Spring Salad

A sweet and a lemony dressing accompany this lunch:

1) Lemon-Garlic Tahini for dipping the zucchini sun-breads and

2) Sweet beet and onion dressing over the John Goode's baby romaine.

Top it off with fresh-picked wild violets. Use some of the smaller lighter-green new leaves from the violets as part of your mix for salad greens. Yum!
All ingredients are local, when available, and ALWAYS organic or home-grown using organic methods.

Lemon Garlic Tahini Dip:

Ingredients:

• juice of one lemon
• 1 tsp of Cooper's local clover honey*
• 1/8 tsp Himalayan pink salt*
• 1 and 1/2 cups of hulled organic sesame seeds*
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, to taste
• clean source water for soaking seeds and as needed (up to 1/4 cup)

* Available on the shelf at Kovac's North in the produce section, 2201 Frederick Ave. St. Joseph, MO 64507.

John Goode's gorgous greens available through freshconnectkc.com

Instructions:

Soak sesame seeds 4 hours at room temp or overnight in fridge. Drain, rinse and allow to rest, wet, for a minimum of 4 hours in the dark. (One method is to use a dish or crock that does not allow light to pass through. Cover the dish with a plate as it's lid. Another method is to use a glass jar and place it inside a double layered brown grocery bag.) Expose to sun-light for 10 to 15 minutes, optional. Rinse one more time before adding to recipe.

Add soaked seeds with all other ingredients to the food processor or Vitamix. Only use water, if needed. Blend until smooth. Chill or store in fridge. Use as a dip for sun-breads and living seed crackers; To use as a salad dressing, add raw or toasted sesame oil and more citrus juice (lemon, orange or lime are all good!) Also used as an ingredient in hummus.

Sweet-Beet Dressing/Marinade

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Raw Oil of Choice (Safflower, Sunflower, Raw Sesame, Walnut, Grape-seed, Pumpkin Seed, Extra Virgin Olive are all good raw bases)
• 1/2 cup raw apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup grade B maple syrup
• 1/2 large yellow onion, dices
• 1-2 cloves crushed garlic, to taste
• about 1/4 cup of diced beets = center cut of one small beet
• a pinch of Himalayan sea salt (optional) -some oils, like olive oil, do not require extra salt
• fresh garden herbs

Instructions:

Making this dressing the day before you use it mellows the flavors and results in extra bright colors.

TIP

Instead of peeling the beet, just carve a square out of the middle and use the outer pieces (peel in-tact) to run through the juicer. Add the juice to the dressing. Or, just drink it. You can also add other veggies to the juicer to make a full glass of veggie juice (I like combining celery, apples, sweet-potatoes or the stems from kale or chard with the beet. You will be surprised how a little beet-juice goes a long way!)

Add the ingredients to a glass jar, shake it and refrigerate until ready to use. The yellow onion will turn bright pink and translucent. All other veggies and herbs to your liking. Zuchini, cucumber, diced carrots, spring radishes, sweet corn and pumpkin seeds are all good choices.

Warm the sun bread in 75+ degrees in the sun under a bug-screen or pop them in the dehydrator at 105 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with chilled Tahni dip.

To assemble the salad: harvest baby romaine, wash and pat dry the leaves. Put tiwce as much on your plate as you normally would. Toss or top with dressing, edible flowers, freshly-shucked peas and anything else young and green and cute you can find!

Cooked Foods

One Dish Wonder!

Of Course, A High-Raw Life-Style (higher percentage of raw foods) Includes SOME Cooked Foods, Too.

The question comes up, what to choose for cooked foods? If I'm going to the trouble to cook something, I choose delicious, satisfying, healthy foods. There are some things I've tried to make raw or sprouted and have learned that I just prefer them cooked. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Sprouted garbanzo beans (also known as chick peas);
• Fresh pink, green and tan chicken or duck eggs (from birds and their farmers, who I know personally);
• Sprouted quinoa;
• Sprouted barley;
• A variety of lentils (Dried or fermented in goat yogurt);
• sprouted dried beans;
• Artichokes;
• Popcorn;
• Potatoes (I recommend to use small heirloom varieties);
• Occasionally, I enjoy steamed, sweated or wilted: greens, cabbage, onions, squash, broccoli, asparagus;
• Toasted mustard seeds and coconut;
• Or, I'll melt coconut oil inn a stainless steel pan and saute onions, celery, mushrooms, fresh herbs and/or root vegetables as toppings and condiments. These are all great raw too!

Currently, in the late winter months, I choose to eat 3 to 5 cooked foods a week as: condiments, side dishes, special treats and mid-day meals served with lot's of fresh veggies for optimal nutrient absorption. You may also choose to supplement with a digestive enzyme or eat some fermented kraut with your cooked foods to aide in metabolic processes. Whenever we eat cooked foods, our metabolic enzymes are used to digest them. This interrupts the "healing and vitality" role of our system. A healthy body can compensate with help from mircoorganisms found in fermented foods and enzymes from a reliable source. (Metabolic enzymes are your healing and vitality workers. They must stop what they are "doing" and aide your digestion and obsorption whenever you present your system with a challenge. Cooked foods are a challenge. None-the-less, cooked foods bring us pleasure. Enjoyable meals are key to health and healing! Feeling satisfied increased your endorphins and levels out your hormonal activities. So, if you percieve a raw foods life-style as "rabbit food," or attach other negative connotations to eating this way, your higher self may be telling you to incorporate cooked foods. Using one of the 80/20 "rules," eat cooked foods (20% of your meal) and raw foods (80%) whenever you feeling unsatisfied. To find a enjoyable balance, monitor how you feel after each meal. Eat cooked foods mid-day, exercise regularly and drink clean-source water in abundance.

