A few days ago I had the opportunity to do a LIVE on Instagram with Dani Vignolo, a doctor at Casa Vive (Concepción), with whom we talked about how to incorporate live foods into our daily lives and thus take advantage of their benefits not only physically, but also energetic. A live stream focused especially for these quarantine times, a key moment to strengthen the immune system and be emotionally balanced 🙌💗.
During this hour and a half of live streaming, I shared 2 essential recipes to incorporate more living foods into our diet 🌿. The first was a nutritionally dense green smoothie and the second was a kale and seaweed salad with a nutty miso dressing.
This post is to share the recipe for the salad and its dressing, since it is a dish that we can accompany with any meal and take advantage of the variety of nutrients that are in it, since in addition to vegetables and fresh green leaves we find:
- Omega 3, healthy whole fats of plant origin, necessary for the proper functioning of the nervous system as well as being a powerful natural anti-inflammatory. Walnuts allow you to deliver this important benefit.
- Probiotics, through fermented soybeans called miso, are widely used in Asian cuisine and are a food that strengthens and feeds our intestinal flora, which is responsible for digesting and assimilating nutrients from food.
- Mineral pack, thanks to the algae that we choose to use. In the Live I used a variety of Wakame, however in the photo in this post I used Nori. You can use the one you like, each one will have a slight difference in flavor, however, they will all give that marine touch. Algae offer a good supply of iron and calcium.
- Heavy metal remover, in aromatic herbs such as coriander, is a powerful heavy metal detoxifier, like parsley. In this case we use coriander to give more flavor to the dressing. You can choose either of these two.
- Abundant vitamin C, thanks to the Italian pumpkin or zucchini. If we analyze the nutritional information of this food, we will see that it stands out mainly in vitamin C and water. Both elements are completely lost when exposed to the value. We already know that vitamin C plays an important role in the immune system. In addition, it allows better assimilation of the existing iron in the rest of the green leaves.
- Chlorophyll, all leaves and green foods provide this essential element for the oxygenation of your blood. In fact, if we compare the molecular structure of chlorophyll vs hemoglobin (your blood), we will see that they are very identical to each other. This is a great sign for the amount of information needed by your cells. It is an excellent way to nourish, oxygenate and purify your blood.
These are just some of the benefits that this type of salad provides, the important thing is to rotate the ingredients to provide more and more different micro and macro nutrients to our intelligent machine of the human body. We need the correct fuel to function properly, not only physically, but also emotionally / spiritually, especially in these moments of quarantine 🤯!
For the recipe you will need:
KALE AND SEAWEED SALAD + WALNUT MISO DRESSING
(1 large or 2 medium portions)
BASE
- 3 cups of kale (of any variety, I used the classic crespa from Altos del Valle, they will deliver kale and other fresh vegetables to your home )
- 2 cups of wild leaves, such as watercress, arugula, mustard, mizuna (choose the one you like, or a mixture of all. You can find them in Altos del Valle with home delivery in Santiago de Chile).
- 1 cucumber or 1 zucchini/squash, peeled
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- 1 creamy avocado
- Seaweed (the one you like, it can be Wakame, Kombu or Nori, add little by little to know its flavor in salads)
DRESSING (4 small portions or 2 large)
- 1 zucchini/squash (2 cups)
- 1 cup of activated nuts (activate them for at least 6 hours, learn about this process on my YouTube channel)
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional, recommended 🤩)
- 1 tablespoon miso (whatever variety you have access to)
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 cup of water
- juice of 2 lemons
- 1 handful of fresh coriander
- Toasted sesame oil (optional)
All the fresh vegetables used are from Altos del Valle , a fruit and vegetable home delivery business (Santiago, CH), who have predetermined weekly boxes according to the size of your consumption or you can choose everything you need from the catalog. Check them out and order your box with free dispatch when you go for Simple y Vivo 😍.
Enter here to know your available products and boxes 👈
SALAD ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS
- Wash, dry and chop all the green leaves. With the kale you must do a separate treatment, so I recommend you wash it separately, since after washing you must remove the central stem of the leaf, which is quite firm, almost like a broccoli stem. They are from the same cruciferous family!
- When you remove the stem of the kale (you can save these for your next green juice), you will have the leaf and you can chop it up a bit with your hands and then massage them. This process is fundamental, since this leaf is very fibrous and super firm, which requires a lot of chewing before being consumed, then with the massage you soften its texture and it is much more pleasant for consumption in salads. You can use some of the same dressing for this process, so you'll need to have your dressing ready for this part. Let's continue with the rest of the ingredients before moving on to the kale dressing and massage.
- Cut tomato and avocado in medium squares.
- Peel zucchini or cucumber, use a julienne peeler and thus you get a spiral of these foods. Change the whole experience this cutting format! It's called spiralizing, which can be done with a julienne peeler, a spiralizer, or simply by hand with your julienne knife (the latter takes longer, not ideal).
- For the seaweed, select the one you like. If you opt for nori, it is not necessary to hydrate. If you use wakame or kombu, take them to a bowl with water and let them hydrate for at least 10 minutes or until they are completely in their normal size (you will see that their volume increases considerably). They must be tender, soft, to be consumed without problem. Discard the water once the process is done and cut the seaweed into small squares. If you use nori, skip this process and simply cut strips with scissors.
- For the dressing , be sure to activate the raw walnuts. Hydrate the amount indicated in a bowl with water for 6 to 8 hours. Discard the water and rinse the nuts. Take the blender along with the rest of the ingredients and process until obtaining a homogeneous and creamy mixture.
- Use a small part of this dressing to massage the kale. Remember that the kale must already be without stems, washed and chopped for this process. Wear gloves if you will be cooking for other people. Massage with the dressing until its volume drops by half.
- Add the rest of the vegetables and dressing to the bowl.
- Enjoy the salad at the moment! If you are going to take it to another place, reserve the dressing for when you are going to consume it.
TIPS
- You can store the dressing for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. It ensures that it is well covered, with the least amount of oxygen inside (from the taper/container).
- To speed up the assembly process and not spend as much time washing leaves, advance this process 1 day a week by washing all your green leaves. Dry them completely and store them in cotton/fabric bags or in a taper with paper inside. In this way you extend their useful life and they are ready for use during the week.
- Rotate the nuts in each salad you make. This time it was walnuts, tomorrow it could be almonds, another day sunflower/marigold, then squash/pumpkin, sesame, peanuts, and so on.
Comment below how it turned out and if you liked this variety of salad!
If you upload it to social media, don't forget to tag @simpleyvivo to share your post 🤗💗!
