How to Make a Super Salad
Before we dig into the nitty-gritty of how to make a super salad let's get some background from Leslie Kenton on raw foods and why they are such an important part of your daily diet.
Leslie says that doctors and scientists working with raw foods to restore health and normal weight to patients have long been aware that living foods such as fresh raw fruits and vegetables, and life-generating foods such as seeds and sprouts are extremely beneficial for reducing fat deposits.
When consumed on a daily basis these raw foods:
-> encourage detoxification,
-> heighten enzyme activity,
-> improve cellular metabolism,
-> encourage fat-burning.
She says that eating raw foods encourages the biochemical functions in your body to return to normal. Fostering a high level of health and good looks. That is why, depending on how rapidly you want to loose weight, raw foods should form between 50 and 75 per cent of your diet. She believes that accomplishing this is easier - and more delicious - than you think.
(Note: There are strong indications that you should not loose weight at a rate faster than about 1 kg per week if you intend to keep it off permanently.)
I fully agree with Leslie. Making super salads is easier - and more delicious - than you think. And summer is such a great time to experiment with salads.
While it's not essential that you base one of your meals each day purely on a raw salad, it is the best possible way to get optimal support for rebuilding your cells and tissues, rebalancing your biochemical processes and restoring normal metabolism.
Are you ready for Leslie's classic formula for creating a delightfully simple and nutritious salad?
All she does is take a root vegetable, such as grated turnip, carrot or parsnip, and combine it in equal amounts with both a leafy vegetable, such as watercress or lamb's lettuce, and a bulb vegetable such as red or green pepper. (See examples below.)
I've been using this formula for years and it's hard to go wrong following it. So experiment for yourself.
I cut all the ingredients into bite-size pieces, except for the lettuces and greens which I either break into pieces or leave in larger pieces to form a bed for the salad. Occasionally I also like to add some protein (eggs, chicken, fish, nuts, etc.) and home-grown sprouts.
I like finishing my salad with a lavish garnish of herbs, and a beautiful salad dressing.
When available, herb flowers are my favorite garnishes. All herb flowers are edible. They have the same taste, but more perfume, than the herbs they come from. I prefer the perennial flowers such as chives, thyme, marjoram, sage and rosemary. I find the annual flowers too bitter for my taste. But nasturtium, basil, chervil and dill blossoms are very tasty and pretty. So I use them a lot.
Here's more advice for making super herb salads from Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger:
"Sometimes, particularly for festive occasions, we enjoy making rather extravagant herb salads modeled after those of the Renaissance. We use mild greens to allow the herbs to be fully savored.
Handfuls of lettuce and smaller handfuls of Italian parsley, dill or fennel leaves, basil, chervil and sorrel, with some sprigs of tarragon, marjoram, chives, cress, or lovage compose a glorious salad.
We dress the whole lightly with flavorful olive oil and lemon juice or wine vinegar, then sprinkle it with nasturtiums, violas, and borage blossoms, or perhaps lavender, sage, or rosemary flowers. We have found that such a fanciful salad gives us and our guests a sensual appreciation of fresh green things.
Experimenting with the amounts of greens and herbs will lead you to the combinations and balance you prefer."
They also say that just gathering the salad ingredients from the garden is a modest but genuine aesthetic experience. To them, choosing the right lettuce and spinach, picking a few peppery leaves of rocket and garden cress, snipping the tips of the new green dill and parsley, and then deciding which blossoms to use for garnish is like preparing a palette for painting.
The salad forms in their mind and hands as it will appear on the table: a feast for the eyes and a relish for the tongue.
If you want to learn more about a raw energy diet I recommend you get a copy of Leslie Kenton's "The Raw Energy Bible". Ask your local bookstore for help.
ISBN 0 09 185664 7
Examples of salad ingredients:
Root Vegetables: carrots, celeriac, turnips, beetroot, and radishes.
Bulb or 'Fruit' Vegetables: tomatoes, red and green peppers, fennel bulb, avocado, cucumber, cauliflower, celery, broccoli, courgettes, mushrooms, onions.
Leaf Vegetables: lettuce, young dandelion leaves, red or white cabbage, spring greens, spinach, rocket, watercress, sprouts.
Herbs: sweet basil, rocket, parsley, chives and garlic chives, salad burnet, spearmint, sorrel, lovage, chervil, coriander, nasturtium, fennel and dill.
