I could write an entire cookbook on sauces and dips. The Melting Pot is one of my favorites because you get, like, 15 sauces with every course. I'm a sauce gal. I'm also a cilantro gal.
Cilantro is controversial. You either love it or hate it. Delicious herb, or soapy nightmare. But despite how you feel, cilantro is indisputably a super food. Here's why:
Cilantro is a great chelator (KEE-LAY-TOR). Chelation means "to grab" or "to bind", which is what cilantro does when it meets a heavy metal. The minerals of sodium, potassium, and chloride in cilantro are bound to phytochemicals and have the ability to travel past the blood-brain barrier. When these minerals enter the bloodstream, they meet up with the amino acids glycine and glutamine and bond together to form a SUPER neurotransmitter.
The brain loves these minerals and when it draws them up, it gets a surprise bonus package: phytochemicals that deliberately remove toxic heavy metals from the brain thus dissolving the toxic heavy metal residue that gets stuck to neurons. Free neurons means optimally functioning neurons.
I know what you're thinking: "Awesome, I can just eat some other foods with the same minerals of sodium, potassium and chloride and get the same results and not ever have to eat soapy cilantro!"
Not exactly. That's the magic of cilantro's detoxifying ability. Its almost like these minerals get coded with cilantro's DNA which supercharges them. Food is SO COOL y'all.
Ingredients:
1 cup of cashews, soaked for at least one hour
1 bunch of cilantro
1 jalapeno
1/2 tsp salt
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp of lime juice
1/4 cup of water
1 tsp of maple syrup
Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender and process until smooth. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. This is great on baked potatoes, and with my Nori Wraps (pictured).