Sometimes I really struggle to get the motivation to cook, I’ll sit there and think about all the different things I can make, but will probably end up eating toast. So I thought I’d show you today a quick and easy meal to prepare that’s super good for you! I’m a vegetarian; the only dairy I consume is cheese (because frankly I love cheese). I also try to eat a mainly raw diet, full of raw vegies and fruit, nuts and seeds. I’m not a fussy vegetarian either, I don’t eat meat because well I don’t particularly like it and I feel so much better now that I don’t eat it. If someone has used egg in something, or there’s milk or dairy, or even if it was cooked on the same surface as meat, I’m not going to turn my nose up at it. I appreciate that someone has taken to effort to make something and I’ll eat it! But I’m not writing today to convince you to stop eating meat; I’m going to show you how to make a raw salad!
Raw salads are quick, easy, full of flavour and really good you. You can pretty much use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge and it’s a great way to practice you knife skills because you don’t have to make much effort to make it look pretty, it’s going to do that on its own with all the vibrant colours! So here’s what you’ll need:
1 Carrot, cucumber, zucchini, capsicum, baby spinach (or any other type of lettuce you like), garlic, sweet potato, spring onions and apple
For the dressing, I keep a container of blended raw cashew nuts. I combine this with some rice bran oil, salt, pepper, parsley flakes, onion powder and turmeric. You can also use plain Greek yogurt instead of the cashew nut cream. You can also make the cream out of almonds or any other type of nut. Simply soak them in water for 3 or more hours (I soak mine overnight) place in a blender with some water and blend. It takes my blender about 5 to 10 min to get it super smooth. The consistency is up to you though.
I have all my ingredients on the bench ready to go, with a bowl for the salad and a bowl for scraps and rubbish.
I start first with the carrot and using a vegetable peeler I peel the carrot into strips and place in the bowl. Do the same for the cucumber as well. Don’t throw away the centre of them either, we’ll use them later.
For the zucchini, I have a spiral thing from Tupperware that will turn it in to fancy spirals, but if you can’t do that slice them however you want, dice, slice or do the same as you did for the carrot. Seeing as I couldn’t find my spiral thing, (must have gone to the same place as my old vegetable peeler) I sliced them on an angle just to seem a bit fancy!
The capsicum should be diced finely, along with the apple, garlic and sweet potato. I’ll like to use raw sweet potato because it tastes great. Slice the spring onion on an angle and combine everything in the bowl.
Add the dressing and mix well. I also add some sesame seeds, chopped nuts and dulse flakes. Dulse flakes are great for seasoning instead of salt. I topped mine today with some feta cheese and some slice avocado. Yum!
Look how well you’ve done! So simple, quick and tastes fantastic. Now you can sit down with a nice glass of wine and enjoy!
PS. Each Sunday I’ll be posting a new recipe, keep checking during the week for updates and tips!
Oh no, it's dinner! 