When I asked Dr. Antonia Trichopoulou, a Mediterranean diet expert, how I could get the small American city of Albert Lea, Minnesota—famous for meatpacking—to eat more vegetables, I knew I had come to the right person. We were sitting at Thea’s Guesthouse, in front of one of her amazing spreads of Ikarian cuisine. Dr. Trichopoulou paused for a moment and then gestured to the food and said, “Feed them.”

I had my marching orders, so I searched for a recipe that people would like. Several months later, I invited the entire city of Albert Lea to dinner. More than 2,200 people showed up as chefs demonstrated how to make this Ikarian stew in two enormous boiling cauldrons. For these people, vegetables were typically the orange flecks you see in Hamburger Helper. I was nervous to serve them a 100 percent plant-based meal. Less than an hour later, the two pots were completely empty and the city had taken its first step to changing its diet for the better.

After just one year, participants added an estimated 2.9 years to their average life span, while health care claims for city workers dropped 49 percent. This city experiment was the pilot for what is now Blue Zones Project, which has expanded to 47 communities across the United States.

Here’s the exact recipe, which also happens to be one of our reader favorites.