Refreshing Radish Grapefruit Salad

Alright, I’m excited about this one! I had a collection of radish from the last couple of weeks and I often struggle to get through this healthy root veggie. I had been tending to just drizzle them in olive oil and roast them up with salt and pepper, but deep down my gut (and my reading about the importance of prebiotics to our gut microbiome and overall resilience) tells me that eating them raw gets me the maximum benefits. So, today, I decided to go for it and make a radish-based salad with grapefruit. I think my radish avoidance comes from the idea that the radish taste is overwhelming. However, upon first taste of this salad, I realized that idea is mostly in my head and that the crisp of the radish was quite delicious in this mix. It helps that the grapefruit also has a strong flavor. Plus the nut and spice blend just makes it beautifully flavorful. To my surprise, both my kids also liked the radish doused in the Dukkah nut and spice blend. The grapefruit is a different story! Ok, here’s the simple recipe—

radish (maybe 8 to 10 smallish ones)

grapefruit

lettuce or salad mix

salt

Trader Joe’s Dukkah Nut and Spice Blend (contains almonds, sesame seeds, fennel seeds, coriander, anise seeds & salt)

INSTRUCTIONS

Thinly slice the radish.

Peel and chop the grapefruit.

Toss and sprinkle with a little salt and a generous amount of the Dukkah nut and spice blend.

Serve over a bed of lettuce and enjoy feeling all clean and tangy inside!

Cashew Green Bean Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

toasted sesame oil

1 small to medium sized onion, diced

2 to 4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbs ginger, grated or chopped

1 lb protein of choice (I use tofu or tempeh), diced

green beans, diced

carrots diced

cashews, chopped or slightly crushed

lettuce

microgreens (we’ve got broccoli this week!)

Hoisin Sauce (Try this flexible recipe if you want to make it at home)

Instructions:

Stir fry onion in a large pan with sesame oil until translucent. Add garlic, ginger and your choice of protein

Add green beans, carrots and cashews to the pan and drizzle generously with hoisin sauce.

Stir fry for a few minutes (up to you how well-cooked you like your veggies!)

Serve over lettuce leaf and top with microgreens or, better yet, put everything out (maybe with some rice or quinoa on the side) so people can make their own. This DIY “lettuce tacos” dish gets my little ones to put down the lettuce!

Indulgent Quick Pickle Beet Salad

Ingredients:

Once Harvard Medical School’s Vegetable of the Month, this article highlights a few the nutritional and medicinal benefits of beets (high in vitamin B and manganese and contributes to lower blood pressure). Also, they find that you gotta make it sound indulgent if you want people to eat more of it.

1 to 2 cups beets (thinly sliced— try shaving it with a potato peeler) Option to do half carrots, also shaved with a peeler

1/4 to 1/2 cup vinegar (try red wine vinegar, rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar)

1/2 to 1 1/2 tbs sugar (or not, people make sugar out of beets so they’re already pretty sweet…you decide how much to indulge!)

1/2 to 1 tsp salt (again, you decide how much)

lettuce or other salad greens—use what you’ve got!

olive oil

microgreens (this week, we’ve got purple kohlrabi!)

other optional toppings: nuts (try pistachios!) and/or seeds (maybe sesame, sunflower or pepitas)

Instructions:

In a small pot, heat vinegar, salt and sugar until boiling then remove from heat and add beets (and carrots if you’re using them). Let sit and cool or at least 10 minutes.

In a salad bowl, toss lettuce (or salad greens) with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and a dash of lemon.

Add cooled quick pickled beets (and carrots, if using)

Top with a generous handful of microgreens and other optional nuts and/or seeds.

Mushroom Tacos

Ingredients:

mushrooms (white button mushrooms work just fine; portobello and shiitake are pricier, but also delicious!)

salt

pepper

tortillas (La Fe tortillas are non-gmo and affordable, which is hard to find!)

carrots (shredded)

cilantro (chopped)

microgreens

lettuce (in place of tortilla if you’re going light with the meal, or chopped as a topping)

lemon

chile, fresh and chopped (try chiltepin if you want real heat!) or hot sauce, if you like. (I’ve switched to Cholula as my hot sauce of choice in a pinch because it’s the only I’ve found that doesn’t have any added preservatives. )

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Slice mushrooms in fourths (fat slices) and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for easy clean-up. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in oven for about 10 minutes, or until sizzling and just a bit crispy.

3. Warm tortillas. Set out mushrooms and rest of the ingredients as toppings and enjoy!