The oldest family in the history of the Earth would eat the same meal every single day, with experts billing it as one of the secrets to their long lives. And the dish is incredibly easy to make using many ingredients you will already have at home.
Back in 2012, the Melis family made the history books after being placed in the Guinness World Records for having the oldest recorded set of siblings in the history of humanity.
Coming in at a whopping 861 combined years, the Italian family, who live in the highlands of Sardinia, became entrenched in the history of our species. A total of nine living siblings made up the years averaging out at an age of 95 each.
The eldest of the lot was Consolata Melis, who was 108 years old when she died in 2015. And when speaking about her long life three years earlier, Consolata praised one thing for her many years: the same old lunch she had every single day of her adult life.
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What did the Melis family eat?
Last year, the Melis siblings featured on a Netflix documentary series entitled Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, following US writer Dan Buettner as he visited the world's five 'blue zones'.
A blue zone is an area of the world where people are claimed to live longer than on average. And one of these blue zones is Sardinia, where the Melis' clan call home.
While in Sardinia, Buettner made the very same meal that Consolata praised for her long life. We're talking about three bean minestrone soup with sourdough bread.
"Every day of their life they had the same meal for their lunch," he said.
"A sourdough bread, a three bean minestrone soup - a chunky minestrone with garden vegetables. It always had three beans; a garbanzo, a pinto and a white bean. And then they had a small glass of red wine. I'm talking a two to three-ounce glass. Now this wasn't because 'my diet requires me to do it'. No, they loved it."
Melis minestrone soup recipe
The Melis family's minestrone soup is an incredibly easy dish to make and one you might appreciate now we're getting to the cold, winter months where a solid hearty meal hits the right spot.
Buettner said: "Minestrone is simply a soup made from available garden vegetables, beans, and grain (usually a type of pasta).
"The combination yields a delicious one-bowl meal that is high in protein and most importantly, a potpourri of fibres and fuel your microbiome."
Ingredients include:
- 1/3 lbs dry garbanzo beans
- 1/3 lbs dry white beans
- 1/3 lbs dry pinto or red beans
- 1.5 cups of cubed potatoes
- Six to eight cups of water or veg stock if you like it richer in flavour
- One medium onion, chopped
- Five stalks of celery, chopped
- Five carrots, chopped
- Eight cloves garlic, chopped
- One bay leaf
- One tsp oregano
- Two tbs olive oil
- One tsp red or black pepper (red makes it hotter)
- One - 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes or 5 Roma tomatoes
- Salt to taste
How to cook
Buettner recommends soaking the beans overnight. Instead of this, you can use canned beans ready to go.
He then sautés all of the veg in olive oil on a low heat until the onions cook clear. After this, he will add the beans and a tin of tomatoes, alongside the potatoes, oregano, and bay leaf. Slow cook until beans are tender.
Buettner will let his stew on a low heat all day, keeping an eye on the water level so it doesn't get too thick or thin.
Samantha Cassetty, a New York City dietitian, previously told Today.com that the people on Earth who live the longest 'tend to eat half a cup of beans daily'.
Sounds like an easy one to bring into our diets.
Topics: Food And Drink, Health, World News, Netflix
Tom Earnshaw