Raw Kale Salad

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Kale Salad

Having raw salad can be a little challenging for your digestion. I don’t go 100% raw diet, but when I cook my veggies I always cook them al dente with very little water to preserve all good nutrition. I made sautéed kale salad with garlic and mushrooms before. Today it is massaged kale salad with cottage cheese, walnuts and pomegranates. It is super easy to make. And wilted kale has soft texture although it is raw.

5 heads of kale
1 table spoon of coconut oil
a table spoon of coconut vinegar (white wine vinegar if you don’t have it)
a teaspoon of celery salt (sea salt or any kind you have at home)
100g cottage cheese
handful of walnuts (any nuts of your choice)
1 pomegranate
pomegranate molasses
salt and pepper

Wash and drain 5 heads of kale. Get rid of tough stems and tear leaves into small pieces. I then added kale leaves, coconut oil, coconut vinegar and celery salt in a big mixing bowl. Make sure your hands are clean. Start massaging and wilting down kale (it should take only a few minutes). Mix cottage cheese, walnuts and pomegranates to the kale salad. Serve with pomegranate dressing – pomegranate molasses (you can use pomegranate juice + honey instead), coconut vinegar, e.v.o.o, salt and pepper. It can easily serve 4-6 people. Just add your preferred protein on the side.

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Posted in: Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, salads, Vegetarian

Tofu Steak with Carrot Salad

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Tofu steak

Seasoned and grilled, tofu breaks out of its typical image of being bland and tasteless. Tofu is so versatile you can put any spice or sauce of your choice. Growing up in Korea, one of my favorite dishes was pan-fried tofu with soy sesame sauce. It is damn simple but so tasty.

For tofu steak, you need to pat dry a block of firm tofu, slice about 1cm thick, lightly coat with rice flour and spice, pan-fry with coconut oil for about 3-4 minutes each side until outside is brown and crispy. I like mine to be still firm texture, but for more crispy skin you can use egg and breadcrumbs. You can serve grilled tofu with salads like me or serve with rice and soy sauce for more Asian flavour. Some people marinate tofu for hours or even a day before cooking if you want tofu to soak up all the flavour. To make soy dressing, combine soy sauce or tamari, minced garlic and ginger, chopped spring onion, sake or cooking wine, sesame seeds and sesame oil. Drizzle over the steak and enjoy!

For the salads I mixed cooked French lentils, grated orange and purple carrots, red onion and green salads. It is raw, refreshing, crunch and colourful.

Tofu steak

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, Vegetarian

Pomegranate Pumpkin Quinoa Salad

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pomegranate

Another antioxidant rich food – Pomegranate! It’s loaded with vitamins and potassium. Researches show this power fruit buffers the effects of free radical damage, increase oxygen levels to your heart and reduce the redness of arthritis. It also reduces risk of cancers, especially prostate and breast cancer.

These juicy little guys are a great snack as it is – so yummy popping in your mouth. You can also make juice. Pomegranates are one of the few fruits where juice is as beneficial as the fruit or seeds. I recommend using on salads like me, which not only gives a lovely presentation but also provides a beautiful sweet and acidic flavour. I warn you, though, when you cut open pomegranates and take all these seeds out it will stain your fingers, clothes and kitchen bench. I was so excited about cutting and squeezing the fruit, and next thing I realised was it’s a little late to wear my apron. Oh well.. it’s fun cleaning all up after cooking too, isn’t it? >.<  To prevent all this mess, you can soak pomegranates in the bowl of water and work in the bowl, removing seeds from the flesh. All seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl, so you need to drain well afterwards.

pomegranate salad

I used butternut pumpkin, quinoa, shredded green and purple cabbage, red onions and green salad today. It looks so vibrant and colourful!

Examples of other salads that go well with pomegranates? Think about 3 things – colours, flavour and texture.

I think it goes well with…
– roasted sweet potato, pine nuts and green salad
– prosciutto, caramelised pear, blue cheese, roasted pecan
– Mediterranean cous cous salad
– shaved fennel and orange salad
– wild rice, feta cheese and green salad
– apple, walnut and kale salad

Need protein? Try with…
– duck
– chicken
– prawns
– cheese, especially pan-fried halloumi cheese

There you are.. there is plenty to try if you didn’t know how to use pomegranates in your food. Personally I don’t think you need salad dressing here. Just season and drizzle a good quality of e.v.o.o. I’m going to add Moroccan spiced chicken breast to that salad for dinner tonight. What is your choice? x

 

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, salads, Vegetarian

Purple Carrot Salad

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IMG_0091

I felt like something sweet and spicy salad today and came up with this little sexy salad made of beautiful dark purple carrots. I just love the colour of purple carrots. We already know carrots are high in vitamins, especially vitamin A for your eyes, plus a good source of dietary fibre. Purple carrots have extra antioxidant power because of unique anthocyanins, which combat free radicals in our body. It tastes earthy when eaten raw but cooking them creates amazingly sweet flavour. Well steaming and quick stir-frying minimises losing all the goodness in them, but if you choose to boil, make sure cooking the whole carrots without slicing them. As I mentioned before, try different colours of foods on your plate. Why not trying purple carrots instead of their orange cousins today for extra antioxidant boost:)

I sliced 3 carrots and caramelised in a pan with a table spoon of coconut oil. Then cooked further with a knob of  grated ginger, a teaspoon of cumin, fresh thyme, sage leaves, maple syrup and a little bit of cayenne pepper for a kick. It’s so delish with tahini dressing. When you make tahini dressing, keep checking until you have a right consistency and a balance of sweet and sour flavour. I used tahini paste, apple cider vinegar and maple syrup here. It goes quite well with carrot salad.

tahini and carrots

 

Posted in: Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, salads, Vegetarian

Breakfast Parfait

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I am an early morning person and therefore breakfast is a must to get me going. Well believe or not, I do eat two breakfasts plus morning snack until lunch time – I know I eat a lot >.< Normally I have a big glass of lemon ginger tea with apple cider vinegar and eat a home-made GF muffin in about half an hour. I then go for a walk – love the stillness and quietness in the early morning. When I get home I take a shower and have my second breakfast, which is usually a parfait or another breakfast muffin with tea. I know our breakfast rituals are evolving nowadays. There is so much to choose from – porridge, granola, omelet, frittata, fruit salad, smoothie, eggs on toast, etc. There is a whole world of breakfast to explore. I don’t understand some people who skip breakfast because breakfast can be darn delicious and doesn’t take much time to prepare.

My latest breakfast love affair is this parfait. Be creative and have fun making tasty and lovely looking breakfast! If you are not a morning person, make it a night before and keep it in the fridge. You wouldn’t be able to wait to dig in:) For me, I put soy kefir at the bottom layer, sprinkle a teaspoon of spirulina powder, spread pureed fruit (any of your choice – kiwi, berries, banana, mango, passion fruit, etc) and top with something crunchy like buckwheat (it’s gluten free, hooray!), carob nibs and goji berries. There you are, you have yourself a perfect breakfast with no time at all. If you add honey or maple syrup on top it could also become the perfect dessert. I don’t have to go through nutritional values here. You know already it is good for you!

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Posted in: Breakfast, Gluten Free, My recipes, Snack, Vegetarian \ Tagged: ,