Here are a few cooked recipes you may want to incorporate into your raw high-raw foods lifestyle!

I will post the recipes separately. Use the search window of the blog to find these and other recipes by name or ingredients. Enjoy!

• Channa Dal Dhoka (Steamed Lentil Cakes)
• Hummus (Garbanzo Bean Dip/Spread)
• Frittata (Cooked Eggs with Fresh Veggie Toppings)
• One Dish Wonder! (pictured above)

Here are foods you should never heat above 105 degrees:

• olive, nut or seed oils
• olives
• seeds and nuts
• fruits (fresh or dried)

The result is carcinogenic!

Love Beets All!

You have heard of Dinosaur Kale?

I'm calling these Elephant Beets!

The Fresh Connect beets are gorgeous. I want to do a painting of them! But, there are hungry people to be fed and one of the first things to eat in the Fresh Connect Box will be the beet tops! They are most likely to wilt later in the week and become soup stock. So, I try to get to them first. Plus I love sautéed and/or wilted beet tops so-much, I could eat them every day!

Beets, also known as beetroot, are high in potassium, folacin, and fiber, yet low in calories. Their edible leaves offer protein, calcium, fiber, beta-carotene, vitamins A and C, and some B vitamins. They're known in the arena of natural healing for their ability to purify the blood and the liver.

Celebrate beets by eating the beet tops! They are highly nutritious. Add them to green smoothies, save the small ones to mix with other salad greens, slice and add to raw and cooked soups, sauté’s and loafs. Use in fermented chim chees and krauts.

Leave the beets in tact until you are ready to use them. (Another reason to eat them first: Elephants tend to be huge and take up much needed fridge space.)

Val's Favorite Beet Top Recipe

(Not 100% Raw)

Sauté them with Onion & Garlic

Get Ready:

Make a bunch. They are great leftover!

Make a workspace:

Clear sink, cutting board, knife, strainer, large stainless steal skillet or pan with wide surface area, wooden spatula, and camera. Check!

When ready, cut off the tops, leaving at least 1 inch of stem attached to the bulb, place the bulbs in a waxed paper bag or brown paper lunch sack to keep the dirt out of the produce bin in your fridge. Leave the dirt on the bulbs. It's good for them! I'm serious. Beets, carrots, potatoes continue to draw nutrients form the soil while in storage. Celebrate the dirt! (You'll need the bulbs for juicing later in the weekend!) Wash the tops in clean source water and drain.

Separate the stems from the leaves. Chop the stems. You will add the stems with the garlic and onion to the pan first. Then, add the more tender leaves last. Chiffonade the leaves. (Save the small ones to mix with other salad greens

Gather organic ingredients:

• A grip of beet tops (A "grip" is however many you have an/or however many you can carry. That way, you've always got a grip!)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 a large white onion (refrigerated for an hour, or more, to avoid onion-gas-tears)
• 1/2 tsp living sea salt
• 1 tsp to 1 TBS of clover honey (to taste)
• Juice of one orange plus 1/2 a lemon (Or substitute a TBS of raw apple-cider vinegar mixed with 1/4 cup clean-source water)
• Ground Black Pepper
• Optional Garnish: 1/2 cup sprouted Sicilian almonds, soaked in inland seawater, dehydrated until crunchy (I make them in batches and store them in glass jars to keep on hand.)

Recipe:

1. Chop onion, sprinkle with sea salt

2. Sweat the onion first in a hot pan, on lowest of low heat, covered until clear. Add honey, stir, and a few tablespoons of water if needed. The amount of water will depend on the type of cookware you are using and the temp of your stove. So, don't get stuck on the phone in the middle of this step.

3. Chop the beat stems and garlic, add them to the onions, and continue to sweat on low heat, covered. Stir a few times.

4. Add chiffonade of beet leaves last. They should be slightly damp with clean-source water. Stir them into the onions, stems and garlic. Add fruit juice or vinegar when bottom of pan is sticky or leaves start to get wilted or a little dry, to preference. I know I'm close when the onions have turned bright pink.

5. Adjust seasoning, salt, pepper, and honey. Garnish with almonds very last so they stay white.

5 1/2. Hide it from everyone so you can eat it all! Just kidding. Sort of.

6. Actually, I shared and served the beet tops three ways:

• (Not pictured) As a warm topping over white Quinoa with a large side salad, New Year's Eve.
• (Pictured below left) Cold as a salad topping. They "jell" in the ridge overnight and the colors intensify. The almonds turn bright pink! I topped it with more white almonds, too.)
• (Pictured below right) Warm, as a base for the Vegan Hopin' John on New Years Day. I topped it with chopped white onion.

Store left-overs refrigerated, if you have any! The almonds will turn pink too. It's pretty. But, you can also garnish with more white almonds, if you prefer.