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!

Live Vibe: Rainbow Salad

Eat the Rainbow!

Cut up the beat greens, chard or spinach into "noodles" using the French chiffonade-method. (Wash, then roll leaves together and slice on the bias with a Chef's knife.)

Cut celery, carrots, onions, beats and anything else colorful, raw and edible you have on hand, at an angle and slightly thiner than you would for soup. Top with sprouted dehydrated Almonds and Beet Vinaigrette.

Beet Vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup of fresh Lemon juice of Apple-cider Vinegar
• 1/2 cup of oil of choice (I like first press extra virgin olive oil or raw almond oil)
• 1/4 cup of diced beets
• 2 TBS of diced onion or shallot
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed or diced
• 2 TBS of clover honey or grade B maple syrup
• 2 or 3 pieces of dried California Sea Palm Frond, diced (optional)
• 1/2 tsp of Himalayan pink salt (or less, if using olive oil and/or sea veggies)
• 1 tsp of mild curry powder
• Fresh ground nutmeg or peppercorns, to taste
• Fresh herbs, when you’ve got um” (rosemary, thyme and sage are all wonderful with this dressing)

Mix ingredients together in a glass jar with a lid. Shake. Marinate overnight for best results. Keeps at room temperature for a day or so, indefinitely when refrigerated.

Sprouted Dehydrated Almonds

Soak raw (Sicilian or Spanish) almonds over night in clean source water with a 2 to 3 inch piece of sea vegetable of choice until plump and looking like they want to burst out of their skins.

Drain and wash almonds and sea veggie 2 times each day. Return to a clean bowel, covered, at room temperature, away from light for 8 to 24 hours.

Wash again and soak for 1 to 2 hours in clean-source water. When skins are loose, “pop” almonds out of skin. Not all will want to come out. It’s oky, you can give them a rub later when they are dry to remove stubborn skins. Discard the skins and any discolored almonds to the compost pile.

Soak the skinned almonds in a salt-water bath for at least 2 hours at room temp. Refrigerate, if it will be longer than that.

Drain the salt water. Do not wash this time. Shake the strainer to remove excess water. Place the wet almonds and sea veggie on a screen in dehydrator at 105 degrees until crisp and dry. Store in a glass jar refrigerated or frozen until ready to use.

Green Banana Salads

Celebrate Green Bananas!

The Bananas are Green because they have not been gassed! This is a very good thing. Bananas will ripen on a sunny windowsill or in a paper bag. Allowing the bananas to have sun exposure increased the nutrient value.

We use the firm flesh of green bananas as often as we do the ripe ones. Green bananas have a lower glycemic index because many of the sugars have not yet formed. They also have more tannin that promote digestion and have anti-microbial properties. Slightly tart, they make a great topping for green salad or filling for wraps with orange pumpkinseed vinaigrette or as a snack with Greek or goat yogurt and honey. (Vegans can substitute cashew cream cheese and Agavi.)

Green Banana Snack

Peel and slice bananas

Add Cashew cream or yogurt

Add fresh herbs (Choose one or mix: fresh cilantro, sorrel, mint, fennel tops, or lemon balm)

Drizzle with Clover Honey

Add blueberries when you’ve got um!

Green Banana Salad Topping or Filling for Wrap

Peel and slice green bananas

Sprinkle very sparingly with Himalayan pink salt and a squeeze of lemon juice

Toss to coat. (Keeps refrigerated for several hours.)

Serve in a lettuce leaf with choice for fresh herbs or pea sprouts or place on top of a bed of mixed greens. Add dressing with whole seeds.

Orange-Pumpkin Seed Vinaigrette

• Juice of one orange
• Zest of ½ an orange
• 1 clove of garlic (crushed or minced)
• ½ a small onion or large shallot, diced
• 1 TBS live apple cider vinegar
• 1TBS of Namu Soyu (raw soy sauce)
• 2 TBS of raw pumpkin seed oil (substitute raw sunflower oil)
• 1 TBS of grade B maple syrup (optional)
• 2-3 TBS of raw pumpkin seeds

Marinate overnight for best results