- On today's Fit to Eat, I'll prepare a grilled cauliflower with lean pork loin, sweet potato puree and fresh herb pesto.

Our guest is Dr. Cindy Ayers Elliot, owner of Footprint Farms who will give us a tour of her urban farm in Jackson.

Registered dietician, Rebecca Turner shows us even more ways to cook up sweet potatoes.

It's gonna be a great show, so stay tuned.

(cool music) Welcome back to Fit to Eat.

I'm your host, Rob Stinson.

Today's guest is the owner of Footprint Farms, Dr. Cindy Ayers Elliot.

Doctor, farmer, I mean, it's such a pleasure.

My God, your story is incredible.

So I can't wait to delve into it, but let's talk about what we're gonna do today.

- Let's talk.

- All right.

So lean pork tenderloin, beautifully trimmed, grilled cauliflower, so almost like an entree itself, some beautiful beets, - Beautiful.

They were fresh and I had to add 'em in the recipe.

Then we're gonna do kind of a sweet potato puree of sorts, not really ground and then kind of a fresh herb and vegetable pesto.

So this is gonna be a really interesting one, cuz I know you're growing everything in it.

- [Cindy] I'm growing everything and this is a great time of year for what you are getting ready to present.

All the freshness is gonna be beautiful, a beautiful dish and the taste, it's gonna open up your palate.

- All right.

So I'm gonna start just quickly now.

Everything that I've done in all the years we do with no salt.

So garlic powder, onion powder, and this is for the pork, black pepper, and just to give it a little color, some paprika, and all I do is just mix this together and then take this beautiful pork tenderloin, and I tell you what, it really is so pretty.

We're gonna season the cauliflower and the pork, since they're both kind of on the light colored side and grill it, as simple as that and all we're doing here, I've got this where little zero-fat spray keeping fat to the lowest, half a teaspoon of oil is only gonna go under just coating that pan and now we're gonna season that pork.

And this is in a spicy intent just to give it a little flavor and color and we're gonna do the same on the cauliflower.

I know it kind of looks funny at first, but then we're gonna put that into the pan, we're gonna turn that heat up just a little bit and then we're gonna sears in the backside of it too.

- Wow.

So both get the same seasoning.

- Yeah.

On this particular idea, cuz we got so many different flavors coming later and now all we're gonna do is kind of do the same thing here.

And while that's in the pan, you have got to tell me from Wall Street to a farm, that's a story.

So you gotta elaborate on that to me and talk a little bit about the history, and really start I guess, with school and how you first.

- Well Chef, thank you so much for having me on.

First of all, I'm a native Mississippian.

I was DNA'd right here in Mississippi.

I went to school in Boston and UMass Amherst and after that I went into investment banking.

So I actually gave up my red bottoms and high heels for these beautiful work boots and I hadn't looked back.

And these things that you're growing right now, that you're using, we grow of course, everything that you have on this table, we grow.

So we're so happy and this aroma that's coming now unbelievable with the seasoning.

- And you know, that's the part that is so missing.

I wish people had as they call a smell-o-vision.

It would be kind of unique, but the unique part of this, and I think what I really stress is to cook healthy is no more difficult than what people are used to and to keep things without salt is so important.

There's so many additives in so many foods, which is why I love your farm concept because everything gets back to being nature driven.

- Everything.

And then herbs you're using, you know, herbs is so much better for everyone than salt and you can mix so many different herbs together and give you such a unique taste for your palate.

And what you just used today is really going to highlight the cauliflower and the pork that's there.

- Well, we're gonna take in just a touch, a little spray of zero-fat spray and turn these cuz they're gonna finish just cooking and simmering, but you see the key is to seal it all in and on this, we're gonna kind of cheat and use two.

Oh, look at it.

- Oh my goodness.

- See that to me, that's gonna be the flavor that it gets.

So we are going to actually kind of let this kind of go to the side for the time being.

I'm gonna move this pan, put it right over on this side, cuz in this we're gonna actually start the sweet potato process.

So now we're gonna go back and add again that half teaspoon and again, just to keep the fat low, add in, you ready?

- What are these great things?

- Oh, you know what that is huh?

And onions.

- And onions.

- [Cindy] And purple onions, beautiful onions, red onions.

