19 things to cook if you're worried about cyclospora

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If you've paid attention to headlines recently, you likely came across a little parasite known as cyclospora. It can take up to two weeks to make its presence in your body known, but once it does, you won't be able to ignore it. Get ready to spend a long time (up to multiple weeks) looking at your bathroom walls.

The current cyclospora outbreak has been linked to thousands of cases and more than a hundred hospitalizations across wide areas of the country. Typically, cyclospora is spread when human waste comes into contact with food or water, which is then consumed. While the FDA is looking at Taylor Farms lettuce as a potential source for some current cases, experts advise that this may not be the only source. Several foods may be to blame or have caused such outbreaks in the past: salad, fresh herbs, berries, mixed fruit, snap peas, watercress, mangoes, and green onions, for starters. Meanwhile, some experts are recommending that immunocompromised individuals avoid fresh produce for the time being.

The good news among all the bad? Heating foods to 158 degrees Fahrenheit effectively kills the parasite. As such, you may still be able to do something with those greens wilting in your fridge and those baskets of berries. Here are 19 things to cook if you're worried about cyclospora and want to reduce your chances of falling ill.

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1. Spring veggie egg bake

If you have some leafy greens and green onions that you're now a little wary of, consider throwing together a spring veggie egg bake. Basically a quiche with no crust, this recipe calls for baby spinach, asparagus, and green onions — but egg bakes are pretty versatile and a good way to use up whatever's floating around in your produce drawer. The same goes for your chosen cheese. While the recipe calls for gruyère and mozzarella, cheddar is hardly going to be a bad fit.

Recipe: Spring veggie egg bake

2. Kabocha squash soup

Use up your green onions and bok choy in this simple, quick, and affordable recipe. The only thing you'll want to adjust is when you add the bok choy to the dish. The recipe instructs you to take the soup off the heat before adding the bok choy and covering. However, to ensure it gets to that requisite 158 degrees Fahrenheit, add the Chinese cabbage at the end of the cooking process instead. (The bok choy is also technically optional, so you can skip it, if desired.)

Recipe: Kabocha squash soup

3. Trinidadian curry mango

Purchased mangoes before the cyclospora news hit? What about cilantro? This curry mango recipe, excerpted from the cookbook "Spicebox Kitchen" by Linda Shiue, MD, gives you a delicious excuse to cook up both, rather than eating them raw. While mangoes are currently considered a low-risk fresh fruit for this cyclospora outbreak, they have been linked to cyclospora in the past. For the curry, you'll need partially ripe mangoes, alongside onion, garlic, pepper, cilantro, and an array of spices. Eat it as a side or main dish alongside rice or roti.

Recipe: Trinidadian curry mango

4. Butter braised cabbage fettuccine

There are many ways you can cook cabbage so that it reduces your chances of falling ill from this pesky parasite. Fry it, braise it, roast it, make cabbage rolls — or use it in this fettuccine recipe. During the outbreak experts recommend removing and tossing the outer leaves when preparing cabbage. Additionally, don't skip the coring, quartering, and shaving steps the recipe mentions in favor of using pre-shredded cabbage, as pre-cut produce and coleslaw are both associated with cyclospora.

Recipe: Butter braised cabbage fettuccine

5. Grilled zucchini and peach salad

One unfortunate aspect of this cyclospora outbreak? It's occurring right in mid-summer, when many of us utilize fresh produce in abundant salads or refrigerated desserts. Thankfully, there are still summer-appropriate ways you can use fresh produce, without eating it raw. For instance, throw it on the grill, using this recipe from the cookbook "Zucchini Love" by Cynthia Graubart. However, you'll want to skip the fresh arugula and mint unless it's growing in your garden.

Recipe: Grilled zucchini and peach salad

6. Fruit soda dump cake

Who doesn't love a dump cake? Quick, affordable, and something that no home cook can mess up no matter how green, it's also a great way to use up fresh berries that you don't want to eat raw at this moment. Instead, the berries are baked right into the cake. Beyond your six cups of fresh fruit, the recipe only calls for sugar, flour, lemon juice, a cake mix, and your favorite fruit-flavored soda. 

Recipe: Fruit soda dump cake

7. Fresh fruit crumble

If you're looking for something slightly more elevated than a dump cake (or maybe you just don't care for using processed ingredients like soda and boxed cake mix in your baking projects), perhaps go with a classic, fresh fruit crumble instead. Again, you'll need plenty of berries combined with sugar, cornstarch or flour, and lemon juice in order to make your filling. The topping is made up of a simple mixture of flour, sugar, salt, spices, and butter, and you can incorporate oatmeal or nuts for extra texture.

Recipe: Fresh fruit crumble

8. Homemade jam

Jam is one of those foods that a lot of people assume will be difficult to make at home, and then they're shocked to see just how easy it really is. You can get creative with your jam and use a combination of fruit or stick to a single type, but this particular recipe (from the cookbook "Do Preserve" by Anja Dunk, Jen Gross, and Mimi Beaven) calls for a mixture of cherries, strawberries, and currants. The fruit is thoroughly boiled, which should alleviate your cyclospora worries. 

Recipe: Homemade jam

9. Roasted strawberry crème fraiche ice cream

This recipe is perfect for the current summer season, while still following expert-recommended cooking practices to reduce your chances of falling ill. It consists of extremely decadent ice cream mixed with slow-roasted strawberries. The fresh berries cook in your oven for nearly an hour at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. You will need to purchase an ice cream machine for this recipe if you don't already have one, but you may just find the investment to be worth it.

