If you have been reading Sweet Potato Bites for a while, you probably know of my love for True Food Kitchen.  I have the cookbook, I’m frequently dining there, and I love their use of seasonal ingredients.  Recently I was invited to attend a Secret Superfoods with Andrew Weil cooking demo, and jumped at the chance to go.

I have been a big fan of Dr. Andrew Weil for quite some time now and try to follow his anti-inflammatory diet.  For this particular event, he was going to be creating some new superfood-inspired dishes that will hopefully appear on the True Food Kitchen menu this weekend.

I recruited my fellow fabulous fitbooker Tianna to come with me, and when we arrived at True Food Kitchen we were immediately presented with the Natural (which happens to be my favorite beverage there), which has fresh ginger, agave, and club soda.

Unfortunately, I forgot my cookbook, so I wasn’t able to get that signed, but Tianna and I were lucky enough to meet Dr. Weil and snap a pic.

Then it was time for the cooking demo.  The first dish that was created was a curried cauliflower soup made with cashew cream.

I’m not really a curry fan AT ALL, so I wasn’t sure how I would like this, but the soup was excellent.  The recipes were provided to us during the demo so we could follow along but this soup contained cauliflower, vegetable, cashew cream and sautéed apples.  The apple sounds totally weird but it worked.  There was also a hint of turmeric and curry powder which has anti-inflammatory properties.

The main course was a toasted buckwheat salad (with buckwheat groats, not flour) with autumn vegetables.  Unfortunately, this dish contained walnuts so I could not taste it, so I just took pictures of Tianna’s plate (and have plans to recreate this at home).

The staff at True Food was kind enough to bring me my own dish, so I got the harvest chopped salad which included mixed greens, roasted butternut squash, pomegranate, apple, and goat cheese.  A beautifully grilled piece of salmon was placed on top as the finishing touch.

I remember having the harvest chopped last year and I forgot how amazing it was.  All the flavors in this salad just work.  If you visit a True Food Kitchen this fall, be sure to order this salad.

Dessert was sea buckthorn bars.  They created a vegan and non-vegan version, and we were served the vegan one which was made with gluten-free flour.

The bars had a lot more citrus flavor than I was expecting!  We had tasted the sea buckthorn juice by itself earlier and it was quite sour, so it was nice to have a dessert with a little added sweetness to balance the sea buckthorn flavor out.  I’ll admit this dessert wasn’t my favorite, but I do like the idea of using different ingredients.

After the meal Dr. Weil hosted a Q&A and explained his perspective on living a healthy, balanced, diet.  Some of the takeaways included:

• Grapeseed oil is a great alternative to olive oil in cooking.
• Use natural sugars as opposed to artificial sweeteners in cooking.  Honey, maple syrup and palm sugar are some of the best.
• Dr. Weil firmly believes in a diet that consists of whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables and healthy starches.  Sweet potatoes are one of his favorites (heck yes!)
• Do not fear the fat!  Healthy fats are a great addition to your diet.
• Beware of overuse of antibiotics.  Dr. Weil believes this is a contributing factor to why people have more and more food intolerances these days.  He also mentioned how less and less people are breastfeeding, which can contribute to food intolerances in babies which I found interesting.
• And of course, nothing should be off limits, but everything in moderation (which we already knew).

Thanks True Food Kitchen and Dr. Weil for an informative evening!  I can’t wait to see the new recipes appear on the menu!