Instagram
YouTube
Get Started! How To Make? — A Simple Salad — A Richer Salad — A Baroque Salad!
Ingredients: (1) Leafy Greens, (2) Fruits & Berries, (3) Rainbow Veggies, (4) Herbs & Spices, (5) Lime, Lemon & Vinegar, (6) Beans for Salad, (7) Starch Rich Ingredients for Salad: Plantains, Tubers, and Whole Grains, (8) Dressings, Chutneys, Relishes & Salsa.
(1) STARCH RICH: Mostly ripe plantains. Sometimes, sweet potatoes. Sometimes frozen sweet corn. If we're tweaking this recipe to make an 'almost raw salad', we can steam or bake or microwave sweet potatoes in their whole form, then dice them into pieces. Sweet potatoes are very tasty and nourishing.
(2) LEAFY GREENS: Super important! In copious amounts. Any combination of mixed greens, dandelion greens, green lettuce, red lettuce, romaine lettuce, radish leaves, kale, collards, radicchio, and so on.
(3) RAINBOW VEGGIES: Tomato and cucumber are added daily. Plus any combination of zucchini, squash, bell peppers, sweet peppers, chayote, jicama, celery, ivy gourd, Armenian gourd, ridge gourd, snake gourd, green beans, … I prefer mildly sweet and juicy veggies.
Carrots, beets and hard squashes are mildly sweet but not juicy. As of today, I don't use them often. But actually, all of these are nutrition rich and I should try to eat more of them. If we're preparing an 'almost raw salad', we can steam carrots, beets and hard squashes — they are super tasty.
(4) FRUITS & BERRIES: 1 sweet fruit (grapes or mango or lychees or something sweet) and 1 sweet-n-sour fruit (an orange, for example). Plus a variety of berries, whatever I have.
(5) FRESH HERBS: Some combination of cilantro, mint, basil, dill, parsley, curry leaves, Thai basil, tarragon, perilla leaves, … whatever I have at home.
(6) MISC: (a) Some mixture of dried herbs and dried spices, (b) Lime, lemon or vinegar, (c) Dulse flakes, (d) Nutritional yeast (sometimes), (e) Salt free mustard.
(7, optional) BEANS: Sprouted beans; sprouted mung beans are my favorite. If we're tweaking this recipe to make an 'almost raw salad', we can add salt-free canned beans (Eden Organics is a great brand) or soaked-n-boiled beans.
(8, optional) WHOLE GRAINS: I rarely add whole grains other than frozen sweet corn. But if we're tweaking this recipe to make an 'almost raw salad', we can add cooked bulgur, cooked quinoa or cooked millets to this salad.
Dressings, chutneys, relishes, salsa: Note that (4), (5) and (6) can be combined in a variety of interesting ways to make delectable oil-free, sugar-free, salt-free dressings! I don't do that. I just grate or mince all ingredients. But if we have a mixer grinder, or a mortar-n-pestle at home, we can make really good dressings or chutneys or relishes or salsa. And if we're willing to incorporate (7) BEANS, we can make interesting bean-based dips (a variety of hummus recipes, or bean pastes).
Can we start with a simple salad and develop it into something baroque over time? Yes! Let's see how.
- Leafy greens: Start off with copious amounts of leafy greens: Romaine lettuce or red lettuce or green lettuce is awesome!
- More leafy greens! Add some other leafy greens like radicchio or dandelion greens or maybe some finely chopped purple cabbage.
-
Starch rich veggies: Add 1 whole ripe plantain and/or sweet corn (frozen or fresh). This is important to make the salad filling. I sometimes use grated or julienned or minced sweet potato.
If we're making an 'almost raw salad', we can add steamed or baked or microwaved sweet potatoes — these are nourishing, delectable and satiating!
-
(optional) Beans, peas & legumes: Optionally, add some sprouted mung beans or any other sprouted beans. Or consider adding some frozen green peas.
If we're making an 'almost raw salad', consider adding canned beans (Eden Organics is a great brand) or soaked-n-boiled beans. Beans are considered an important food group in Whole Food Plant-Based guidelines but some raw vegans don't eat beans.
- Rainbow veggies: Add any combination of mildly sweet & juicy veggies like chayote (finely chopped), ridge gourd, snake gourd, Armenian gourd, cucumber, jicama, … There are many such mildly sweet veggies in the market — I keep experimenting with them.
- Juicy fruits: Add some juicy fruits and berries like peach, sliced grapes, mango, apricot, strawberries, … I try to add at least 1 sweet fruit (mango or lychees or grapes) and 1 sweet-n-sour fruit (plum, orange, …). And any berries I may have.
- Tangy flavor: Add something that introduces a tangy flavor like rhubarb (finely minced), tomato, orange, … Sumac powder (ground sumac berries) is great for this purpose — it's popular in Mediterranean cuisine. Lime, lemon and vinegar will also serve this purpose.
- Seeds: Recently, I started following a very low fat raw vegan system, so I don't add too many seeds. But those who follow a 'low fat' (but not a 'very low fat') Whole Food Plant-Based guidelines may add small quantities of seeds like hempseed, sunflower seeds, and so on. Consider experimenting with Pancha Phoron: A 5-Spice Blend from India. It has five seeds: cumin seeds ('jeera'), fenugreek seeds ('methi seeds'), black cumin seeds ('kalonji'), fennel seeds ('saunf') and mustard seeds ('rai'), mixed in 1:1:1:1:1 proportion.
- Fresh herbs: Cilantro, mint, parsley, curry leaves, … whatever we have at home.
- Dried herbs & spices: Add mixtures like lemon-pepper, Herbs de Provence or any spice mixture we like.
- Lime, lemon, vinegar: In any combination. They enhance the taste significantly.
In the sections below, we go through each component in more detail.
gurmeet@gmail.com