The strong man famous for “I█ll be back” has said “hasta la vista” to meat.

That's right.

Arnold Schwarzenegger himself has gone largely plant based.

So wait, can you have muscle and strength and still be a vegan?

The answer is yes, and I'll show you how.

Today on Christina Cooks.

Funding for Christina Cooks is provided by: GreenOnyx, producers of Wanna Greens A tiny but nutrient dense fresh green vegetable.

Wanna Greens can be added to any meal, snack or dessert.

Fresh greens.

Wanna Greens.

Additional funding provided by Finamill.

The flavor of freshly ground spices and dried herbs with refillable, swappable pods.

Finamill.

And by Mauviel, creators of copper, stainless and steel carbon cookware for professional and home cooks.

A story of passion since 1830.

And by Suzanne█s Specialties Offering a full line of alternative, vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne█s Specialties.

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And by Jonathan█s Spoons.

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Additional funding provided by: Hi, I'm Christina Pirello, and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh, seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.

Will they all be plant based?

Yeah.

Will they all be delicious?

Absolutely.

You know, when people think of vegan and athlete in the same sentence, it kind of doesn't like work for most people.

They imagine vegans with little skinny arms and no muscles and no stamina.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

More and more professional athletes are turning to a plant based way of eating to keep their veins and arteries healthy and their muscles as strong as they were.

Because did you know there's protein in everything you eat except fruit?

So we're going to make today a high protein dish that doesn't involve anything that used to walk, crawl, swim or fly.

Here we go.

We're going to take some eggplant first.

Now the eggplant was soaked in salted water to remove the alkaloid solanine, that can affect your joints because if you█re going to eat a plant based diet and try to be an athlete, you need healthy movable joints.

And we're just going to dice it.

Now, the reason these vegetables are sliced as they are is you could also leave them as they exist on this bowl, sliced and grilled them.

But I'm not a huge fan of grilled vegetables.

I find them not interesting.

So we're going to instead take some extra virgin olive oil, a generous amount - you can always count on me to use a generous amount and some balsamic vinegar.

A really good thick, syrupy balsamic vinegar, some salt.

Some black pepper.

And we're going to braise the veggies.

This is now the seasoning.

It's done.

Eggplant goes in.

Now we may need to add a little bit of oil as this cooks.

Because the eggplant tends to really soak up oil.

To it, we█ll add some zucchini that's been cut into thick strips.

And we're going to turn around and dice that as well by cutting it into ribbons and then cutting across, try to make sure that your vegetables are even in their size if you can, so that they cook evenly.

Some red pepper.

Now normally I roast red pepper before I use it because like eggplant, it's a nightshade and rich in a substance known as solanine, which is an alkaloid that can affect your joints.

But since we're braising, and I really want to keep the integrity of the veggie and not have it be too soft.

We're not going to roast it first.

We're going to cook it for a longer period of time.

And now we're going to give these a stir.

You want to just stir them until they're shiny with oil.

And then we're going to just let them braise.

But you see how the pan has become almost dry because the eggplant has sucked up all the oil.

So let's go back in here and add a little more.

You want your vegetables to be nice and moist.

So we're going to let these cook.

Kind of put them into one layer if you can, along the bottom of the pan in sort of a flat one layer.

It's a beautiful color.

Cover it.

We're going to reduce the heat a little bit.

And then, make the high protein part, which is a chickpea spread.

So in a food processor I have cooked chickpeas.

You can use canned ones.

Rinse them really well first so that you don't become, musical and put them into a food processor with a couple of cloves of garlic.

Nice, really big hearty pieces of garlic, some fresh lemon juice.

I'm not making hummus.

I'm making a chickpea spread.

And it's going to be a little bit on the chunkier side, not so much, creamy and sort of like a mousse, like hummus can be.

Then we'll add to it.

Some black pepper.

Some salt.

Some coarsely chopped fresh basil.

Just going to give it a really nice freshness.

And we'll add a tiny bit of, of course, olive oil to give it a creamy texture.

And before we puree that, let's check our veggies.

I have eaten a plant based diet for 40 years, and I can still out-lift in the gym most people that I know.

And everybody I know still asked me the age old question, where do you get your protein?

I get it from vegetables, grains and beans.

Like every other vegan athlete that enjoys really good health.

Let those go for a few more minutes while we go over here and make some noise.

We're just going to pulse because I don't want this to be too, too creamy.

I want it to be a little more textured.

Like this.

If you want it really creamy, make it really creamy.

But it's not what I'm going for, so we're not going to do it that way.

Okay, really quick.

Now we'll take from the food processor our pureed beans.

They're really nice and textured so that they kind of hold the mountain of them that I'm making.

And the way to eat this, which is what I love about this dish, is with a big chunky piece of bread.

Right before heading to the gym, this is one of my favorite dishes.

