here is my entry to the super salads challenge
please consider joining in this wonderful healthy challenge
here is the link: @plantpoweronhive/the-brand-new-plant-based-challenge-super-salads
today i am making a super salad starting with:
rucola or arugula
i just picked the rucola from our garden. i love the pungent mustard-like taste of it and it so easy to grow. we got a few plants from a friend last year and they grew like weeds so we enjoyed it until the onset of winter. this spring they came up early and were the first thing we harvested this year. if you think the taste is too bitter, you can just pick the young leaves, they are much milder. anyway rucola gives the salad a nice depth of flavor and are quite decorative as well
Now for the next superfood: red onions. these onions are deliciously mild but when i eat them raw i still slice them quite thin. onions are a real health food. are you familiar with dr zelenko and his anti covid natural medicine? well one of the ingredients in z stack is an antioxidant called quercetin, and sure enough onions are loaded with it. they are also antibacterial, great for your heart, digestion and bone health as well as helping prevent cancer.
oh and here's a tip. wet the knife to avoid getting tears in your salad.
the next ingredient is kale, also fresh from the garden
kale is one of the hardiest vegetables. it can survive several frosts in the autumn and is quick to sprout new leaves in the spring. it is best to use the young leaves as they do tend to get quite tough. whereas i use rucola whole i always finely chop kale when eating it raw. kale is often considered a superfood because of all the nutrients as well as high in fiber but low in fats and calories.
a summer salad without tomatoes is close to unthinkable. i am using cherry tomatoes, sweet, juicy and rich in flavor as well as nutrients. they are yet another superfood packed with nutrients but did you know that the prized red color of tomatoes come from an important antioxidant called lycopene. anyway tomatoes are great for your heart, eyes, lungs, blood vessels and skin. not to mention their taste, so we eat them daily.
my favorite is red peppers. did you know a red bell pepper has twice as much vitamin C as an orange? that fact alone qualifies it as a superfood but there are plenty of other nutrients as well. but when a nice juicy red pepper reaches my tongue, it is not the health benefits that come to mind. green ones aren't all that bad either but when i can i go for the red ones.
and now for the corn. while we often consider corn a vegetable it is actually a grain in the same family as wheat, rice and oats. that family is incidentally, the grass family. whole grains, including corn have three edible nutrient rich layers- the germ. the endosperm and the bran, each layer having different vitamins and minerals. corn adds substance to the salad, and of course the bright yellow color makes the salad all the more appetizing and appealing.
accompanying the corn are some freshly cooked chick peas. the proteins of the corn and chick peas are complementary, meaning that while they each are strong in some amino acids, they are weak in others, but fortunately they complement each other so when eaten together they provide all the essential amino acids we all need. chick peas have loads of health benefits but just to name one they help regulate blood sugar levels. and to top it off, they make the salad more substantial as a meal and taste good too. as far as looks goes, they are not too shabby either.
some chopped scallions do more than spice up the salad. in addition to sharing many of the health benefits of onions they also have the benefits of green leafy vegetables. that makes them an ideal ingredient to include
of course i throw in some slices of cucumber. they are so refreshing and being 96% water are perfect for a salad on a warm summer day. the remaining 4 % is where the nutrition is so don't overlook these guys. just a note on the peel. for years cucumbers were sold here wrapped in plastic. recently in an attempt to reduce plastic consumption the wholesalers have dropped the plastic. kudos to them for that. some places, instead of plastic, the peels are waxed. that means it is wise to peel them instead of eating the wax. unfortunately the peel is where much of the nutrition lies. so look for cukes that are not waxed and not in plastic. if they are not available, talk to your grocer about it.
now for some avocado another ideal summer superfood. avocados are among the most nutrient dense foods you can get. and yet it is fruit. there are plenty of things to highlight in an avocado but i will just mention the high quality fat. it is the good kind- monounsaturated, the fat that helps lower bad cholesterol. the avocado helps make the salad more filling, turning it into a light meal in itself.
no need for any dressing here, all that is required to give the salad a little more tang is some lime juice. now don't get me started on the health benefits of limes. do you know what a limey is? well back in the days of sailing ships, sailors who were at sea for months at a time often suffered from scurvy. in the 1800s when it was discovered that scurvy was caused by the deficiency of vitamin C, british sailors were given so much lime juice that they started "fondly" being referred to as limeys. limes are much more than vitamin C but enough about nutrition. i am getting hungry.
i sprinkled the salad with a little himalayan pink salt and added a couple of chives and peppercorns for effect and that completes my super salad. according to ayurvedic principles. a balanced diet contains all six flavors: sweet, salt, sour, pungent, bitter and astringent. this salad has them all.