- [Rob] And now.

- [Cindy] Carrots?

- [Rob] No.

Diced sweet potato.

- [Cindy] Oh no.

Sweet potato.

- [Rob] Diced sweet potato.

- [Cindy] And you would think they were carrots, right?

Those are beautiful.

- Ain't that neat?

- And yeah, it takes a little bit of time to chop 'em but it isn't that difficult.

- [Cindy] And what's that?

- [Rob] This is just black pepper, okay, just to kind of give it some flavor.

- [Cindy] I smell that aroma coming.

- [Rob] All right.

Now this is the kicker.

- Special recipe.

- Yeah.

Special, and I can't, this is cinnamon cuz sweet potatoes and cinnamon, I guess that goes back to my childhood.

I love to do a little bit unusual and we've got here fresh diced basil, which I know you grow.

- We grow basil.

- And we're holding on the last piece of this until we've actually cooked this thoroughly.

So let's turn this heat up again.

- Oh my goodness.

I can smell the aroma's coming.

- [Rob] I know.

Isn't that neat?

And so alright.

So we're in Boston.

- Yes.

UMass.

I went to UMass Amherst.

- Okay.

I did my undergrad and grad there in Boston.

And after that I came back to work on my PhD.

From THEE I Love, Jackson State University.

Hello out there.

- That's awesome.

That's awesome.

Okay.

So keep, keep moving forward a little bit.

- Well, lemme just tell you.

- So you said, I mean, and I know in your history you've literally traveled almost, I mean worldwide to be.

- I've traveled worldwide and had the opportunity to taste a lot of different types of food and of course cannot compare to your food.

But it opens up your pallet to so many great things and just like this, who would've thought of sweet potatoes and putting that with cinnamon and being able to put all the other ingredients in would make it a great dish.

- The fun part now is watch as we toss it, it's gonna continue to get all those flavors kind of meshed together and that to me is half the fun of this.

Let's get just a little water.

Doesn't have to be wine.

Everybody says this fancy word deglaze at the end and all it means is you're getting all the flavor off, but in this case it's gonna make us so much easier to blend the flavors and then it's gonna cook down.

So now we're gonna actually kind of.

- Let it just simmer in?

- Yeah.

Just kind of simmer these and you notice what I haven't done over here.

- You hadn't turned it again.

- No, I don't touch 'em.

Don't touch 'em and the reason being with pork and beef, anything of that type, the more that you move it and turn it, the more the juice comes out and people are like, well, it's dry inside and pork has a tendency to be overcooked cause people are scared to serve undercooked pork.

So I find you leave it this way and we're on very low heat, it's seared this side, so it's gonna be that beautiful and it's gonna have a crust and that'll keep the juices in.

- You know, people really don't understand cauliflower how tasteful it is when you do it and how healthy it is for you.

- I know and to me, keeping it, that crunch in it, all the nutrients are still in it.

You don't lose any of the flavor of that cauliflower and I think that really goes a long way.

So we're still on this side.

- Yeah.

Gonna keep tossing these guys around and I can see right there.

Yeah.

You know what?

it's telling me that they're cooking through just right though, because I can see they're starting to get a little tender, - [Cindy] Still little crunch, we still want a little crunch with it, - And I want that, so I call it a puree, but in this, I'm gonna add a little zero-fat yogurt at the very end into the pan and just kind of mash it together but I want it kind of crunchy kind of like the pesto that we're gonna do.

Now, look, there's all kinds of ingredients, all kinds of stuff on the table.

Nobody is gonna remember everything we put in, so you can go to MPBonline.org/fittoeat to find the full recipe for everything you see here, as well as more information on what we've been talking about today.

So that kind of helps in many different ways, cuz I think in this case you've got so many different angles and one of the things I'm gonna come back and do is pan-seared beets.

- Oh my.

I love fresh beets.

- And they're so good for you.

- I know.

We're gonna go into a whole conversation to that because I think it's important for people to realize that what they've eaten on a Thanksgiving coming out of a can and what we're cooking are worlds apart.

- There's no comparison.

- I mean, you really can't.

And I love that you understand that cuz some people really don't.

So you know, it looks like we're just about ready, so we are gonna take a quick break and check in with registered dietician, Rebecca Turner.

