Salads
Salad Dressings
This is less of a recipe than it is an insight into how I might prepare a dressing. Remember that high magnesium foods like these greens can keep unwanted bacteria low in a healthy (alkaline) small intestinal environment. Magnesium doesn’t alter the bacteria in the large intestine as it is very acidic in there. But in an alkaline environment these greens can help us keep our clostridium, E. coli, enterobacter just in the right proportions.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups mixed greens: plantain, spinach, arugula, parsley
- 2 TBSP nut butter or flax oil (optional)
- 1 medium avocado OR 2/3 C soaked nuts
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1⁄2 cup water
- 1 clove garlic
- pinch cayenne (optional)
Instructions:
Blend everything in your high-speed or personal blender. If you don’t have room for all the greens blend half and then add the rest. This recipe also works with a bit of cucumber or even zucchini in place of some of the greens. Yum! Make sure to taste for saltiness and sourness and adapt to your own preferences. Let me know what you made in the comments and how you adapted this for YOU!
Photo caption: Here is a photo of one of the salads I made on the road. There were plenty of edible flowers to pick so the salad looks gorgeous. Just use whatever you have on hand, yours will be pretty too!
This weeks’ recipe was designed to be rich in lemon and dill to balance out the flavours of some of the saltier sea vegetables. If you are not using sea vegetables in your salad you may wish to add a pinch more salt. I have worked to balance the omega 3 and 6 fatty acids in this dressing as well as adding some ingredients specifically for the trace minerals. You can use this as a dip if you don’t have any plates or cutlery or, if like me, you just don’t want to do dishes. The omega three oils actually encourage a good balance of bacteria in our large intestines, that colony that produce the short chain fatty acids themselves. Where proteins and saturated fats discourage these bacteria the omega 3 oils have been shown to increase them. The phytonutrients from the sea vegetables go a long way to feeding these bacteria too if you can get your hands on them!(read more…)
Ingredients
- ½ cup cashews
- ¼ cup sun-dried tomato
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 whole lemon, juiced
- 1 teaspoon Himalayan Salt
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red onion
- ¼ cup fermented vegetables of your choice, optional
Instructions
Preparation: Soak the 1/4 C sun-dried tomatoes in 1/3 cup water for 20 minutes or more until they are soft enough to blend
Soak the cashews in water to cover for 20 minutes or more until they are more easy to blend
Drain the tomatoes and cashews, reserving the soak water from only the sun-dried tomatoes
Blend all ingredients until smooth, leaving out the fermented veggies and minced red onion
Stir in minced onion and fermented veggies (optional)
Taste for seasonings and adjust
You can make this even better for your microbiome by fermenting your own pickles or replacing the cashews with a 1/2 C of your own yogurt
Strong Mama Superfood Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/3 C cultured almond cheese (good for the bacteria!)
- 1/3 C flax oil
- juice of 3 limes
- 2/3 C spring water
- 2″ turmeric root
- 1/2 t chipotle powder
- 2 T miso
- 2 T Muira Puama (optional)
- Trace minerals or other liquid add-ons if you’d like
- 4 drops stevia or two dates
Instructions
Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender. Serve overtop a bed of greens with your favourite kraut if desired.
Salad Fixings
This is less of a recipe than it is an insight into how I might prepare a dressing. Remember that high magnesium foods like these greens can keep unwanted bacteria low in a healthy (alkaline) small intestinal environment. Magnesium doesn’t alter the bacteria in the large intestine as it is very acidic in there. But in an alkaline environment these greens can help us keep our clostridium, E. coli, enterobacter just in the right proportions.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups mixed greens: plantain, spinach, arugula, parsley
- 2 TBSP nut butter or flax oil (optional)
- 1 medium avocado OR 2/3 C soaked nuts
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1⁄2 cup water
- 1 clove garlic
- pinch cayenne (optional)
Instructions:
Blend everything in your high-speed or personal blender. If you don’t have room for all the greens blend half and then add the rest. This recipe also works with a bit of cucumber or even zucchini in place of some of the greens. Yum! Make sure to taste for saltiness and sourness and adapt to your own preferences. Let me know what you made in the comments and how you adapted this for YOU!
Photo caption: Here is a photo of one of the salads I made on the road. There were plenty of edible flowers to pick so the salad looks gorgeous. Just use whatever you have on hand, yours will be pretty too!
I often keep salad toppers in my purse just in case I end up eating somewhere strange and opt for the salad. I have been known to keep a lemon in my purse too so that I would have everything I need to uplevel my salads in unknown places. This salad topper is also great to have on the table in a jar, replacing salt for everyday lunches and dinners.
This topper is ultra-lightweight and a little goes a long way so just a couple of tablespoons in a small container can turn your salad from blah to bam instantly and doesn’t cost any energy to carry around.
I have listed this recipe in “parts” rather than quantities so that you can make as much or little as you need.
This salad topper takes advantage of the mineral rich benefits and flavours of sea vegetables
Salad Topper Ingredients
3 parts dulse flakes
1 part kelp flakes
2 parts nutritional yeast
*optional pinch of cayenne or smoked paprika
*optional garlic or onion powder
(I use both optional ingredients, my favourite is with the smoked paprika)
Instructions
Mix everything by hand in a bowl, store in a container and sprinkle over salad
Salads
Salad Ingredients
- 2 cups arugula, torn or chopped
- 2 cups spinach, torn or chopped
- ½ cup avocado, chopped
- ½ cup mango, chopped
- 3 tablespoons walnut, chopped fine
- ¼ cup red onion, 10-12 thin slices
Dressing Ingredients
- 1 whole orange, juiced
- ½ cup tomato, chopped
- ½ cup avocado, chopped
- ¼ cup mango, chopped
- 1 pinch Himalayan Salt, to taste
- 1 teaspoon mustard, prepared
Instructions
*If the mango is too sweet for you it is replaceable with green apple or shredded carrot
*Make this dressing probiotic by adding coconut or orange kefir instead of fresh orange juice
Onion: Slice the onion thinly and to reduce acidity if desired soak the slices in water while you prepare the other ingredients.
Dressing: Blend dressing ingredients, adding water if necessary to achieve the desired consistency. Taste dressing for salt/seasonings and adjust if necessary.
Salad: Place chopped arugula, onion, mango and avocado in a bowl and toss. Top with dressing and sprinkle with chopped walnuts to garnish.
This salad features arugula, spinach, garlic, spirulina, nori, pumpkin, sunflower and hemp seeds for some of those essential minerals and amino acids for healthy serotonin and dopamine production. Our digestive motility is regulated by serotonin along with our digestive enzymes and fluids. It is important to have healthy minerals for stomach acid production and to support these neurotransmitters in the gut for small intestinal bacterial balance.
t = teaspoon
T = tablespoon
C = cup
Arugula Sea Salad
Ingredients
1/2 cup hemp seeds
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 green onions, chopped
2 T red onion, chopped fine
1 T capers (optional)
1 clove garlic
1 t spirulina
2 T nori pieces (torn, cut with scissors or preformed into sheets, torn)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sunflower cashew cheese, optional
6 cups mixed spinach and arugula
Instructions
Blend together the hemp seeds, apple cider vinegar, garlic and spirulina until smooth
Pulse in chopped green and red onions and capers (if using)
Stir in sunflower/cashew cheese if using to create a chunky texture
Serve your chunky blue “cheese” dressing on top of arugula and spinach and top with nori as a garnish for a tasty sea salad!