Before we head to the gym.

Something with some protein that's going to give us stamina while we're there.

Okay, so there's our chickpeas.

Let's check the veg.

I'm not sure it gets much better than this once your vegetables have like a really nice color to them.

And once they're tender, not soft and mushy, fork tender, you're going to take them off the heat.

And carefully I'll be using two spoons.

Scoop them onto your serving plate.

On both sides, make colorful little mountains of veggies.

And then.

Since we use oil a healthy amount of oil.

What you want to finish the dish with some wedges of fresh lemon and a squirt of lemon juice over the veggies and the chickpeas and the lemon has that astringent quality that's going to help you to digest the oil and also the protein.

And there you have an absolutely perfect dish for anybody headed to the gym.

And, wait█ll you see what's coming up next.

(gentle music plays) I'm very excited today because I have with me our own local, my own personal Arnold Schwarzenegger, my former trainer, Anthony Molino is going to join me to cook today.

Anthony, come on in.

Hi, how are you?

-Good!

-Good to see you.

-Good to see.

So this is Anthony Molino, a personal private chef and also a former trainer, my former trainer and now a professional chef.

So Anthony, we're going to cook together, which is very exciting because we have cooked together on a few occasions.

But really, what I want you to talk to me about while you're cooking is I hear it all the time.

Even after 40 years as a vegan, what I hear is, where do you get your protein?

How do you keep your muscles built?

So while we're cooking, can you talk to me about that?

-Absolutely.

-What do you want to make first?

We could start out with the stuffed peppers.

Okay, so what's the first thing for our stuffed peppers?

The gravy?

-So the first component, we want to make the marinara.

So we█re going to sweat our mirepoix.

Carrots celery, onion are always the base.

Especially with vegan cooking.

We want to develop layers of flavor.

So we start out with the extra virgin olive oil.

-How much?

-About three tablespoons.

And then we're going to start sweating the garlic.

-How much garlic?

Half.

Like that.

-Okay.

So do you, do you cook like I do in that when you use olive oil you put something in and then you turn the heat on to keep the flavor?

Exactly.

I just like to sweat them a little bit just to get them a little bit translucent.

-You want onion too?

-Onion, little bit of onion.

But I like to add that after... -After the garlic?

-After it sautes a little bit.

-Okay.

How come?

-Because it's going to give you a little bit of a sweetness.

Take out the bitterness of the garlic so you tie them together.

-Really!

I don't do them together only because I find that especially for myself, if I don't saute the garlic enough, it will repeat on me.

Wow.

Learn something every day.

You want a spoon?

Or do you want to let it sweat?

Yeah, just let it sweat a little bit and then we can add the rest of our components the carrots, celery...

So talk to me a little bit about I mean, particularly as you get older building muscle and maintaining muscle, eating a plant based diet.

The myth with plant based proteins and healthy eating is that you're you can't get the essential amino acids via that.

But, you know, look at a gorilla.

Look at a racehorse.

-Look at cows.

-How did they build their muscle I mean, the amino acid profiles in plant compounds now are there.

And without the, added when you're eating meats of environmental toxins, hormones, steroids, antibiotics...

So you're getting the benefits of plant- based proteins without all the unwanted stuff that, you know, associated with cardiovascular disease.

-Okay.

-You know, tofu has all nine essential amino acids.

-Quinoa, it█s the same as eggs.

-Quinoa, and then... For some that don't have all the essentials You could just add another component, like a lentil, like a farro, a tempeh, you know, to get what you need in your and, the protein requirements.

-Okay.

Onion?

So the first thing we're doing, I would add the onion now.

-Enough?

-That's good.

-And I will also add the celery.

-Okay.

-Do you want any salt at this point or not yet?

-Not yet.

We're going to put the carrots as well.

And again with... -So you put carrots in your gravy?

-I do I always put carrots in my marinara and just about anything because I like the sweetness I don't like to add sugar especially white sugar.

-No, me either.

So I like to get the, you know, the sweetness of the vegetables.

you know, the sweetness of the vegetables.

Do you find in your work that... can I stir?

I'm sure I'm so like obsessed with start.

Sorry.

I'm obsessed with stirring.

Can you -do you find in your in your private chef business now that you have more call for plant based like or, you know, I mean, when we started working together, it was like, you're a what?

So do you find you have more requests for it?

More... -People are a lot more conscious about their health.

And as they get older, they're starting to see the risk.

-Do you want this to go in?

All of it?

So if you don't mind, I'm going to tell a story about you.

-Sure.

-While we stuff peppers.

So what we're going to do is we're going to stuff, green bell peppers.

Right?

-Right.

So I'm going to give you these that you can start stuffing.

And what you want me to do is just take the top off?

-Just take the top off.

And we're going to kind of put that on the back end just for presentation purposes.

And the bottom you want to create a flat base you don't want to cut through.