She'll show us just how many ways you can cook up a healthy sweet potato.

Check it out.

(cool music) - Sweet potatoes are the darling of Mississippi agriculture.

In fact, Mississippi annually grows an estimated 30,000 plus acres of sweet potatoes and Vardaman, Mississippi has long been proclaimed as the Sweet Potato Capital of the world.

Thanks to sweet potatoes' rich orange pigment, they're also highly nutritious.

Sweet potatoes are a great source of heart-protective fiber and immune-boosting vitamins and minerals.

And the best part, you don't have to do much in the kitchen to make a sweet potato taste good.

Whether you bake them in the oven or cook them fast in the microwave, a standalone sweet potato is a nutritious side dish to any meal.

You just split it, spritz it with olive oil and then sprinkle with the little cinnamon.

Voila!

Sweet potatoes aren't just for dinner you know, you can enjoy them at breakfast too.

Have you ever tried sweet potato hash browns?

They are the perfect addition to any balanced meal, especially a hearty breakfast.

All you need is a sturdy cheese grater and a few large sweet potatoes and you're ready to make a big batch of crispy sweet potato hash browns.

Let me show you.

You don't even have to peel your sweet potato, but I do recommend using the medium size of your cheese grater.

Now once you've grated your sweet potatoes, season them for flavor.

I like a very simple combination of garlic powder and a touch of salt and pepper.

You can give them some heat with smoked paprika if you like, then it's time to cook.

The key to cooking a healthy sweet potato hash is limited oil, slow and controlled.

Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat and then cook both sides for good 5 to 10 minutes.

This is gonna help draw out some of the moisture of your grated potatoes, allowing you to get that crispy texture that you desire in your hash browns.

Then turn up the heat and cook each side for about two minutes or even longer, depending on if you like crunchy hash.

Pair these with an egg white omelet or maybe even some bacon and a sunny side up egg, or use them as a delicious side alternative to a weeknight meal.

Either way, your sweet potatoes will be fit to eat.

- Welcome back to Fit to Eat.

If you're just joining us, Dr. Cindy and I are right in the middle of preparing today's recipe.

All right, so what you think so far?

- Oh my goodness, it's beautiful and the aroma is breathtaking.

I'm hungry.

- Well, I took the liberty because the pork, we do not overcook it.

Okay?

That's a mistake many people make because they think, in the old days, you had to overcook pork.

You want it to be juicy.

So, and the cauliflower looks great, you gotta admit, huh?

- [Cindy] And you want it to be juicy, we don't turn it a lot of times, only one time.

- Yep, just once and that way, you really don't end up breaking the seal.

So now, beets.

All right.

So we're gonna have a little bit of fun with this and again, salt-free mix and this is very similar.

So same beginning, garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper, okay.

So the only real difference in this is no paprika, cuz obviously I don't want to color that.

They look so beautiful!

Fresh, real beets are a world of difference from what people, you know, I mean that's the one thing and you told me, all right, now we really need to get into some detail about the farm.

All right.

So we've talked about kind of your transition from school and all the education background and Wall Street, traveling, going everywhere about it, and I'm gonna throw these in the pan, but I really want to hear now how did Footprint Farms really, I mean, that's a big difference from what you were doing in your life?

- Oh absolutely.

Well, Foot Print Farms is a 68 acre farm located right in the city of Jackson.

- That's what amazes me.

- I know it's talked about, we're only 10 minutes from downtown and the beautiful part about that is that we can get to anywhere in the world by our airport, which is only 30 minutes away.

So you can come in to Mississippi and see all the beautiful things we have.

But Footprint Farms is there for a purpose.

We are looking at how we can serve our community better, how we can grow healthy, affordable, local foods.

And you know, local is so important.

- My God, I mean it really is because, I mean it just centers into what I call this eco cycle of sorts, you know?

And I mean, that's where most people don't realize... And you made a comment to me before the show that people can even do things on a small scale at their home, but talk-- let's not-- let's go into the farm.

So tell me, so you saw where I'm going with the pesto of spinach, basil, green onion, you grow all that.

- We grow all of that and we have some great farmers that's there local from the community that wasn't farmers always, they are now new farmers and learning how to grow.

