Salad Days

A blended salad is a mixture of raw, leafy greens and other foods blended together to make a smooth, creamy drinkable “salad.” Sometimes they are sweet-tasting (and then I like to call them green smoothies); sometimes they are savory. This morning, I had a hankering for something with a bit of kick, so I came up with this vegetable cocktail. A bit of horseradish and black pepper give it some bite.

(Side note: If you’ve never made a blended drink with green vegetables before, you may be turned off by the color. I promise you, though, one sip and you will be a convert!)

Blended V6 Salad
Serves 1

3 roma tomatoes
1 stalk celery
1 carrot
1/2 bell pepper
1 green onion
1 handful fresh spinach
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon horseradish
5 ice cubes

Roughly chop the veggies and put them in a high powered blender with the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth.

Nutrition: 153 cal.; 2g fat (8.4% calories); 6g protein; 35g carbs; 10g fiber
Exchanges: 6 1/2 vegetables

Nutritional Wisdom:

Blending your salad increases the absorption of the nutrients in the vegetables. This is because plants contain a large amount of cellulose, which humans cannot break down. If we eat cellulose-rich, raw veggies (especially greens) without thoroughly masticating them, we lose much of the food value. When we simply chew a salad, about seventy to ninety percent of the cells are not broken open. As a result, most of the valuable nutrients contained within those cells never enter our bloodstream. Blending raw vegetables breaks open the cellulose and guarantees that a higher percentage of nutrients will be absorbed into our bloodstream for our bodies to use.

Blending vs. Juicing? Juicing vegetables is good, but blending them is better. With juicing, you retain many of the phytochemicals and other nutrients but lose the valuable lignans, fatty acids, and amino acids that are bound to the cell membranes. The cellulose and other plant fibers contained in blended salads are also an added benefit. Eating whole food gives you complete nutrition!