Nuevo Cuban Cuisine
My Nuevo Cuban cuisine is a lighter, healthier and more stylized version of traditional Latin cooking that infuses gusto, soul, beauty and love into everyday meals.
I had a couple of motivations in mind as I worked to create Nuevo Cuban cuisine. A personal goal – I was diagnosed with high cholesterol and didn’t want to give up the Latin foods I love, and was certain that there were lots of others out there, Latinos and non-Latinos alike, also looking for ways to reduce the fat and sodium in their diets without having to give up favorite foods. I also had a larger ambition – I wanted to make Latin food more accessible to the average American home chef. I adore Latin food and I want to spread the good news to others; it’s as nutritious as it is delicious and should be a regular feature on everyone’s dinner table. How about trading in a pizza night or a taco night for a Latin night using one of our tested recipes.
You’ll find that my Nuevo Cuban cuisine effectively marries flavors from the past with today’s lighter, healthier ingredients and cooking methods. The same great flavors – the same savory blending of the essences of onion, green pepper and garlic, the same earthy complexity that the cumin, oregano, black pepper and bay leaf give to the originals, the same richness and roundness that the tomato, citrus and wine contribute to the whole but with a cleaner, softer, lighter and healthier touch on the tongue. A modern flavor that’s less dependent on salt, fat and processed food products. I introduce more garden vegetables into the cuisine and make maximum use of alternative cooking methods. Yes, I believe you can taste healthy; taste nutrition. When it comes to Latin food, I call that improved taste sabor moderno, and that totally satisfied feeling you’ll enjoy after finishing one of my healthy filling meals, contento todo.
Latin food is delicious and nutritious, but if not thoughtfully prepared, it can also be high in fat and sodium. Many traditional recipes rely on liberal use of animal fats (e.g. lard, butter), lots of salt for flavor and on frying as the principal cooking method. Even salads and vegetables are often laden with mayonnaise or cream.
This diet would have worked pretty well and caused few problems for our ancestors. They had active lifestyles – most did manual labor working on farms or in factories, they ate their main meal in the middle of the workday so they burned off many of the calories they took in, they consumed less meat, more vegetables and almost no processed foods. But, today most of us work at sedentary jobs, have our main meal after work and before bedtime in the evening and get too much of our daily intake of calories from convenient manufactured foods, beverages and condiments.
My Nuevo Cuban recipes are different. They rely mostly on whole foods and minimally processed ingredients and employ alternative cooking processes whenever possible, enabling you to maintain the unique flavors that make Cuban-American cuisine so special while reducing potentially harmful ingredients.
This is important because, according to the American Heart Association, heart disease and stroke rank as the number one killer of all Americans as well as the number one killer of Latino/Hispanic Americans. And, while what we eat is only one factor in our risk for heart disease, it is one that we can do something about.
In addition, when you see this symbol “?” in the recipes on the site, you’ll find more suggestions for things you can do to make the dish still more “heart healthy.”