Springtime Salad from the Garden
Nature's Hearth Blog
Your Nourishing Kitchen
Select Your Favorite Farm Foods & Wild Harvest
&
Juice,
Blend,
Chop!
Making Meals with Traditional Foods
Adhering to the Principles of Holistic Health and WAPF Dietary Guidelines
Springtime Salad from the Garden
Raw food, like a fresh salad, replenishes your digestive enzymes, furnishes an array of vitamins and minerals, and provides needed fiber. The fiber in a salad can complement protein fat foods that have virtually no fiber, such as seafood, meat, and milk products. Fiber stimulates peristalsis, the wave-like movements which gradually advance a meal through the digestive system. Being alkaline-forming, vegetables are also pH balancing when eaten with protein fat which is acid-forming.
Building a Salad
A variety of organic leafy green vegetables, such as spring greens, romaine lettuce, arugula, endives, radicchio, and watercress make a great foundation for a salad.
Organic, mechanically cold-pressed olive oil, rich in healthy fats and antioxidants, makes an excellent base for creating delicious salad dressings. Here is a remarkably high quality source: Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil.
Next, freshly squeezed organic lemon juice or apple cider vinegar; fresh herbs, such as oregano, marjoram, and thyme; and a pinch of sea salt, can nicely complete your salad dressing. Raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar with the “mother” sediment that develops during fermentation includes enzymes and probiotics that promote healing, described here by the Gerson Institute. The herbs you choose can make each of your salad dressings a unique creation. Herbs can be clipped with kitchen scissors, finely chopped with a chef’s knife, or ground with a pestle and mortar. In this case, unlike more delicate leafy green vegetables, you may want to crush fresh herbs for the salad dressing, because breaking their cell walls will release their distinct nutrients, flavors, and inviting aroma.
Raw food, like a fresh salad, replenishes your digestive enzymes, furnishes an array of vitamins and minerals, and provides needed fiber. The fiber in a salad can complement protein fat foods that have virtually no fiber, such as seafood, meat, and milk products. Fiber stimulates peristalsis, the wave-like movements which gradually advance a meal through the digestive system. Being alkaline-forming, vegetables are also pH balancing when eaten with protein fat which is acid-forming.
Building a Salad
A variety of organic leafy green vegetables, such as spring greens, romaine lettuce, arugula, endives, radicchio, and watercress make a great foundation for a salad.
- Note: Tearing leafy greens by hand, into bite size pieces, will retain their integrity and crispness. Tearing by hand, the leaves naturally break along their outer cell walls, whereas chopping them with a knife cuts into the cell walls, exposing their inner tissue to the air and causing them to wilt more easily.
- Note: Gemini Award winning Chef Mike Ward illustrates how to safely and effectively use kitchen knives to prepare vegetables, using three kinds of knives (Chef’s, serrated, pairing) and three cutting styles (cross-chopping, tap cut, rocking cut) to get you through 95% of anything you will be faced with in the kitchen.
Organic, mechanically cold-pressed olive oil, rich in healthy fats and antioxidants, makes an excellent base for creating delicious salad dressings. Here is a remarkably high quality source: Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil.
Next, freshly squeezed organic lemon juice or apple cider vinegar; fresh herbs, such as oregano, marjoram, and thyme; and a pinch of sea salt, can nicely complete your salad dressing. Raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar with the “mother” sediment that develops during fermentation includes enzymes and probiotics that promote healing, described here by the Gerson Institute. The herbs you choose can make each of your salad dressings a unique creation. Herbs can be clipped with kitchen scissors, finely chopped with a chef’s knife, or ground with a pestle and mortar. In this case, unlike more delicate leafy green vegetables, you may want to crush fresh herbs for the salad dressing, because breaking their cell walls will release their distinct nutrients, flavors, and inviting aroma.
Amy Wing, Holistic Health Educator,
Nature’s Hearth
Website: www.naturesheart.net
Email: ajw.habitat@gmail.com
Nutrition In a Nutshell, LLC © 2011 - 2021. All Rights Reserved.