So the stuffing comes through.

But just to shave it on the bottom.

Create a level playing field.

Exactly.

More?

So the story I'm going to tell about you is so I, I'm going to do this while he's stuffing peppers.

Anthony and I were training together for a while and we... you know, he knew I was a chef.

And so I invited him and another trainer to dinner, and I.

You remember this?

-Yeah.

First time he came to my house for dinner.

And afterwards we were training the next day and he said, I have a confession to make, which is I didn't know whether I should eat before I came to your house for dinner, or whether we should plan to go to a fast food place after.

And then the great irony of life is he married a vegan, right?

-Exactly.

-And everything changed, right?

My my wife is a lifelong vegan, and she basically taught me the, the benefits -and a wonderful athlete, I might add.

-Yes.

Yeah.

All right.

Is it too soon to put a little of the tomato on the bottom?

-No, not at all.

So especially for my cooking I like to do everything quick.

Number one, it's going to keep the nutritional integrity of the stuff that you're cooking.

So it retains, you know, the phytochemicals there.

You know, you're not cooking out the pigment of the stuff that it has a lot of.

-So you don't do a ton of long cooking.

-No, even marinara, the most I would ever cook, especially if you're using a good tomato.

You don't need to cook it more than 15 minutes.

-And I have to say I love him to death.

For those of you not from South Philadelphia -Marinara, I█m sorry.

-Marinara.

“Marinade” is marinada, or pomodoro as we call it in Italian.

-Or gravy.

How much do you want on the bottom?

-So on the bottom I would just put a light layer, like if you're doing lasagna, just do a coating.

And then I would also add a little bit of vegetable broth.

The reason for the vegetable broth is as you've reduced down with the stuffed peppers, it kind of gets a tendency to get a little bit stewy.

So this will keep the sauce nice and light.

So like this?

-Perfect.

Mix it a little?

-Just stir it a little bit.

And then we'll put the peppers in the pan.

You want to pick a vessel that's going to keep the peppers in place so they're not falling over.

Also I would, you know, if you have red and yellow peppers just for color or for presentation.

Exactly.

Now do you want more gravy or the top?

So we're going to put a little bit of the sauce on top.

Go ahead go ahead.

And then from that point what we're going to do is top it with the bell pepper.

-Okay.

Now these are going to be so pretty actually.

Yeah it really makes a nice presentation.

-So they're filled with lentils and a small pasta.

And what we did was sauté garlic, onions and celery, put it into the lentils while they cooked to flavor the lentils, And then a tiny bit of the little pasta, like orzo or acini di pepe was stirred in to create like a, texture that holds together in the stuffing.

Exactly.

-So now the tops go on.

-Yes.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to match them to the exact pepper, Anthony.

I'm going to give it a good.

Okay.

All right.

So how long do these go into the oven and at what temperature?

These are going to go 350 preheated oven for about 30 minutes.

And then what I like to do at the very end put it on broil just to kind of give you some nice color and allow it to caramelize.

-And then we'll do a finishing touch.

-Exactly.

So the next dish we're going to make together is vegan chili.

Yes.

Which is very hearty and very sort of rich in a way, although simple.

Talk to me while you work on the chili about the, the importance of not only eating but weight training.

-So a lot of times with my clients, it'll say, well, you know, I walk to work every day or, you know, I walk ten flights of steps.

And my response to them is that especially with, with muscular and cardiovascular endurance, if you're not putting a stress on your body that it's not accustomed to, you're not going to make any benefit.

You're not going to get any benefit, you're not going to gain from it.

So that's not enough.

-Exactly.

-Or not enough.

-Exactly.

So you need to incorporate strength training.

And it's about building lean muscle bone density and what it does with strength training.

It actually increases your resting metabolism.

Right.

So by doing the strength training it's going to help you all around with your metabolism, with your strength, your cardiovascular endurance.

And, it doesn't need to be an hour in the gym, five days a week, three days a week, 20 minutes different body parts or doing like a total body.

It's just about stimulating the muscle, something that your body doesn't anticipate.

So just give us a little start.

-Do you want any seasoning?

-I will put a little bit of salt and pepper.

And again, there's no right or wrong with this.

Whatever you have.

That's why we call this chili “kitchen sink chili” because you can utilize just about anything that you have.

We're going to add the grains after this.

Actually, let█s add the vegetable first.

I'm going to add the vegetable.

-Do you want more veg?

So that'syellow squash and zucchini.

Okay.

This is carrot and celery.

Yep.

And there are some brussel sprouts in here that we had in the fridge.

We gave you everything.

-We're like... -That's perfect.

It's going to give you a little bit of crunch.

You put some hot peppers in, too, right?

Didn█t you put some hot ones?

We put in some dried chilies.

And again, building layers of flavor.

It's going to give you that nice...

