Asian Salad with Cranberry Dressing

Ever wonder what to do with leftover cranberry sauce? Try this! It's tangy, refreshing, and breaks you out of the standard holiday mode.

Asian Salad

3 cups fresh green beans
2 cups savoy cabbage, chopped
7 radishes, sliced
1/2 red pepper, sliced into thick matchsticks
1 green onion, sliced

In a medium saucepan, bring 4 cups water to boil. Add in green beans and turn heat off. Let the green beans sit until the color brightens, then transfer them to either an ice bath or a colander in the sink with cold running water to stop the cooking process.

Once cooled, add green beans to a large bowl, along with the other veggies. Set aside.

Cranberry Dressing

1/2 cup Ginger-Lime Cranberry Sauce
4 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. cold pressed olive oil
2 Tbsp. cold pressed flax oil
1 tsp. desiccated coconut
1 tsp. raw apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. xylitol
Juice of one lime
pinch salt

In a medium-sized bowl, add all ingredients and whisk until emulsified. Pour into your salad bowl, and toss until coated. Serve! :)

Quinoa-Millet Salad with Ambercup Squash

I went on my weekly (weekendly, to be more accurate) Farmer's Market run today, and I'm so pleased! Among my finds: a huge bunch of kale in different varieties, a bag of fat, juicy carrots, and Roma tomatoes.

At one booth, I saw what I took to be the first pumpkins of the season. The lady who grows them told me that despite the look, they're not actually pumpkins, but a drier, more flavorful winter squash called "Ambercup".

A challenge, if I ever did see one! :D

So this dish is a mildly sweet, protein-rich grain salad. I only used a quarter of the squash, so I'll make a nice creamy soup with the leftovers.


Quinoa-Millet Salad with Ambercup Squash

1/2 cup each quinoa and millet, cooked (can be cooked together!)
2 cups cooked winter squash, chopped
2 kale leaves, chopped fine
1 large carrot, shredded finely
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp. honey or agave
1 1/2 Tb. olive oil
1 tbsp. lemon juice
splash of orange juice (maybe 2 Tbsp.)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
salt to taste

In a food processor, grind sunflower seeds down to a coarse meal. In a large bowl, mix sunflower seeds, kale, and carrots, and toss lightly. Then, add the vinegar, honey, oil, and cinnamon.

Once your quinoa mix and squash are done, throw them into the bowl. Drizzle the lemon and orange over the top, toss, and season to taste. Serve warm! :)

Spicy Mango-Cucumber Salad - Raw

Being in Los Angeles has really made me realize that I'm truly and utterly in love with tropical fruit. Not just coconut, but mangoes, avocados, bananas, and pineapple, among others. That's something I really miss about L.A. - the convenience and availability of tropical fruits. Here, it's all in season essentially year-round, and is easily accessible at a low price. That's one food group that I don't think I could ever give up for the 100 Mile Diet.

So, in the spirit of warmer climates and taking advantage of convenience, I've made this spicy mango and cucumber salad. This salad has two kinds of heat - ginger and cayenne - but the ice cold mango with the crunchy cucumber balances it all out well. Then, topped with the silken cashew cream, this was hot weather heaven in a martini glass.

Spicy Mango-Cucumber Salad

1 mango, chunked
1/2 seedless cucumber, chunked
1/2 inch of ginger, minced, skin on
2 squeezes of lime
1 1/2 Tb. agave (less if the mango is really sweet)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (to taste)

1/2 cup cashew cream, no vanilla

Toss all ingredients together except cashew cream, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. Serve in fun glasses with a drizzle of cashew cream and a slice of ginger.

Warm Beet Salad with Tangy Mustard Dressing

Beets! Ah, how I love thee.

I can still remember the first time I bit into a raw beet (with the tops still on) in front of Jeremy on a road trip. He got very wide-eyed and said "You can DO that?!" He likes raw beets too, but had only ever had them peeled and chopped in salads and things. He took a bite, and ended up eating more than I did. I've turned him to the raw side of the beet! ;)

This salad, however, does not showcase raw beets. At first, I was thinking of making pan-fried beet fries. The more I cooked them, though, the more I thought having a sweet glaze on them would be divine... and it was! Oh, how it was...


Warm Orange-Balsamic Beet Salad

2 large beets, sliced into French-Fry-style strips
1/2 cup salt-free veggie stock
1/2 cup orange juice
3 Tb. balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for frying

baby spinach
orange segments, quartered

In a nonstick skillet, heat olive oil on med-high. Toss in beets, salt, and pepper, and saute for about 5-7 minutes. Start adding the veggie stock in splashes, letting the liquid mostly evaporate before adding more. This should take about 7-10 minutes. If your pan evaporates too quickly, turn the heat down slightly.

Once the veggie stock is gone, do the same with the orange juice, and toward the end, add the balsamic by the tablespoon. When the beets look good and caramelized with a thick glaze, take off the heat.

Add the warm beets to a bed of spinach and orange, and dress with:

Tangy Mustard Dressing

1 Tb. honey or agave
2 tsp. dijon mustard
splash lemon juice

Whisk ingredients together, and drizzle over beets and greens.

Makes two bowls.

Sprouted Buckwheat Tabbouleh

I'm a minimalist when it comes to tabbouleh. I like fresh, raw ingredients, and no sloppy mess like we've probably all had at cheap falafel stands. Tabbouleh (or tabouli) has bulgur wheat, which I was never quite fond of, so I decided to make it with buckwheat. But cooked buckwheat? Meh. I had a good-sized bag of buckwheat, so I decided to sprout it.

When you soak buckwheat, it gets slimy and gooey like flax, but not quite so much goo. I think I rinsed them like five times each rinse/drain cycle just to relieve them of their goo! After about two days though, the buckwheat had thoroughly sprouted, and (much to my excitement) the goo had gone away! They were dry, poky, and beautiful. :)

I also have to admit that I have dreams of galettes (which is a traditional dish of Brittany: like a savory, gluten-free crepe) with sprouted buckwheat, but I believe that's another post. ;)


Sprouted Buckwheat Tabbouleh

1 (thin skinned) cucumber, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1 large tomato, chopped
2 green onions, sliced
1/2 cup parsley, chopped (about a handful)
1 cup sprouted buckwheat
drizzle Extra Virgin olive oil (maybe about a tablespoon)
1 Tb. lemon
Salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Toss all ingredients in a large bowl and enjoy!

It's too bad I didn't have mint on-hand. I would've chopped up a couple sprigs - maybe 2 tablespoons in this dish. I love the crisp, green taste of fresh mint. Mmm...