holy garlic

we bought garlic from the farmer's market on saturday... it is so intense. like, the most potent garlic on the planet. i naively used an entire clove in the dressing of my salad, i have now killed all my taste buds. learn from my mistake - be cautious with your organic garlic. start with half a clove if you've got strong stuff.

besides the garlic insanity, this salad was friggin delish. i had a great workout up at my campus gym and all i wanted to eat afterward was a big salad from my garden. i added some chickpeas for extra protein. hemp seeds would also be a nice addition. we had grilled zucchini from last night and well... that's never a bad thing to throw in. enjoy! i sat in the sun and fought with wasps to eat this.

walnut garlic salad: serves one

dressing:

1 tablespoon mustard

1 tablespoon tamari

3 tablespoons almond milk (or water)

1/2 garlic clove

1 tablespoon miso 

1 tabelspoon honey/maple syrup (or 2 dates)

1 tablespoon hummus (optional... but yum)

salad:

2-3 grilled zucchini slices

1/2 cup chickpeas

4-5 cups kale and/or rainbow chard

2 figs

3 olives

make the dressing by blending all ingredients until smooth. hopefully you like it, it might be a little thick so feel free to add more liquid. chop up the salad topping and tear up the leaves into bite-size pieces. pour on the dressing and mix into the greens, then add your toppings. yummers.

rainbow sushi

Have conventional ideas about Japanese-North American Cuisine? Throw 'em out. There's no reason you have to eat imitation crab and cooked white rice - or worse, deep-fried tempura - to enjoy sushi. For me, sushi can basically have the contents of a fresh salad in a different form, and be even MORE delicious. You can get all the flavours and textures of the real thing - while eating your greens, grains veggies.

I make this ALL the time since it's so easy and as long as you have a ripe avocado, the rest of the ingredients should be hanging around your kitchen anyways. You can even make it without an avocado, but personally I think it makes the dish; nothing like those creamy omega 3's (NOT from poor little fishies). I can literally feel my hair and skin start to glow!

I had pictures of one time when I made sushi and it was just gorgeous, very gorumet-cuisine-looking; but it seems I've lost them. Oh well, I'll make it again soon I assure you!

These tasted just as good. And I think they're beautiful in their own way. I didn't have any nori sheets (a type of seaweed, very nutritious) so I used some organic rainbow chard from the farmer's market (3 huge bunches for $5! Who says bein' raw is expensive?)

Rainbow chard has got to be one of my favourite greens. The beautiful, vibrant colours of the stems that run through the leaves like living veins; it's one of those foods I don't want disrupt by eating! But I do =) That and dino kale. It's a split.

Rainbow Sushi: serves 3 

3 big leaves of greens, or nori sheets

1/2 cup of your fave raw thick sauce or spread (I'll provide recipes for all my sauces eventually...)

A big handful of sprouts (you can even use sprouted/cooked whole grains like buckwheat or quinoa)

Bell pepper

Celery stick

1/2 avocado

1/2 tomato (optional) 

Walnut-Parma 

Cut all the veggies and avocado into sticks. Spread thick sauce onto inside of each big leaf. Put on the sprouts next (all over the leaf), followed by the veg sticks and avocado, on one side. Put a bit more sauce on the opposite side and roll up. The sauce keeps the rolled over leaf stuck to it so it doesn't fall apart. (You're basically making a burrito here, people.) Then cut the roll into sushi-sized pieces, plate, and sprinkle on walnut-parma. Yum!