So by cooking the fresh peppers what Anthony's doing is building like a low level heat that then will intensify as we add some chili spice later on.

So now at this point we can add... -Tomato puree.

-Yes.

Right.

There you go.

-And immediately again... -I love a good chili.

To reduce the cooking time we're going to add the steel cut oats next.

-These are not cooked steel cut oats, right?

So just going to give us body.

-They█re not cooked.

And the reason, exactly.

The reason why I like the uncooked steel cut oats is because it's going to give you a little bit of bite that al dente... it's going to give you a little bit of texture.

And it's also going to help thicken the sauces.

They█re also really high in good fats and protein.

Great complex carbohydrates.

-What do you want next?

All right.

So we can put our beans in.

So we just have black beans.

But you could use pinto beans, chickpeas, white beans doesn't matter.

-Right.

We can add the barley and the farro as well.

And the farro is a great plant based protein.

And farro is rich in iron, so it's good for your blood.

There you go.

And then we'll also add a little bit of the cooking water from the barley.

This is barley water.

Do you want more of this veggie broth?

-Yes.

-You want all this?

That's good right there and then a little like a half a cup of the vegetable broth.

And that's about what's left.

Yeah.

We can, actually add the sriracha and brown sugar now.

That█s going to kinda give you... -Here█s your sriracha.

-The reason why I like the sriracha and the coconut sugar is because it's going to kind of give you that yin and yang, The hot and the sweet.

All right.

So how long will this cook after?

And you cook it covered or uncovered?

-Yeah, I'm going to cook this covered for about 15 minutes, -That's all?

-That's it.

-Literally 20 minutes.

And you have the finished product.

-It's so creamy.

It's real fresh and vibrant.

-Lovely.

-The vegetables are nice and cri All right.

So here's our peppers.

-Yes.

So what's the finishing touch?

The finishing touch for the, for the peppers I would add just a little bit more of the sauce on top.

I would unlid it and just put a little bit of sauce, put it back on just to keep it.

-And am I trimming the stems off the green.

This is like the best part of this dish for me.

-So for the beet top greens we're going to just saute a little bit of garlic and oil, a little bit of crushed red pepper.

And we're going to sweat the garlic a little bit just for a little bit of color.

Do you want the tops off?

-I would put you know, take a top off, put a little bit more sauce and then you can put it back on and then you can even put some on top.

There's no right or wrong.

So while that gets heated let's.

You said you serve your chili over black rice?

Yes I like the black rice because it's very al dente, It's going to give you a little bit of bite and it holds up well to the chili.

And it's a nice contrast.

This is a really nice chili recipe, but it's totally different from the way I do chili.

So once again I've learned something new today which I love.

And now we're going to garnish this with some vegan sour cream.

Some vegan cheddar cheese which you can take or leave.

I'm kind of I'll leave girl on this one, but it's okay.

And then the last thing we're going to add this one, I know is new to you, This is called wolffia.

So there's our chili, and now we're just waiting for...

So you're just wilting the greens.

-Just a quick, really brief saute.

You want to wilt them because these red stems you know, there's so much flavor.

You know the phytochemicals in the greens and the, the pigment.

You want to retain them.

So you want -I always say, too, about the stems that they draw all the nutrients from the soil up into the leaf.

So this is actually your strongest flavor and your most nutrient dense part of the vegetable.

So when people like take and chop the stem off the parsley I think, oh my goodness.

You should keep that.

That's your best flavor.

It's just going to give you another component of freshness.

And green nutrients and all kind of nutrient density.

-Green leafy vegetables... -And that's the dish.

Anthony Molino, you can not only train me any day you want to, but I'll cook with you any day of the week.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

Look at this feast.

So, what are you waiting for?

Let's get back to the cutting board, and I█ll see you next time on Christina Cooks.

Funding for Christina Cooks is provided by: GreenOnyx, producers of Wanna Greens Organic and sustainable, Wanna Greens are grown in a completely closed, indoor environment.

At Wanna Greens, we believe in the benefits of fresh greens for people and the planet.

Additional funding provided by Finamill.

The flavor of freshly ground spices and dried herbs with refillable, swappable pods.

Finamill.

And by Mauviel, creators of copper, stainless and steel carbon cookware for professional and home cooks.

A story of passion since 1830.

And by Suzanne█s Specialties Offering a full line of alternative, vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.

Suzanne█s Specialties.

Sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.

And by Jonathan█s Spoons.

Individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.

Additional funding provided by: You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at christinacooks.com and by following Christina on social media.

Learn how to add delicious plant based dishes to your daily diet with the companion cookbook VegEdibles.

Featuring more than 80 easy-to-make recipes To order your copy for $32.95 plus handling, call 800-266-5815 or visit christinacooks.com.

Add “Back to the Cutting Board” and get both books for $55.95 plus handling.