Salad Days

Sometimes I stumble across a recipe or idea for a salad that sounds so bizarre, I just have to try it. That’s what happened today when I started looking for a quick and easy way to eat the kale I had in my refrigerator. Turns out vegans all over the blogosphere are ga-ga for raw kale salad. Yup, you read that right. RAW kale in a salad.

The technique for softening kale is pretty simple - messy, but simple. Just combine it with some oil and salt and rub it with your hands until it wilts. Once that’s done, add whatever flavoring inspires you. I’m not a huge fan of oil. I’d rather eat the whole food (olives vs. olive oil, walnuts instead of walnut oil, sesame seeds instead of sesame seed oil, etc.), so I replaced some of the oil I’d seen listed in other recipes with avocado. For flavor I added some shelled edamame and a salsa.

Bon appetit!

Raw Kale Avocado Salad with Salsa
Serves 1

3 ounces kale (about 1/2 bunch), cut into 1” pieces
1 tablespoon olive or grapeseed oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 avocado
1/2 cup shelled edamame
1 cup fresh tomato salsa

Combine the kale, oil, salt and avocado in a big bowl and rub it with your hands until the avocado is mixed in and the kale “wilts.” Add the edamame and salsa, and stir to combine.

Per Serving: 534 Calories; 33g Fat (52.3% calories from fat); 22g Protein; 45g Carbohydrate; 19g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 1452mg Sodium. 
Exchanges: 4 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 5 1/2 Fat.

Nutritional wisdom: Kale is one of the most nutrient-dense foods we can eat. Take a look at the following table, which compares the nutrients in a 100-calorie portion of broccoli, steak, lettuce, and kale. Carnivores take note: kale has more protein, more iron, more fiber, more calcium, pretty much more of everything than meat.

Today’s salad is inspired by all of the crisp, fragrant Washington apples that finally made their way into grocery stores around here. Pick your favorite variety and go to town!

Apple-Edamame Salad
Serves 1-2

Salad greens
1/2 apple, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/3 - 1/2 cup frozen edamame (thaw 1 minute in microwave)
1/2 - 1 oz walnuts, chopped
1-2 Tbsp raisins
1 Tbsp flavored vinegar

Pack as many salad greens into a bowl as will fit. Add everything else on top.

Nutritional Wisdom

You’ll notice that many of my salad recipes do not include oil or have very little of it in the dressings. Many people think oil is good for them, particularly olive oil. I’d like to counter this notion with a few thoughts…

To be a food, something must be able to support healthy life and be of some benefit. The best foods for our bodies have the highest ratio of nutrients (vitamins and minerals) to calories. Junk food, on the other hand, is a food that is high in calories (and/or fat, sugar, salt) and has little, if any, nutrient value.

Oil is a highly refined processed and extracted “product”. It has no protein or essential amino acids (which we need), it has no carbohydrates (which we need), it has no fiber (which we need), it has no minerals (which we need) and has virtually no vitamins (which we need) except for a small amount of Vit E and some phytosterols. Worse yet, most oils have high ratios of omega 6 (which most of us need to lower) to omega 3 (which most of need more of). So, basically you are getting lots of calories (oils has almost 2.5 x more calorie per TB than sugar), lots of omega 6s, some saturated fat (depending on the oil), and virtually no nutrients. By definition, oil is more junk than food.

Some people have pointed out to me that studies show olive oil is healthy. This is simply untrue. Those studies compare vegetable oils, like olive oil, to the fats in meat. Olive oil, in these studies, might be slightly better than the saturated fat in meat but it is far from a healthy food.

We should treat oil for what it really is. Junk. Pure and simple. Treat it like the junk food it really is and consume it sparingly.

I’m not advocating eliminating fat. We certainly need it for a properly functioning body. We should focus our consumption of fat, however, on healthy fats - those found in food in their natural state, such as whole seeds, nuts, avocados, etc.

Why have the same mayonnaise-laden tuna when you can make a light, fresh salad that won’t hold you back while you chase the kids around the yard?

Salad al Tonno
Serves 2-4

1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
8 cups chopped hearts of romaine
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed green olives
2 6-ounce cans chunk light tuna, drained

Whisk lemon juice, oil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add romaine, tomatoes and olives; toss to coat. Add tuna and toss again.

Nutritional Wisdom
Canned white tuna comes from the large albacore and can be high in mercury content. Chunk light tuna, on the other hand, which comes from smaller fish, skipjack or yellowfin, is best for health-conscious eaters. According to a recent study, canned white tuna samples averaged about 315 percent more mercury than chunk light tuna samples.