Ensalada de Hongo y Aceitunas (Mushroom and Olive Salad)

Freshness is key to this easy salad, which is featured in the updated edition of Oswald Rivera’s “Puerto Rican Cuisine in America: Nuyorican and Bodega Recipes” (Running Press, $18.95).

It also has a festive look, thanks to the red and green of the pimento-stuffed olives.

Ensalada de Hongo y Aceitunas (Mushroom and Olive Salad)

1 pound fresh mushrooms, washed and thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
4 fresh culantro leaves or cilantro or flat-leaf parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup pimento-stuffed Spanish olives
1 bay leaf
Lettuce leaves for salad plates

Place mushrooms in a bowl. Add olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, culantro, thyme and pepper. Mix well.

Add olives and bay leaf. Toss to blend and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Discard bay leaf and make a bed of crisp lettuce leaves on 4 chilled salad plates. Spoon mushroom olive mix on top.

Makes 4 servings.

Adapted from “Puerto Rican Cuisine in America” by Oswald Rivera

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Oregano

If you’ve ever doubted the medicinal uses or health benefits of herbs and spices, new research at the University of Arizona indicates oregano could be a super-hero.

“Adding oregano to meat before grilling could reduce the formation of potentially cancer-causing compounds by up to 78 percent, University of Arizona researchers have found. The (herb) also helps inactivate harmful E. coli O157:H7 in the meat,” says an article in UANow, an e-mail news publication from the university in Tucson.

“Research conducted by UA microbiologist Sadhana Ravishankar has shown that a compound in oregano reduces the formation of heterocyclic amines, the potentially cancer-causing culprits that can form in grilled meat,” according to the article, written by Shelley Littin.

Ravishankar is an assistant professor in the UA’s department of verinary science and microbiology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Her study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

To read more, go to UANow.