Category Archives: Salads

Raw Cauliflower Couscous Salad

Posted on August 18, 2015 | Leave a comment

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If your trying to cut back on calories and get more veggies in your diet, here is a great recipe holding the grains. You can actually imitate the texture of rice and couscous by simply preparing cauliflower using a high powered blender for only a few seconds. Most people don’t eat enough broccoli much less cauliflower but these foods fight cancer! There are many studies linking cauliflower and cruciferous vegetables to preventing bladder, breast, colon, prostate, and ovarian cancers. Steaming or boiling cauliflower which is the most common way of preparing it can destroy most of its precious phyto-nutrients, specifically sulforaphane. The benefit of pulverizing cauliflower raw in the blender is that this process counts as “chopping” which is how sulforaphane is born in broccoli and cauliflower. This is the phyto-nutrient known to fight cancer. So change it up and get more raw with this delicious recipe!

Health benefits of eating more cauliflower:

♥ High in vitamin C
♥ High in B vitamins
♥ High in fiber
♥ High in folate
♥ Builds the immune system
♥ Very low calorie
♥ Super rich in antioxidants
♥ Anti-inflammation
♥ Prevents and fights cancer
♥ Supports digestion
♥ Detoxifies the body

Ingredients

  • 1 head organic cauliflower
  • 2-3 rainbow radishes, minced
  • 2-3 shredded carrots
  • 1 small green bell pepper, minced
  • 1/2 cup purple cabbage, chopped
  • 1/2 cup or more minced flat-leafed parsley (forgot to add it in mine)
  • 2-3 tablespoons vegenaise
  • 2 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 1 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt
  • dash or 2 of pepper

Instructions

1. Add one fully chopped cauliflower into high powered blender and pulverize until shredded. It literally will look like couscous or rice.

shredded cauliflower
2. In a large bowl, mix in all ingredients.

raw couscous mix

Depending on how big your cauliflower was, this recipe makes about 6-8 servings. It can stay fresh stored in the refrigerator for about 2 days. Feel free to add any other spices or ingredients you wish such as cucumbers, olives, sun dried tomatoes, etc. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did! My toddler loved it! 🙂

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by Lupita Ronquillo, holistic nutrition writer

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Posted in Grain Free Ideas, Salads

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Rainbow Vegan Tuna Salad

Posted on June 4, 2015 | Leave a comment

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I used to be a pescatarian before changing to vegan. In case your wondering, a pescatarian is someone who doesn’t eat meat except for fish. My favorites used to be barramundi, tilapia, salmon, and tuna. Its been a long time but frankly I don’t miss it, especially with so many disastrous oil spills we keep hearing about on the news and especially after Fukushima.

Considering all the horrifying contamination events to our oceans just in the past 5 years, I’ll probably never want to eat fish ever again. Everything fish eat, we eat, and the bigger they grow, the bigger the contamination we are exposed to. Shunichi Tanaka, the head of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said radioactive water has been leaking into the Pacific Ocean since the March 2011 earthquake. The disaster has been reported as “the largest single contribution of radionuclides to the marine environment ever observed.” Today over 4 years later, TEPCO has still yet to gain control.

What is the FDA doing to screen for radiation? As of March 10th 2014, the FDA included about 225 seafood samples to monitor for Fukushima contamination and stated Cesium levels were well below the established “standards.” Basically, they concluded there were no public health concerns but do we really want to gamble our health based on random samples?? Probably the biggest question to ask ourselves is can we really trust the FDA and their findings, especially when other sources have reported otherwise. An article from 2 years ago reported that every Bluefin tuna tested off the coast of California was contaminated with Fukushima radiation. Every single one! So no, I don’t trust the FDA.

Ok, enough bad news and on to some good food news. I’m not one to brag but I have to admit, this “tuna” recipe came out great! These ingredients really pulled through and created that perfect plant based tuna flavor I was hoping for. It even smelled like tuna salad! It does contain quite a few ingredients but when your trying to imitate something such as meat or fish, you’ve got to experiment with what you’ve in the kitchen to get the flavors you want. The good part is the ingredients are pretty basic and easy to find, most of them found in every food pantry. 😉

Ingredients

  • 1-15 ounce can organic chickpeas
  • 1/2 cup minced celery
  • 1/2 cup chopped grape tomatoes
  • 1/3 cup chopped black olives
  • 1/3 cup chopped cucumber, peeled
  • 1/4 cup minced red onion
  • 1/4 cup minced cilantro
  • 3 tablespoons dill relish
  • 2 tablespoons Vegenaise
  • 2 tablespoons sprouted pumpkin seeds
  • 1 1/2 tbsp mustard
  • 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 3 dashes of dill

ingredients

Instructions

  1. Drain the chickpeas and empty into a large mixing bowl.
  2. Add in the mustard, Vegenaise, lime juice, and dill.
  3. Smash the beans with a bean masher until all the chickpeas are broken. You can also just use a food processor and pulse the chickpeas a few times before adding them into your bowl.
  4. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until everything is blended.
  5. Your done!