Do you need some salad recipes to explode your taste buds? Then visit http://www.herb.co.za/cook ing/saladrecipes.htm
Before we dig into the nitty-gritty of how to make a super salad let's get some background from Leslie Kenton on raw foods and why they are such an important part of your daily diet.
Leslie says that doctors and scientists working with raw foods to restore health and normal weight to patients have long been aware that living foods such as fresh raw fruits and vegetables, and life-generating foods such as seeds and sprouts are extremely beneficial for reducing fat deposits.
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When consumed on a daily basis these raw foods:
-> encourage detoxification,
-> heighten enzyme activity,
-> improve cellular metabolism,
-> encourage fat-burning.
She says that eating raw foods encourages the biochemical functions in your body to return to normal. Fostering a high level of health and good looks. That is why, depending on how rapidly you want to loose weight, raw foods should form between 50 and 75 per cent of your diet. She believes that accomplishing this is easier - and more delicious - than you think.
(Note: There are strong indications that you should not loose weight at a rate faster than about 1 kg per week if you intend to keep it off permanently.)
I fully agree with Leslie. Making super salads is easier - and more delicious - than you think. And summer is such a great time to experiment with salads.
While it's not essential that you base one of your meals each day purely on a raw salad, it is the best possible way to get optimal support for rebuilding your cells and tissues, rebalancing your biochemical processes and restoring normal metabolism.
Are you ready for Leslie's classic formula for creating a delightfully simple and nutritious salad?
All she does is take a root vegetable, such as grated turnip, carrot or parsnip, and combine it in equal amounts with both a leafy vegetable, such as watercress or lamb's lettuce, and a bulb vegetable such as red or green pepper. (See examples below.)
I've been using this formula for years and it's hard to go wrong following it. So experiment for yourself.
I cut all the ingredients into bite-size pieces, except for the lettuces and greens which I either break into pieces or leave in larger pieces to form a bed for the salad. Occasionally I also like to add some protein (eggs, chicken, fish, nuts, etc.) and home-grown sprouts.
I like finishing my salad with a lavish garnish of herbs, and a beautiful salad dressing.
When available, herb flowers are my favorite garnishes. All herb flowers are edible. They have the same taste, but more perfume, than the herbs they come from. I prefer the perennial flowers such as chives, thyme, marjoram, sage and rosemary. I find the annual flowers too bitter for my taste. But nasturtium, basil, chervil and dill blossoms are very tasty and pretty. So I use them a lot.
Here's more advice for making super herb salads from Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger:
"Sometimes, particularly for festive occasions, we enjoy making rather extravagant herb salads modeled after those of the Renaissance. We use mild greens to allow the herbs to be fully savored.
Handfuls of lettuce and smaller handfuls of Italian parsley, dill or fennel leaves, basil, chervil and sorrel, with some sprigs of tarragon, marjoram, chives, cress, or lovage compose a glorious salad.
We dress the whole lightly with flavorful olive oil and lemon juice or wine vinegar, then sprinkle it with nasturtiums, violas, and borage blossoms, or perhaps lavender, sage, or rosemary flowers. We have found that such a fanciful salad gives us and our guests a sensual appreciation of fresh green things.
Experimenting with the amounts of greens and herbs will lead you to the combinations and balance you prefer."
They also say that just gathering the salad ingredients from the garden is a modest but genuine aesthetic experience. To them, choosing the right lettuce and spinach, picking a few peppery leaves of rocket and garden cress, snipping the tips of the new green dill and parsley, and then deciding which blossoms to use for garnish is like preparing a palette for painting.
The salad forms in their mind and hands as it will appear on the table: a feast for the eyes and a relish for the tongue.
If you want to learn more about a raw energy diet I recommend you get a copy of Leslie Kenton's "The Raw Energy Bible". Ask your local bookstore for help.
ISBN 0 09 185664 7
Examples of salad ingredients:
Root Vegetables: carrots, celeriac, turnips, beetroot, and radishes.
Bulb or 'Fruit' Vegetables: tomatoes, red and green peppers, fennel bulb, avocado, cucumber, cauliflower, celery, broccoli, courgettes, mushrooms, onions.
Leaf Vegetables: lettuce, young dandelion leaves, red or white cabbage, spring greens, spinach, rocket, watercress, sprouts.
Herbs: sweet basil, rocket, parsley, chives and garlic chives, salad burnet, spearmint, sorrel, lovage, chervil, coriander, nasturtium, fennel and dill.
Do you need some salad recipes to explode your taste buds? Then visit http://www.herb.co.za/cook ing/saladrecipes.htm
