I’ve found a delicious, healthy breakfast that my whole family loves eating. It’s very easy to prepare and it gets me started off on the right foot because this dish offers lots of healthy fats to support my lymphatic system and loads me up with minerals and prebiotics (resistant starch in the beans, arabinogalactans in the carrots). The sulfur in the cabbage supports sulfation detoxification pathways, and the potassium and magnesium in the kale support electrolyte balance.
What makes this dish more than just healthy but boring steamed vegetables is the corn and the fat. The corn adds a lovely sweet flavor that balances our the greens – and the ghee, olive oil, seasonings and the beans make this meal very filling, flavorful, and satisfying.
If you prepare the kale, carrots, corn, and cabbage ahead of time – chopping and grating them finely as pictured below, then spinning them in a salad spinner – this meal can be made very quickly. I make large amounts of this mixture and keep them in a big bag in the fridge. Then I just sautee the garlic in ghee, throw in the veggie mixture, add the black beans for reheating in the side of the pan, and dish up in a matter of minutes.
I also like to sprinkle this dish with some mild New Mexico chile (since my histamine isn’t so high anymore). If you are very sensitive to histamine, you could use paprika instead. It’s the spicy capsaicin in the seeds of chillis that triggers migraine, not the sweet meat of mild chilli or peppers. Alternately, if you cannot handle any chilli at all, use lots of black pepper, as this helps raise blood pressure.
I use both ghee and olive oil in this dish to get the benefits of both. Fat helps the vitamins and minerals in cooked vegetables to become more bioavailable. The butyric acid in the ghee will help feed healthy gut bacteria, and the Omega-3 fatty acids will help lower inflammation. The olive oil drizzled on top afterwards will help to reduce histamine and raise diamine oxidase.
My husband likes to put a fried egg or two on top of his. The choline in egg yolks is excellent for raising methylation. Remember to load on the salt, we need it!
Ingredients for 2 Meals of Succotash:
3 cloves of chopped fresh garlic, sauteed in
3 T of clarified butter/ghee
4 cups of prepared chopped cabbage, kale, grated carrot, and frozen or fresh corn
2 cups of black beans
chilli, pepper, paprika, and salt to taste
drizzle of olive oil
garnish with cilantro, avocado
2 fried eggs (optional)
Squeeze of lemon or lime (optional)
