Going Green…or blue, or red, or yellow

Say St. Patrick’s Day to Americans and some might think of Ireland, shamrocks, and green beer.  Others might think of soda bread and potatoes. But no matter how you celebrate this popular saint’s day you can make your St. Patrick’s Day feast a rainbow of Irish delights.

Potato soup is a common first course; you can give it some color by adding roasted red peppers or by combining orange sweet potatoes with traditional white potatoes.  Here is a recipe to get you started.  You can make it even healthier by reducing the amount of butter and substituting 1% or skim milk. 

Nothing says green more than a salad.  In addition to the lettuce, a traditional Irish salad contains purple beets, red onions, and pickles.  You could also add a hard-boiled egg or two to make this a heartier main-course dish. One egg per person is plenty.

If you want a heartier main course, there is nothing like a traditional Irish stew.  Think orange and green here by adding carrots and peas to your meat. A quick Google search turns up lots of variations including those that add green or red peppers, red onions, or even yellow parsnips.

For dessert you can go purple, with a traditional rhubarb crumble.  Remember rhubarb does not always need as much sugar as the recipe calls for.  Blueberries (frozen are fine) make a nice substitute.  Top with low fat or no fat yogurt.

Of course, you don’t have to stick to traditional Irish foods to eat the rainbow.  There are lots of other fruits and vegetables such as plums, star fruit, grapes, purple kale, and greens that you can easily find in the grocery.

Make a rainbow of foods to reach your nutritional pot of gold.  What’s in your rainbow?