I’ll admit it: I’m a ham. Take the last time I demonstrated how to make sauerkraut. The recipe is pretty basic: pulverize some cabbage, pour some salt over it in a crock, cover, and ferment. Not the most exciting of demos—unless you’ve got a friend, like my friend Jo, with a great sense of humor and knowledge of moi. I told her I needed a mallet for the demo; she lent me her mother’s mallet. It was about eighty years old and five feet tall, and was so big I had to get on top of a milk crate to wield it. It was chancy—the room was filled with three hundred health care professionals—but we all got a good laugh out of it. Hijinks aside, sauerkraut is easy to make—and it’s a great probiotic, leading to a sound gut, which, as scientists are learning, makes for a sound mind.

I can’t imagine any green bean more maligned in American culture than the string bean. The canned versions often resemble a Seattle drizzle and are about as tasty as a one-note piano (salt...salt...salt). The restaurant versions are at least pretty to look at (sometimes), but they’re still bland. I’m here to tell you that string beans can have pizzazz. I start by giving them a special bath: a quick dip in boiling salted water followed by an even faster plunge into a cold pool. This parboiling cooks the beans and brings out their beautiful color.

Whether you’re under the weather or just looking for an immunity boost, this is a great go-to broth. Here I introduce you to burdock root. It’s loaded with potassium, iron, magnesium, and ever-important zinc. In the olden days, physicians used burdock root as a blood purifier, and clearly science has shown they were onto something. Here I combine burdock with shiitake mushrooms, ginger, and garlic to create a delicious earthy broth that’s full of antiviral, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory goodness.

I’ll admit it; I’m a bit obsessive when it comes to chili. Most people have one chili powder blend in their pantry. I have four, all of which I buy online at wholespice.com: Chili Powder Dark; ancho chili powder; Chili California Powder; and Chili New Mexico Powder. You get the idea. But my recipe tester Catherine was having none of it when I suggested this recipe include all four of my chili powder blends. “No,” she said. “I have one blend, just like any other normal person. Either this is going test well with one blend, or it’s not going to fly at all.” Fortunately, it achieved the correct flying altitude with just one blend—whichever one you happen to have on hand—but if you want all three (I can’t resist), look at the Cook’s Note. I love this chili straight up, topped with avocado-cilantro cream, while Catherine likes it best topped with poached eggs. Talk about a protein hit! And for a brain boost, there’s nothing like the choline that both black beans and eggs provide.

Drizzles are designed to brighten up everything they touch, and they can be found in nearly every culture’s cooking. France? It’s a pistou. Italy? Pesto. Morocco? Chermoula. They’re all made similarly; herbs, olive oil, lemon juice and salt go into the Cuisinart, and what comes out is a fine dining refinement, if you will, for everyday soup.

I find cashew milk to be the perfect substitute for milk or cream in soups, sauces, and desserts. You can make it rich or lean by varying the ratio of nuts to water. The 1 to 2 ratio below approximates the richness of whole milk. I prefer to use whole raw cashews, as they are of better quality than broken ones. You will want to keep some of this on hand; it will hold in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.

Sometimes it’s just fun to play with your food. I want people to eat omega-3 rich wild salmon— it’s great for heart and brain health—and this recipe is a blast. The salmon is cubed, threaded onto skewers, baked for a few minutes, and voilà: instant salmon kebabs. The Asian pesto, with ginger, cilantro, and mint, makes the skewers a kick to eat. I like this dish served with Watercress, Purple Cabbage, and Edamame Salad with Toasted Sesame Seeds. Talk about a color blast!

Languid days, firefly twilights: this salad just yearns to be made when the calendar hits July and refreshment needs to be close at hand. This quenching dish is an homage to the fruits of summer (and the herbs as well), with watermelon and tomatoes combining with mint to form its heart.

People have been deviling eggs for almost as long as there have been eggs to devil. Recipes can be found in writings from ancient Rome, thirteenth-century Andalusia, and current culinary blogs worldwide. I’m into deviled eggs both for their flavor and for practical reasons.

Nuts are little superstars when it comes to improving brain function; cashews are phenomenal at promoting good blood circulation so plenty of oxygen gets to the brain. That’s the nutritional reason to eat cashews, but the taste alone should convince you.

When my brother Jeff moved to California, he fell in love with avocados. In fact, he became so enamored with this luscious fruit that he began pestering me to create “avotatoes”—an avocado mashed potato recipe—for this book. I’d do almost anything for him, but there are some places a sister just can’t go. Still, I wanted to feature avocado because I love them too—for their flavor and texture, and for their incredible anti aging properties. While they do contain a fair amount of fat, it’s monounsaturated—the kind the body thrives on (in moderation, of course), and they’re a great source of the antioxidant glutathione.

A guest recipe by Andrew Weil, MD

We usually think of radishes as a minor ingredient in mixed salads that provides a watery crunch and sometimes a spicy snap. Here they take center stage along with arugula, basil, and radish sprouts in a lemon-olive oil vinaigrette with Parmesan cheese. If you can’t find radish sprouts, substitute sprigs of watercress trimmed of any coarse stems.

Another good all-purpose salad dressing that comes together quickly and lasts for a week in the
fridge. I love Meyer lemons because, relative to other lemons, they’re quite sweet. If you don’t have a few Meyers hanging around, use a combination of regular lemon juice and orange juice.

Cherries have a short summer growing season, so you’ll want to make the most of them when they show their cute, plump selves. Here the sweetness of the roasted cherries, the peppery freshness of arugula and the bite of goat cheese with a high note of balsamic vinegar is especially delicious. 

If you’re not familiar with matcha, it’s a finely powdered green tea. And if you’re not familiar with chef Eric Gower, his matcha is to green tea as Dom Perignon is to Champagne. Eric spent sixteen years in Japan learning the customs and history behind one of the healthiest teas on the planet. I took a class with him and he made me a matcha convert; now, every day at 3 p.m. on days when we’re home working, my husband, Gregg, and I stop everything for a few minutes and do a little tea ceremony around this hearty brew. I thank you, Eric, for allowing me to share your matcha method with my readers. We all give you a virtual bow.

This tea is a little like a mother’s gentle belly rub for a sick child, as both peppermint and ginger have qualities that relax the smooth muscles that surround the intestine.