20 Bizarre But Healthy Super Foods

Share

Here at Ethnic Foods R Us, we like to share ethnic foods that are everyday fare for cultures around the world, but unusual and “ethnic” foods to people of other cultures. But we also promote healthy diets and eating habits.

So, in keeping with that secondary purpose, this post will provide you with a list of 20 bizarre but healthy super foods you should know about and have in your diet. Looks can be deceiving, but these foods are loaded with health benefits.


1. Millet

public domain

Yep, good old bird feed, a staple in lots of the mixes you put out for our feathered friends. But you should be eating this yourself.

A gluten-free food, Millet is chocked full of phytic acid, fiber, magnesium, and Magnese, and not only safe for human consumption, very beneficial. Magnese promotes good development of connective tissues and bones, and get this – Millet is sexy too, it promotes the production of sex hormones in the body.

If you can’t find millet locally, you can purchase some if you go here, on our online foods store.


2. Chicken Liver

20 Bizarre But Healthy Super Foods

(Photo Attributed to Author: Poupou l’quourouce)

Lots of people are familiar with, and like, chicken liver pate, but with its ability to deliver to the body a lot of iron, Vitanims A and B12, it should be an inclusion in your diet as an ingredient in menu items as well. Or just sauté some up in butter and eat with a little salt and pepper – delicious.

Another health benefit is how it helps keep your thyroid healthy, because of the Folate it contains, which also promotes fertility.


3. Kohlrabi

(Photo Attributed to Author: Anita Martinz from Klagenfurt, Austria)

(Photo Attributed to Author: Anita Martinz from Klagenfurt, Austria)

This weird looking vegetable is actually a cousin to broccoli and cabbage, but looks more like a turnip with a bunch of spires sprouting out of it. Usually purple or sometimes a light green color, kohlrabi contains a large level of potassium and Vitamin C, as well as many cancer-fighting phytochemicals.

It makes a great addition to salads, and can be added as a tasty and healthy addition to your stir-fry dishes.


4. Amaranth

(Photo Attributed to Author: Dwight Sipler from Stow, MA, USA)

This attractive plant produces a grain that excels over wheat with its extremely high fiber content. Loaded with Vitamins A and C, and potassium, Amaranth is a very good food anytime, but especially good for people recovering from injury or illness, because it is very gentle on the digestive system.

If you can’t find Amaranth locally, you can purchase some if you go here, on our online foods store.


5. Blood Pudding/Sausage

blood pudding

(Photo Attributed to Author: Rainer Zenz at German Wikipedia)

I know, I know, most people are like, “Seriously? Pudding made from blood?”

But yes, this food, quite popular in England, is made from the dried blood of cows or pigs. It tastes like sausage, is often sold in sausage form, and contains “heam,” which is a type of iron.

Heam happens to be the form of iron most readily absorbed by the human body, hence, it is valuable in aiding in the defense against anemia.

Brave enough to try it? You can get some if you go here, on our online foods store.

Continue reading

Share
Costa Rican Orange Pudding Recipe

Costa Rican Orange Pudding Recipe

Share

This marvelous Costa Rican Orange Pudding recipe is just a small taste of many more recipes from our Central American Cuisine pages. If you enjoy this delightful dessert, and want more of this ethnic cuisine, come back soon and often. We are always adding more and more great recipes!

Costa Rican Orange Pudding Recipe

(Photo Attributed to Author: FotoosVanRobin from Netherlands)

Served on special occasions, or if you just want to treat yourself, family and friends, this Costa Rican Orange Pudding recipe is sure to delight!

Costa Rican Orange Pudding Recipe-

Continue reading

Share

6 Weird Edible Mushrooms

Share

One of my favorite ingredients in ethnic food recipes is mushrooms, hence today’s 6 Weird Edible Mushrooms post.

