we're gonna load up just some shredded kale.
Now, you can put lettuce and tomato on your burger, feel free, but why not give yourself just a little more nutrition and use some kale?
We're still gonna use tomato, settle down.
And you're just gonna sauté this until it wilts.
Just a little bit.
If you cook your greens until they're old school, Italian-style black, you've lost all the nutrition.
We just want them to wilt.
We want a little bit of crunch on top of this soft burger.
Yum, yum, yum, right?
So you see how this looks?
Et voilà, done.
So, now we plate up our feast.
Take a little bit of potatoes.
(sizzling) Maybe just three to get started.
You get some nice, sticky, gooey, glazing happening on the bottom.
So delicious.
Then, we take a burger bun.
Use whole grain, please use a whole grain bun.
Don't do all of this for your health and then use a white bun.
Really?
No.
Take a burger.
Pop it right on here.
Now, at this point, you can add vegan mayonnaise, you can add hummus, gives it a really nice flavor.
I'm gonna use some sliced tomato.
If your knife doesn't slice a tomato, you need to get the sharpener out.
Pop it right on top.
A little kale.
And this, this is a feast!
You will never hit the drive-thru line again.
Let's see if they taste as good as they smell.
You get the fennel, the anise.
Mmm, mmm.
Perfect.
Now I'm goin' in.
You gotta really wrap yourself around this one.
The burger is soft.
The bun is soft.
The kale is crunchy.
This is the greatest fast food you will ever eat.
Oh, and by the way, it was fast.
So stay out of the drive-thru line, and when we come back, it's time for Mounds, baby.
(upbeat music) ♪ To take the kernels off a corn cob, they have little gadgets that you can buy, but I'm really not a gadget girl.
So you can do it this way, run your knife down the whole corn cob, but then your corn kinda goes everywhere.
I like to split the corn in half.
And then just run your knife along it, and then you see the corn kernels just fall in one place.
And then if you're making a soup with this corn, you take the back of your knife and run it along here and take any sort of cream of the corn off.
And then you take this whole cob and throw it in with your soup to create a really rich, sweet broth.
And that's how you take corn kernels off the cob.
♪ So who doesn't like dessert?
And who doesn't like chocolate every now and then?
I meet this rare person who says, "I don't do chocolate," and I think maybe they fell and cracked their little heads like a melon.
I do chocolate.
When I was a kid, it was all about Mounds bars.
So, one day a couple years ago, I was craving them.
Now, I haven't had a Mounds bar in probably 20 years, so why I was craving them?
I don't know.
But I went in the kitchen and came up with these, and they're as close as you're ever gonna get.
So, in the food processor-- you don't have to bake.
You don't have to bake.
You need no skills for this except how to push a button.
We'll see if I can do it.
So, in here I have two cups of unsweetened coconut.
Please buy unsweetened coconut because you do not know what's in the sweetened stuff.
We're gonna add about two tablespoons, carefully measured, of brown rice syrup, which is a glucose-based sweetener that tastes like butterscotch and is a complex sugar.
So, you get to have your candy and eat it.
A tiny bit of vanilla, just a bit, to give it some flavor, again.
About a teaspoon, you know.
You know.
We're gonna give it a pinch of salt which actually makes it sweet.
A dash of cinnamon.
Cinnamon makes a dessert seem sweeter, lifts the flavor of chocolate up onto your palate so it's more intense, and helps to balance your blood sugars.
So, in goes the cinnamon.
Don't get too carried away, though, because cinnamon can be a little overwhelming.
So, then we take about two tablespoons of vegan butter substitute.
Again, brand of your choice.
And again, carefully measured.
So, now comes the hard part.
(blending) Seriously?
As soon as it turns into sort of a sticky, clumpy mess, you're ready to go.
Now, you might want to stop, as I'm going to, and make sure that all the brown rice syrup is off the side of the bowl so that it's actually, you know, in the candy.
This is the easiest candy you will ever, in your life, make, ever.
So, now... (whistling) I don't really whistle.
Okay, now you've got this lovely mess.
It's all sticky and gooey, and you're gonna take it and you're gonna roll it in your hands in little walnut-size spheres.
You can use a scoop, too, but this is just kind of a play-with-your-food kind of recipe.
And then you're gonna put them either on a plate or on a tray because these have to go into the fridge for 30 minutes.
You see how soft they are, right, they're really... Can you see this, Scott?
Like, they're really, like, you know...very, very soft.
If you try to do anything with these, they're just gonna fall apart.
So they're gonna go into the fridge, and after about 30 minutes, they'll set up.
Now we get ready for the part that I love the best, which is the chocolate.
So I'm gonna set this aside, and then we're just gonna boil some water.
Now, you can use almond milk or oat milk or whatever floats your boat, but why add calories?
You can use water.
We're gonna make a ganache.
We're gonna add a tiny bit of brown rice syrup to this water and bring it to the boil.
And as soon as it boils, we're gonna pour it over these dark chocolate chips.
Now, these are fair trade, organic, stevia sweetened, everything right about these.
They are brilliant, and I know what you're thinking.
"Oh, stevia sweetened.
Well, thanks, but I'm off for a root canal."
The truth of the matter is, it's brilliant, and all you taste is delicious, rich dark chocolate.
So, bring this to a boil.
You know what they say about watched pots.
It's true, they never actually boil.
Well, they do, but just not while you're waiting for them.
So as soon as this boils...
It doesn't have to be a high, rolling boil, but it has to boil.
And then, we have these.
These have been in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
As soon as you have bubbles at the edge--again, we are not boiling like we're having a baby here-- you just get it to a high sort of simmer, pour it over your chocolate just to cover, then take a whisk, and then you start to whisk, and what you notice is, you think, "Oh, boy.
This--this went south, and this went south fast."
It's lumpy, it's watery, it's not smooth, and you think, "I may have done something terribly wrong here."
And suddenly, under your whisk, it turns silky and dark and smooth and shiny, and all you can think to yourself is, "What coconut?"
And you whisk until it's smooth, gorgeous, and you're in love, and you just want a spoon and to heck with everything else, and then you take and you enrobe each little sphere that has been in the fridge.
So they melt ever so slightly because it's dark chocolate and it's hot, right, on this icy cold, little sphere of coconut.
And then, you just keep enrobing.
And if you're feeling... like you can wait, you put them in the fridge and let the chocolate set.
And then you take an extra chocolate chip or two and you decorate the top and you stick these in the fridge and they'll set, and the chocolate will become hard and crunchy and...forget it.
Forget it, it never lasts that long in my house.
So, these little Almond Joyfuls will help you with all of your sweet cravings, and they took nothing to make.
So, get back to the cutting board, what are you waiting for?
And I'll see you next time on Christina Cooks.
(upbeat music) ♪ Mmm, mm-mm-mm.
♪ ♪ (announcer) Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.
Suzanne's Specialties, sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.
Additional funding is also provided by Old Yankee Cutting Boards, designed for durability and custom crafted by hand with Yankee pride and craftsmanship.
Jonathan's Spoons, individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.
Additional funding is also provided by: ♪ You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at: And by following Christina on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
The companion cookbook, "Back to the Cutting Board," takes you on a journey to re-engage with the soul of cooking.
With more than 100 plant-based recipes, finding the joy in cooking has never been simpler.
To order your copy for $20 plus handling, call: Add Christina's iconic book, "Cooking the Whole Foods Way," with 500 delicious plant-based recipes.
To order both books for $39.95 plus handling, call: ♪