Raw-Food Cuisine

Salads are an easy and tasty way to get healthy raw greens, vegetables and whole-food fats into our diets. When eating salads daily, however, it can be difficult to achieve enough variety to keep them interesting. Sometimes people try to include more veggies in their salads for variety, but if you always include six different vegetables in your salad, you are probably eating the same salad each night! It works better to limit the number of ingredients in a salad—that way you can create a totally different salad every time. Here’s a simple three-step process to creating fabulous new salads every night of the week.

STEP ONE: BUILD YOUR SALAD

FIRST, choose one, two, or at most three greens or vegetables. Make sure you cut or prepare your greens and vegetables attractively—see the list below for tips.

SECOND, if desired, choose one acid fruit to add to your salad. This is optional.

THIRD, if desired, choose one added fat source to toss in your salad. This is optional. If you do add fat directly to the salad, make sure you use less fat in the dressing, and/or a smaller amount of dressing.

Greens and vegetables to choose from:

Lettuce and other tender greens. Choose romaine, butter lettuce, green leaf lettuce, mesclun greens, Boston lettuce, spinach, arugula, frissé, radicchio, and/or endive. Remove wilted outer leaves from the lettuce head. Separate, wash, and spin dry lettuce leaves or blot dry with paper towels. Leave whole or tear into bite sized pieces.

Green leafy sprouts. Choose alfalfa sprouts, red clover sprouts, sunflower greens, or buckwheat lettuce. Simply wash and spin dry. You may wish to chop sunflower greens and buckwheat lettuce into smaller pieces and/or remove the stems.

Sliced or chopped cucumbers. Slice thinly by hand or with a V-slicer into rounds or half-moons. Alternately, de-seed and chop into a dice.

Sliced or grated celery. Slice thinly, or grate using the shredding attachment of a food processor.
Sliced, diced, or grated red bell pepper. Slice into rings or strips, dice, or grate using the shredding attachment of a food processor.

Sliced or grated zucchini. Slice thinly into rounds or half-moons. Or, julienne with a V-slicer or grate using the shredding attachment of a food processor.

Shredded or chopped broccoli. Grate using the shredding attachment of a food processor. Or, pulse-chop, using the S-blade of a food processor.

Shredded or chopped cauliflower. Grate using the shredding attachment of a food processor. Or, pulse-chop, using the S-blade of a food processor.

Shredded kale, collards, or chard. De-stem leaves, stack a few leaves, roll-up, and thinly slice into shreds. Or, tear leaves and pulse-chop using the S-blade of a food processor.

Shredded cabbage. Quarter and core cabbage. Shred with a knife or V-slicer, or with the 1 or 2 mm slicing blade of a food processor.

Chopped parsley. Wash parsley and blot dry with paper towels. Remove stems from leaves. Chop or mince leaves with a knife or pulse-chop using the S-blade of a food processor.

Acid fruits to choose from:

Strawberries. Slice thinly.

Oranges, tangerines, or grapefruit. Peel using a serrated knife, then section into segments.
Kiwi. Peel using a serrated knife, and slice thinly.

Mangoes. Peel and slice thinly.

Sliced or chopped tomatoes. Slice tomatoes thinly into rounds or half-moons. Or, de-seed, and chop into a dice. Halve cherry tomatoes. Soak sundried tomatoes for 2 hours, drain, and thinly slice.

Added fats to choose from:

Avocado. Chop or thinly slice.

Olives. Pit, and leave whole, halve, slice, or chop.

Nuts and seeds. Toss in a few whole or chopped nuts/seeds. Choose from walnuts, pecans, macadamias, almonds, pinenuts, pistachios, sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds.

STEP TWO: DRESS FOR SUCCESS

FIRST, choose one or two acid fruits. When using citrus, you can either juice the fruit, or just toss a whole piece of the fruit into your blender.

Then, simply whisk your ingredients by hand or blend them in a blender with enough water to thin. If using fresh herbs, mince by hand and pulse into the blender last, after blending other ingredients. That's it!

Acid fruits to choose from: strawberry, pineapple, lemon, lime, orange, tangerine, grapefruit, raspberry, kiwi, mango, fresh tomato, soaked sundried tomato

Whole-food fats to choose from: avocadoes, olive oil, young fresh coconut, tahini, sesame seeds, almond butter, blanched almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cashews, pinenuts, pistachios, pecans, walnuts.

Optional seasonings to choose from: shoyu or tamari, miso, sea salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, dijon mustard, fresh minced onion, fresh minced garlic, onion powder, garlic powder.

STEP THREE: PLATE YOUR SALAD

For a casual salad, simply put some dressing in a large mixing bowl, toss with your other ingredients, and lift individual portions into serving bowls.

For a more formal, composed presentation, toss your greens and/or vegetables with your dressing one at a time in a mixing bowl, and group attractively onto a serving plate. Garnish with your acid fruits and/or added fats.

I’ve included the following recipes to get you started, but the fun begins when YOU start to experiment.

1 bunch kale, stems removed
2 tomatoes or 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
15 kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
¼ c pine nuts
4 T olive oil
2 T lemon juice
1/2 t sea salt
1/4 t black pepper

Cut the kale into thin strips, or mince in a food processor. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, and black pepper. Using your hands, toss all ingredients well with dressing in a large mixing bowl. Serve in salad bowls or on salad plates.

Broccoli Slaw with Tahini Dressing
Serves 2

½ head broccoli
1 tomato, sliced
2 Tbsp tahini
Juice of 1 orange

Blend the tahini and orange juice in a food processor. Switch blades to a shreddingblade, and shred the broccoli into the food processor. Remove the blade, and, using a spatula, mix the broccoli with the dressing in the workbowl of the food processor. Place the dressed broccoli on a plate and top with sliced tomatoes.

Celery-bell pepper slaw variation: Make a dressing by processing 2 Tbsp pecans and ½ of a tomato. Switch blades to the shredding blade, and shred in 4 stalks of celery and ½ red bell pepper. Mix well, and mound salad on a plate, topping with tomato slices.

1 head Romaine lettuce, torn
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 ½ c cashews
1 c water
4 t lemon juice
1 t celtic sea salt
1 t each dry onion and garlic powder
¼ c each chopped fresh dill and fresh basil

Blend cashews, water, lemon juice, salt, and onion and garlic powder. Pulse in fresh dill and basil. Toss with salad or serve on the side.

1 head Belgian endive, leaves separated.
Few leaves radicchio, optional
1 grapefruit, peeled and cut into segments
1 avocado, thinly sliced
4 T fresh grapefruit juice
2 T extra virgin olive oil
½ t sea salt
¼ t fresh ground black pepper
½ t dijon mustard

Whisk together grapefruit juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and dijon mustard. Toss endive and radicchio separately in dressing. On individual serving plates, layer the following: radicchio leaves, endive leaves, grapefruit segments, and avocado slices. Drizzle with additional dressing.