In fact, a lot of our households, believe it or not, are growing a lot with our farm in a box and growing in coffee cans.

We can show you how you can grow in any container.

The whole idea is to get some local, fresh food in your diet.

The more local we eat, the more raw we eat, the healthier we are.

So for me, the farm is there to do two things and that's to bring access.

It's about access to healthy, affordable local foods.

It's all about health, health, and wealth.

They go hand in hand.

- No doubt.

You have to be able to have a healthy body to have a healthy lifestyle.

So for Footprint Farms, what we do is with love and passion is to grow affordable foods.

So Footprint Farms we grow in high tunnels.

We have 10 on the farms.

- Okay.

Explain little bit about that cause I don't want, it may intimidate people.

Wait, you know what I'm gonna ask you to do.

If you just stir that, you see it's kind of simmering over here.

- Smelling right too.

- I'm gonna turn the heat up just a little bit, and that'll get the potatoes even more tender.

Cause our little beets over here, they're just about beat, they're red, ready.

Oh Lord, all right.

- And you know the healthy part about this, again, we talk about is a lot of protein in beets and so it's great if you don't eat a lot of meat, this is great to do it, but it's also great for our digestive system and for our bodies.

- Yep.

And for blood pressure, it's actually proven and that's something I hate to say it, it's important people realize that food can dramatically change your health.

- Food is a big part of your health.

What we put inside our bodies truly make our health.

If it's not hereditary, then it is something that we have to do to ourselves.

So the more we eat raw, the more we eat local, the healthier we are.

- Well, let's go through one other thing.

- One, tell me.

- I know again, we're gonna repeat because people will not remember all of this, cause we got a lot going on on this.

So you can go to MPBonline.org/fittoeat to find the full recipe for everything you see here, as well as all the information that we're talking about too.

So these guys are just about ready and you know how I know?

I can touch 'em in the center and you see that spatula goes in a little bit?

I love them a little crunchy like I do almost all my vegetables.

- They're beautiful.

It's gonna be a great dish.

In fact, this is local.

- And we wanna support the locals - Locals is important to do that.

And there's so many great farmers out there doing some good work, so please support 'em every chance you get.

- I know, I love it.

All right.

Well it looks like we're at a good point right now where we are gonna take a quick break and visit Footprint Farms with Dr. Cindy.

She's gonna tell us more about how she got into farming and how she's able to grow fresh produce all year round.

Take a look.

(cool music) - [Cindy] They don't talk about the beautiful landscaping.

They don't talk about the wonderful soil and the clean air and water that we have here.

There's an oasis right here in our backyards.

(cool music) You're sitting on 68 acres of Footprint Farms in Jackson, Mississippi, 15 minutes from the State Capitol.

This is home for me.

I actually went to the Jackson State University to receive my PhD.

I never thought I'd be a farmer.

Part of my training was looking at agriculture, but it was looking at the health of my city and my state.

Everything that was bad was number one: hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes... You name it, we had it.

Looking at this.

I said, well, the problems have been identified.

Now what are we gonna do to help bring some solutions?

68 acres is a small farm in any stretch of the eye, but it's pretty large when we talk about urban areas and being inside the city limits.

Going into farming was a part of me putting my words to practice.

I first started with my tennis court.

I converted my tennis court into a tennis garden.

I was growing cherry tomatoes and lettuce and things you could grow in a raised bed and I did very well with it.

And then I went farther into the policies of then getting high tunnels.

My first high tunnel was my first adventure of truly farming.

Right now at Footprint Farms, we have nine high tunnels.

These are 30 by 72 structures that's designed for us to grow full time.

So 12 months out of a year, we can actually grow food.

This is a new phase of farming.

Right now in the fall when you should be growing nothing but green and cold crops, we're growing tomatoes because the heat is needed and these tunnels, these high tunnels will stay 10 to 15 degrees warmer just by keeping the doors closed.

This is nine months old.

Danny has been harvesting this dinosaur kale for nine months.

We've been going to the farmer's markets.

We've been doing CSA boxes.

We hope for another three months.

But we've also started another tunnel of new kale so we will never run out.

We get excited about this stuff.

It's about access.

How can we bring access to communities that are food deserts?

How can we bring access for our citizens, for our friends, being able to make it still accessible and not as expensive in the winter months as it is in the spring months is a good thing.

