Here is my recipe of the month to illustrate the previous post “A stress-free back to school/work”. A simple and fragrant recipe to soothe you 😍.
Have a look at the end of the recipe to understand the choice of ingredients and thus be able to create your own anti-stress recipes.
Pomegranate Anti-Stress Chicken
Ingredients (4 people)
4 organic chicken cutlets from the flax industry
300 g raw buckwheat
200 g shitake mushrooms
1 red onion
1/2 pomegranate
1 small handful of raisins
1 bag of black tea
1 organic lemon
5 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp ground turmeric
1 pinch of saffron
1 tbsp wheat germ
Salt and pepper (optional)
Preparation
1. Prepare the marinade: in a glass or cast iron dish, place the chicken cutlets.
In a small bowl, mix the turmeric and saffron (salt and pepper) with 4 tbsp of olive oil. Brush the chicken cutlets with this mixture. Cut the lemon into thin slices and place them on the chicken cutlets. Leave to marinate for 1 hour.
2. In a bowl, swell the raisins in a cup of hot water with a sachet
black tea.
3. Cook the buckwheat in a pot of boiling water (1 part buckwheat to 2 parts water or following the instructions on the package). Drain and reserve.
4. Chop the red onion. Clean the shitake mushrooms. Seed the pomegranate.
5. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place the dish containing the marinated chicken cutlets
in the oven for 20 minutes.
6. Brown the red onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil over low heat (the oil should not brown). Add the shitake mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.
7. In a dish, mix the buckwheat with the mushrooms, raisins and pomegranate seeds. Arrange the plate with this mixture, a chicken escalope and sprinkle
a tbsp of wheat germ.
The Choice of Ingredients
Chicken breasts because the meat provides a supply of tyrosine (amino acid precursor of dopamine, see September blog 😉) and B group vitamins.
Turmeric for its anti-inflammatory properties.
Saffron with multiple medicinal properties (I will tell you more about it in a future blog “Stress and supplementation). Here, I chose it for its scientifically proven antioxidant properties (thanks to the active molecule, crocin, in synergy with the flavonoids and safranal it contains), and because it would stimulate the stomach, reduce the appetite, and would limit fermentation in your gut. In addition, several scientific studies show that the bioactive compounds of saffron (stigmata and dried petals of safranal and C. sativus) have effects similar to anti-depressants (but with fewer side effects 🙄).
Lemon for a little bit of antioxidant vitamin C and folate (vitamin B9).
Shitake mushrooms for their beneficial effects on immunity.
Red onion for its richness in quercetin, a flavonoid with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Buckwheat to provide a dose of magnesium.
Raisins provide a supply of resveratrol, an Anti-Oxidant (AO) which protects telomeres from stress damage, and quercetin.
Black tea which helps to lower cortisol levels.
Wheat germs for their B vitamin content.
And finally, the pomegranate! I promised you last month to tell you about it in more detail, so here it is.
Pomegranate seeds are a mine of vitamins, minerals (700 mg of minerals per 100 g!) and polyphenols: in particular vitamin C (20 mg / 100 g), potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and flavonoids (tannin, anthocyanin and ellagitannin). It is especially for the latter that I chose to include pomegranate in my recipe because they have very strong antioxidant power. Some authors even say that pomegranate seeds have an AO power 2 to 3 times higher than that of red wine (whose AO bioactive compound is resveratrol) or green tea (ECGC). Concerning these beneficial effects on health, we will remember its beneficial effects on:
- Oxidative stress
- Inflammation
- Cardiovascular risks
- The lipid profile (thanks to the punic acid it contains)
- Osteoarthritis
- Cancer: studies carried out using fermented pomegranate juice on breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, etc. Results which need to be confirmed by additional studies.
- Alzheimer’s disease (I tell you about it in the last paragraph…
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that studies have most often been carried out on pomegranate juice (too bad for the fibers...) because most of the AO is found in the white membrane with a bitter taste which compartmentalizes the seeds. If you want to benefit from all the benefits of pomegranate, you will have to eat this membrane 😉.
Finally, if it were that simple, you would tell me that pomegranate is a superfood...Yes, it’s true, but there is a “but”!
Indeed, one of the polyphenols in pomegranate that accounts for most of the beneficial effects of pomegranate is ellagitannin. But it is only a precursor of the actually active molecule: urolithin A. And for the transformation of ellagitannin into urolithin A to take place, you need a healthy microbiota (and it is therefore where it gets complicated 😅). It is in fact the bacteria in the colon which will metabolize ellagitannin into ellagic acid then into urolithin A.
Urolithin A has a powerful cellular anti-aging action. This polyphenol significantly reduces the number of defective mitochondria and is apparently the only one capable of restarting mitochondrial cleaning (See blog from February 2023 to understand the role of the mitochondria). Finally, it also has the ability to cross the brain membrane (blood-brain barrier) and according to certain studies, it limits the formation of amyloid β plaques involved in Alzheimer's disease.