Healthy Salads
Alive with Enzymes and an Abundance of Nutrients

Salads are an important part of every healthy eating plan. They can be side dishes or the main course. They can be simple or elegant. Put together with healthy ingredients, salads are abundant with life-giving nutrition.

Some salads can be put together quickly, some take a little more time. Some tools that help make salad preparation easier include:

Fruits and vegetables should be washed thoroughly before cutting up into the salad.

Drying lettuce and greens in a salad spinner before putting into a salad bowl will eliminate water residue from the salad bowl, keep the salad crisper and prevent rust from forming on the lettuce if the salad is stored.

Using a food processor for salad preparation will help speed up preparation time.

Here are some of my favorite salad recipes.

You should always have at least 5 different vegetables in your tossed salad.

Choose 2 or 3 different greens:
Romaine lettuce
Red Leaf
Green Leaf
Spinach
Dandelion greens
Watercress
Salad mix, etc.

Choose 4 or more vegetables:
Carrots
Celery
Radishes
Onion
Jicama
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Beets
Zucchini
Butternut squash
Bell peppers
Sprouts
Avocado

Choose a nut or seed (optional):
Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
Slivered almonds

Choose your favorite beans (optional):
Black beans
Pinto beans
Red beans
Kidney beans

Break greens into bite-sized pieces. Shred, chop or cut up vegetables. Combine all in a large bowl and toss.

Dress individual servings to taste with:
1Tbsp. or less extra virgin olive oil
1-3 tsp. raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar
Celtic sea salt
Dulse granules
powdered garlic
Italian herbs

Just dress as much as you will eat and put the rest in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator. The salad will stay fresher and crisper if you dress it as you use it.

1 cup carrots, shredded
1 cup turnips, shredded
1 cup butternut squash, shredded
1 cup beet roots, shredded
2 Tbsp. onion, chopped
½ cup red or green bell pepper, chopped
1 small clove garlic, minced
¼ cup cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp. raw sunflower seeds

Combine all ingredients and toss with 1-2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil and 1-2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice, dulse granules, cayenne pepper (optional) and Celtic sea salt. Serve over a bed of fresh lettuce.

1 cup carrots, shredded
1 cup zucchini, shredded
2 cups green or red cabbage, shredded
2 Tbsp. onion, chopped
½ cup red or green bell pepper, chopped
1 small clove garlic, minced
¼ cup cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp. raw pumpkin seeds

Combine all ingredients and toss with 1-2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil and 1-2 Tbs. fresh lime juice, dulse granules, Italian herbs and Celtic sea salt.

1 large cucumber, peeled if not organic
1 small tomato
¼ cup sliced onion
1 Tbsp. raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar
Celtic sea salt to taste
Dulse granules to taste

Combine all ingredients and let sit for 15-30 minutes before serving.

Although these recipe books are not strictly salad books, you'll be sure to find many delicious recipes for healthy salads here:

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
This book "offers modern families a fascinating guide to wise food choices and proper preparation techniques. Sally Fallon unites the wisdom of the ancients with the latest independent and accurate scientific research in over 700 delicious recipes that will please both exacting gourmets and busy parents." It contains nutrition information and recipes, valuable to both non-vegetarians and vegetarians.

FOODS THAT HEAL by Bernard Jensen
This book contains a wealth of information about healthy foods, including the nutrients contained in and the therapeutic value of most of the fruits and vegetables. The last 85 pages of the book is a collection of tasty, healthy recipes.

Ayurvedic Cooking For Westerners by Amadea Morningstar
You don't have to be interested in Ayurveda to enjoy the recipes in this book. But if you are, there is some basic information about the Ayurvedic philosophy and classifying yourself into one of the constitutional types.