smashingvegan tunaall aboard

You can enjoy this “tuna” mix with a green salad, on whole grain crackers, in a tuna sandwich, or even some “tuna” tacos using organic corn tortillas. If you prefer the mix to be creamier for sandwiches or crackers, simply add a little more Veganaise or avocado to smash in with the chickpeas and finely chop all of the ingredients before mixing them in. As for me, I prefer a chunkier texture but either way I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 🙂

by Lupita Ronquillo, holistic nutrition writer

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Spicy Balsamic Kale Feta Salad

Posted on April 22, 2015 | Leave a comment

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This salad has got it all! Its got the crunch, the spice, the tang, the nutrition, and all the flavors a salad could have, including raw kale! Yes, you read that right but don’t worry if you’ve never eaten raw kale before. If your the type that will only drink it in juices or smoothies, believe me its delicious! There’s a technique to make it “palatable” while keeping it raw that I’ll explain it in this recipe, so you don’t have to worry about any bitterness whatsoever. The “feta style” comes from using Daiya’s block style jalapeno cheese. It really gives it that Greek cheese tang and boldness without being too salty. Who knew eating dark leafy greens could actually be delicious! Here is what you’ll need…

Ingredients

  • 5 large dinosaur kale leaves, stemmed (about 2 cups worth)
  • 3 cups mixed baby greens, swiss chard, kale, spinach
  • 1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, cut in quarters
  • 1 1/2 cups red cabbage, chopped
  • 1 1/2 cup baby portabella mushrooms, lightly chopped
  • 1/2 cup hot pickled jalapeno slices, cut in half
  • 1/3 block Daiya cheese, jalapeno havarti block style
  • 1/3 avocado
  • 1/3 cup fresh cilantro, minced
  • 1/4 cup sliced red onion
  • 1 small lemon, juiced
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 3 tablespoons sprouted pumpkin seeds
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic dressing
  • 2 teaspoons italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon pink salt
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder

kale stemschopped kale2

1. Start by stemming the kale and cut them in one inch square strips. The stems toward the bottom of kale leaves tend to be tough to chew so I left those out. You can save them for juicing if you don’t want them to go to waste because they do have nutrients.

softened kalemixed greens

2. Next, juice your lemon and add into the chopped kale with the salt. Then with washed hands, add your 1/3 avocado and gently start kneading the kale until the avocado has completely coated it. This process with the lemon and salt help to break down kale’s bitter green intensity to a romaine-like leafy texture. Its a messy job but you’ll get younger looking hands and a delicious salad as a reward! The avocado works as the dressing for the kale and also helps to balance out the flavor. Add in the rest of the greens and set aside. This allows time for the kale to absorb the lemon and soften on its own.

chopped cabbagecilantro n cabbage

3. Chop 1 1/2 cups worth of red cabbage and place into a separate bowl. Add the juiced lime, garlic powder, sliced onions, minced cilantro, and your preferred balsamic dressing. I used a brand with no gluten, cholesterol, or sugar. If the one you have has sugar, make sure its not high fructose corn syrup and that its listed as one of last ingredients to minimize the intake. You could also just make your own. Mix everything thoroughly so that the cabbage is saturated with all the ingredients. I also like to do this apart from the greens so that all these flavors could get trapped into the crevices of the cabbage and so they don’t end up at the bottom of the bowl!

mushrooms injalapeno tomatoes ineverything in

4. Now we pile up our kale bowl with the mushrooms, tomatoes, pickled jalapenos, and pumpkin seeds. As you can see, this salad is very “meaty” with lots of different ingredients. It will keep you satisfied a lot longer than having a salad made with mostly iceberg lettuce. Its got protein from the greens, immune boosting vitamin C, tons of phytonutrients, and fat burning benefits from the jalapenos. Your also getting calcium and a dose of B12 from the cheese! I ate a big bowl with a side of roasted potatoes for dinner and was left completed satisfied for the whole night! To finish, toss in your cabbage and the jalapeno cheese and mix everything together. The mixing will gently “crumble” your cheese to give it that “feta style” and flavor. Your done! Enjoy it. Serves 4-6.

by Lupita Ronquillo, holistic nutrition writer

kale salad

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