I love mushrooms. Morels, Shitakes, White Buttons, and lots more. Especially prevalent in Asian cooking, edible fungi is to me a kind of weird yet delightful food. So I decided to do some research and see what else is out there in the world of mushrooms that I haven’t yet tried. This led me to today’s post on:

6 Weird Edible Mushrooms

Continue reading

Share
Soul Food Fried Frog Legs

All-American Soul Food Fried Frog Legs

Share

Today we are featuring one of the many Soul Food dishes from the All-American/Southern Soul Food page here on Ethnic foods R Us. This super delicious Soul Food Fried Frog Legs recipe is a prime example of American Soul Food at its ethnic and cultural finest!

Soul Food Fried Frog Legs

(Photo Attributed to Author: Chef Sean Christopher)

Southern Fried Frog Legs are as Deep South an American Soul Food dish as you can get. Please, if you prepare some, purchase farm-raised frog legs, as frogs are becoming an endangered species in the wild. And we need them to keep our precious natural environment in balance.

Soul Food Fried Frog Legs Recipe-

Continue reading

Share
Gourmet Open Fire Cooking

Gourmet Open Fire Cooking

Share

Ever since being a boy, I have loved camping. Real camping – the rustic kind, sleeping in tents, fishing and foraging for food, and cooking meals over an open campfire. I was taught, early on, how to do gourmet open fire cooking.

Gourmet Open Fire Cooking

Photo Attributed to Author: محمد بوعلام عصامي

I cringe when I see other campers preparing their “meals” – which most often are hot dogs, or marshmallows, or maybe, for the more “advanced” campers … even a grilled hamburger! winking_smiley

As far as “side dishes” typically go, they are munching on potato chips or Doritos, and perhaps some store-bought deli items.

Not me. Nothing against hot dogs and hamburgers, I love ’em and will sometimes cook and eat them.

SmoreI also do love a good open fire-roasted S’more as much as anybody. But when I go camping, whoever is with me is going to eat very good. I’m talking about real …

Gourmet Open Fire Cooking!

Continue reading

Share
Traditional Cooking with Hemp Seeds

Traditional Cooking with Hemp Seeds

Share

The term “hemp” refers to cannabis (marijuana), but is generally exclusive of the psychoactive forms of the cannabis plant. Traditional cooking with hemp seeds, the subject of this post, is not about whipping up some drinks, soups, porridge, or brownies to get high on. We are not discussing utilizing the THC-laden buds grown for recreational and/or medicinal purposes nowadays.

Marijuana THC Buds (Photo Attributed to Author: D-Kuru)

Marijuana THC Buds (Photo Attributed to Author: D-Kuru)

winkLet’s get that clear right now, okay?

 

Hemp plants are indigenous to, and have grown wild, in many regions all over the world. For thousands of years, people living in these regions have made use of cannabis seeds in their traditional cooking. And why not? They grow freely, are widely available, and cost nothing more than the labor to go out in the fields and harvest them.

Traditional Cooking with Hemp seeds has been in use for many generations worldwide.

World regions such as China, Mongolia, Germany, Russia and Northeast Europe have, since remote ancient times, made use of wild hemp, and have long ago learned how to cultivate the plant for improved quality and seed production.

Continue reading

Share
Trini Style Curried Duck

Trini Style Curried Duck

Share

This Trini Style Curried Duck recipe is taken from our Caribbean Islands Cuisine page. For many more great dishes from the Caribbean Islands, click here.

Trini Style Curried Duck

(Photo Attributed to Author: OdetomyLife)

Trini Style Curried Duck is curried duck like you’ve never had before, trust me. The combination of special spices and curries – unique to their cuisine – is what makes Trini Style Curried Duck a meal to long remember.

Trini Style Curried Duck Recipe-

Continue reading

Share
Coconut Chicken Adobo

Coconut Chicken Adobo

Share

This Coconut Chicken Adobo recipe is one of several adobo dishes offered on our Filipino Cuisine page. For more delicious Filipino recipes, click here.