Recipe: Roasted strawberry crème fraîche ice cream

10. Instant Pot pork chili verde

Looking for a way to put your cilantro and scallions to good use? Make this Instant Pot pork chili verde — specifically the "weekend" version of the recipe. The cilantro and scallions go into a homemade salsa verde, which you'll then pour over sauteed boneless pork shoulder. This combination cooks in the Instant Pot for just over half an hour. (If you have any leftover salsa verde, just remember not to eat it raw!)

Recipe: Instant Pot pork chili verde

11. Chicken Kiev

If it's an overabundance of fresh parsley that's plaguing you, this chicken kiev recipe may be exactly what you need. While the recipe includes multiple steps, it doesn't require much in the way of ingredients, and none of the steps are all too difficult. However, the resulting bread crumb-coated chicken breast, spiraled around a filling of parsley, garlic, and butter, is absolutely impressive. Do note that this recipe requires some "let this sit in the freezer and come back later" breaks, so you can't throw it together at the last minute on a weeknight. 

Recipe: Chicken Kiev

12. Italian wedding soup

Fresh parsley and leafy greens are cooked to perfection in this Italian wedding soup. A labor of love, with each step taking a from-scratch approach, this definitely isn't a recipe for the lazy home cook. However, if you're adventurous and love to spend leisurely weekend days cooking to your heart's content — you're going to enjoy this one. Once everything's combined, you can allow the soup to simmer so that everything's properly cooked. Just wait to add the pre-cooked egg squares until right before serving so they don't end up over-cooked. 

Recipe: Italian wedding soup

13. Pasta fagioli

Put those leafy greens to work in this recipe for pasta fagioli. It's far less complicated than the above Italian wedding soup recipe, but no less comforting and hearty. The name basically means "pasta and beans," but there's so much more at work here. You've got San Marazano tomatoes, pancetta, spinach or arugula, and up to eight cloves of garlic, among all the seasonings, spices, and cheese. You'll add the greens in the final minutes of cooking, allowing them to simmer and come to temperature, wilting into the broth.

Recipe: Pasta fagioli

14. Skillet chicken thighs with schmaltzy matzo crumble

This is another recipe that will easily use up whatever head of bitter greens you've got hanging around (the suggestion is escarole or curly endive). You're going to want to break out your cast iron skillet to cook fatty chicken thighs to perfection, while your greens cook on the side. The recipe makes full use of the resulting schmaltz, aka rendered chicken fat. You'll use this fat to toast your pieces of matzo, and it will also add extra flavor to the greens.

Recipe: Skillet chicken thighs with schmaltzy matzo crumble

15. Brie spinach-stuffed chicken

For a simple yet visually impressive chicken dish that also utilizes that bag of baby spinach sitting in your produce drawer, try this brie spinach-stuffed chicken. You literally only need five ingredients — chicken, Dijon, mayo, spinach, and brie — plus salt, pepper, and a few toothpicks. (Yes, toothpicks. They hold everything together while the spinach and brie bake inside of a chicken blanket.) This recipe is a great choice if you want a stuffed chicken meal, but you're still a little too intimidated to try your hand at Chicken Kiev.

Recipe: Brie spinach-stuffed chicken

16. Runzas

It's very possible that you've never even heard of runzas. It's a forgivable offense. This regional dish is mostly relegated to Nebraska, where there's even a fast-food chain dedicated to the item. Think of it as a hot pocket but better. It's a sleeve of dough packed with fillings like ground beef, cheese — and, in our case, that cabbage you need to do something with. The cabbage is cooked, alongside the rest of the filling, and then baked in the oven once you add the filling to your dough.

Recipe: Runzas

17. Blueberry clafouti

Pronounced "clah-foo-tee," this is a French specialty with a name that translates as "to fill" — and that's exactly what you're going to do with this dessert. You're going to fill a baking pan with fresh blueberries and a light batter before baking. If you're running out of ways to cook those fresh berries, this recipe (reprinted from "Crumb," by Ruby Tandoh) is a nice breath of fresh air. Maybe it's the French origins. Maybe it's the name that sounds a little more sophisticated than "dump cake." Whatever the case, it's a good pick.

Recipe: Blueberry clafouti

18. Fried curly endive with lemon caper sauce

Admittedly, when you hear that leafy greens are possibly going to leave you ill for days on end, your first instinct may be to throw all those greens — lettuce, collards, kale, endive — in the trash. However, hold off. While iceberg lettuce may be less than desirable when cooked, there are plenty of ways you can cook up other leafy greens beautifully. For example, with this recipe, you can turn raw, bitter endive into a delicious, cooked side dish or main. 

Recipe: Fried curly endive with lemon caper sauce

19. Braised red cabbage

Once again, if it's cabbage that you're worried about, you have many ways to cook it and braised is a classic way to go. Remember — you want to avoid pre-shredded cabbage, as it generally poses a greater contamination risk. You'll also want to remove the outer leaves and toss those. Then, shred the remaining inner parts of the red cabbage and use it alongside a green apple, onion, and a handful of other ingredients to create a sweet and tangy side dish that'll be absolutely awesome alongside your bratwurst.

Recipe: Braised red cabbage

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