Use one to feed your whole household or use two and help feed the community.

Have nine and you can help feed Mississippi and that's what we do.

This is the way economic development happens.

This is the way that we grow.

Mississippi has all the elements to be greater than we are.

We truly are salt of the earth Just take a look at what we can do and what we can do to make better.

I get excited about the possibilities of what can be.

- Welcome back to Fit to Eat.

I'm here with Dr. Cindy Ayers Elliot, and we are almost done with this recipe.

All right, come close and just watch this last.

Chopped spinach, - My favorite.

Okay.

And I mean, I love good fresh herbs and veggies, some green onion and some basil, some parmesan, cause it's gotta be in pesto.

Some pepper, you gotta have a little seasoning, gotta have garlic in pesto, gotta have that.

And then I don't use oil.

This is unsweetened apple cider.

I know it's a little different and all we're gonna do is kind of mush this together in a funny little array and then I take my trick and I learned this one from a chef in Italy, a little bit of cream cheese.

- Cream cheese.

That we're gonna put in there and a little bit of yogurt.

- [Cindy] Yum.

- [Rob] Yep.

- [Cindy] That's beautiful.

- [Rob] And it's just gonna kind of mash through.

All right.

So, we saw those tunnels that you were referring to.

Talk a little bit about that, cuz this is just gonna go into bowl and we're basically kind of done.

I took the liberty of getting that finished while we were in break.

- Right.

Well, those tunnels are high tunnels.

They are 30 by 72 feet, 30 feet wide, 72 feet long and you can grow year round.

You can grow during the winter where you can actually close those doors and the heat will stay in and stay 15 degrees warmer with those doors closed.

So during the wintertime, we can have tomatoes in December.

Yes.

- Year round is what you were talking about.

- And right now our tunnels are full with great kale and Swiss chard and we have a lot of carrots that's growing and a lot of the onions, we did about 3,000 onions yesterday.

- 3,000?

- Thousand onions down.

And chives and we also have some special things coming: arugula, mizuna, some of the great things and we got chocolate bell peppers coming as well.

- [Both Speakers] Chocolate bell peppers.

- Something new, but we love to do what we do and Footprint Farms, again, we do more than just put seeds in the soil, we also put seeds in the minds and this is the minds of health, wealth, access and being able to do something together with your family.

You can make this beautiful meal with your children at your side, teaching them how to do this and how to cook healthy and still have great taste.

So it's so important we do more of this.

- So it's not just big city.

- It's not big city.

- It's bringing it down to the household level.

- Which is what we're all about and being able to come to the tables of our Mississippians so that they can have healthy foods and to be almost as pretty as yours, which is beautiful.

- [Rob] Oh, I have a funny feeling that yours comes out every bit as pretty, but you know what?

I love the from high heels to farmer boots.

Dr. Cindy Ayers Elliot to Farmer Cindy.

- Yeah.

And the good thing about us, we have everything that you can imagine on the farm that we grow.

But Chef, just for you, if there's something special you need, I can grow that.

- I love it!

I love it!

I mean, this has been this just been a feast of so many different ways, of knowledge, of what you did, your story is incredible, you know?

And we actually got our dish finished, everything came out so perfect.

I mean, as I'm looking at this.

- [Cindy] Well, the colors, the colors are so great.

And you have some Swiss chard under that for your green.

- [Rob] That's actually the greens of the beat.

- [Cindy] Oh.

Which is very good.

And beet tops are great to eat.

- [Rob] Yeah.

You get kind of two for the price of one.

- Hm Hm.

You do and beets again, that healthy protein.

Everything you have is a great dish, a healthy dish.

So anyone, even if a diabetic or hypertension, this is a meal for you.

This is what you want to bring to your table and to eat and your palette is gonna love you for it.

- [Rob] I love it.

All right.

Well guess what?

- Tell me.

We're out of time.

- No.

Yeah.

I think everything turned out great.

We could go on and on, but I want to thank Dr. Cindy Ayers Elliot for joining us today.

If you wanna learn more about anything you've seen in this episode, then head over to NPBonline.org/fittoeat, and don't forget to follow and like our Facebook page.

Until next time, I'm your host Rob Stinson, eat well.

(cool music)