Coconut Chicken Adobo

(Photo Attributed to Author: dbgg1979 on flickr)

Filipino Coconut Chicken Adobo is a classic dish from that country. Adobo can be made with or without coconut, and also without meat (see Aubergine Adobo recipe). You can easily turn this recipe into Coconut Beef Adobo, too, by simply substituting chunks of beef for the chicken.

Coconut Chicken Adobo Recipe-

Continue reading

Share
red palm oil

5 Health Benefits of Red Palm Oil

Share

The title of this post, 5 Health Benefits of Red Palm Oil, really falls short of the vast amount of benefits one could list.

red palm oil

Red palm oil, home crafted in Liberia (Photo Attributed to Author: Antoshananarivo)

Red palm oil, in addition to its many culinary uses as a rich food high in nutrients, also has a long list of beneficial health and medicinal qualities. For the purposes of this article, though, we will concentrate on 5 of the most beneficial qualities it has.

Red palm oil is usually thought of as having originated in Africa but, in fact, it was revered and used in ancient Egypt as far back as 5,000 years ago. Beloved by Pharaohs as a sacred food, they prized the oil so highly that it was common to entomb Pharaohs with a bottle of palm oil – so they could have some in the afterlife.


Palm oil, for centuries has been (and still is now in modern times) produced primarily in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil. And it is a commonly used oil and food ingredient in those countries.

Continue reading

Share

All World Healthiest Street Foods

Share

This subject, the best all world healthiest street foods, is one of great interest to me, and many people. Especially those of us who love ethnic foods of all kinds. Often the best ethnic foods are sold right on the street by vendors whipping up some wonderful taste treats to enjoy while walking through the marketplace.

But which kinds of street foods are the healthiest for you? I did a bit of research on the topic, and found out some rather interesting facts. So let’s get right into it, and which ethnic groups on the planet have …

The Best All World Healthiest Street Foods

all world healthiest street foods

(Photo Attributed to Author: Takeaway)

Continue reading

Share

Kitchen Tips – Easy Peazy Potato Peeling

Share

Welcome back to Ethnic Foods R Us for another Kitchen Tips post. Today you will discover the hands-down easiest and fastest way to efficiently peel a boiled potatowithout the use of a peeler or a knife.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and if that’s true, a motion picture show is worth millions, eh?

So watch this short (1 minute) video and see for yourself –

Easy Peazy Potato Peeler Kitchen Tips!

Pretty neat, right? I thought so, and considered it a worthy tip to pass along here to you.

Continue reading

Share
soul food fried alligator

Soul Food Fried Alligator

Share

Today is the second in a series of three posts, featuring Soul Food dishes from the All-American/Southern Soul Food page here on Ethnic foods R Us. This Soul Food Fried Alligator recipe is not only delicious it’s a unique ethnic culinary experience you’ll not soon forget.

soul food fried alligator

(Photo Attributed to Author: Toni Kaarttinen)

Southern Deep Fried Alligator is about as American “Soul Food” as you can get. If you’re too squeamish about the idea of eating alligator meat, you can substitute pork or chicken. But for the real ethnic experience, hey – turn the tables on those man-eating amphibians and serve some up on the table.

Soul Food Fried Alligator Recipe-

Continue reading

Share
7 Bizarre Ethnic Food Delicacies

7 Bizarre Ethnic Food Delicacies

Share

In our never-ending exploration of ethnic foods from cultures all over the world, occasionally you come across some foods that people eat that just, well … make you shake your head in wonder. These 7 Bizarre Ethnic Food Delicacies did just that to me. While I might be daring enough to try a few of them, I still have to wonder what possessed the first people in history who thought to even try these!

7 Bizarre Ethnic Food Delicacies

(Photo Attributed to Author: Istolethetv)

Of course, over the many thousands of years people have been on this planet, they have tried eating any and everything available. Some of the more absurd sounding (and looking!) foods become “delicacies” to certain cultures while, to others, they seem absolutely strange – even disgusting.

But it takes all kinds to make a world, so let’s now get into the list of:

7 Bizarre Ethnic Food Delicacies

Continue reading

Share