This refreshing salad is packed with extra crunch from 4 crunchy veggies that are tossed with a sweet, tangy, and very slightly spicy dressing.

It is the perfect kind salad to put together for a picnic. It stays crunchy and the dressing remains lightly coating everything because it doesn’t get watered down by all the crispy veggies. It pairs as well with Thai curry as it does with taco. Add some raw pepitas on top for extra crunch and to make this salad a satisfying lunch entrée all on its own.

All that, and this salad is loaded in Vitamins A & C with a good amount of Vitamin K!

The Stuff: Dressing

• 1 mango, peeled and sliced into large pieces
• juice of 1 lime
• juice of 1 blood orange
• 1/4 sweet red bell pepper, de-seeded
• 1/4 Anaheim chili, de-seeded
• 1/4 Poblano chili, de-seeded

Combine all ingredients into a food processor, fitted with an S-blade*. Process on high until you have a thick sauce, scraping down sides as needed until smooth. Set aside.

*If you have a powerful blender (e.g., VitaMix) you can just throw everything into the blending vessel and blend until smooth.

The Stuff: Salad

• 1 small jicama, peeled and sliced into 2″ matchsticks
• 3 medium carrots, sliced thin (slicing blade on food processor works great!)
• 1/4 sweet red bell pepper, finely diced
• 1/4 purple cabbage, chopped small
• 5-6 sprigs of fresh coriander (cilantro), leaves removed and shredded by hand

Toss all ingredients with dressing in a large bowl and serve.

Makes 6 vitamin & fiber packed servings!

Nutritional Info

Serving Size: 1 cup
Calories: 71
Total Fat: 0 g
Sodium: 27 mg
Carbohydrates: 17 g
Dietary Fiber: 5 g
Sugars: 10 g
Protein: 1 g

On Christmas Day friends of ours brought us a pint jar with 2 halves of Meyer lemon preserved in salt. I’ve been kicking around the idea of a pulao using slices of of the lemon. The result was absolutely fantastic.

This dish could be made without the preserved lemon, but it adds such an amazing flavor to the rice that it is worth finding it, making them, or befriending people who make them and give you some!

The Stuff

• 2 cups* brown basmati rice
• Juice and grated rind from a large lemon
• 8 green cardamom pods
• 1 small shallot, cut in half, then into very thin slices
• 2 T Earth Balance (or your preferred vegan margarine)
• 1 t ground turmeric
• 1/2 t amchur
• 2 T cashew halves
• 4 cups* water
• 2 1/4″ slices of preserved lemon, salt dusted off and any seeds removed
• Additional salt, to taste (preferably the salt from the lemon if you have it)
• 3 T chopped, fresh coriander

The Making

Rinse rise and soak in water 10-15 minutes. Drain well.

Bring a skillet to medium-high heat, add Earth Balance and bring up to heat. Add shallot and saute 5 minutes, until the shallot beings to caramelize. Add in the cashews and continue to saute another 3 minutes before carefully adding in the well-drained rice. Saute the mixture for 5 minutes, stirring often, until rice begins to brown, then sprinkle ground spices over the top and mix in evenly.

Add rice into cooker pot along with lemon rind, lemon juice, cardamom and slices of preserved lemon. Add water in to the 2 cup mark f0r brown rice, close lid and set to cook.

After rice finishes cooking open lid, remove lemon slices, and stir. Remove any remaining lemon from the rind, cut up and return to pot. Slice rind into small pieces and add them back to pot. Stir in sliced up lemon and add salt to taste. Stir in fresh coriander.

*When I mention “cup” here it is referring to the measuring cup that come with the rice cooker. I also don’t measure the water with the same cup, I use the lines inside the cooker pot to get the right amount of water.

Yes, you can totally make this on the stove. Just saute shallot and rice in a 3-quart stock pot, add water, bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until rice is tender.

Serves 6-8

I came up with this tasty salad dressing for a new Roasted Corn & Qunioa Salad recipe I came up with. This is so easy to throw together and would be great in a jicama salad or just as part of a tossed greens salad.

The Stuff

• 1 bunch cilantro (fresh coriander)
• juice from 1 large lemon or 3 limes
• 2 T raw tahini
• 1/4 c rice vinegar (no, not the seasoned kind)
• 1/4 t garlic powder *optional
  
• 1/4 t xanthan gum *optional

The Making

Cut the stems off the bunch of cilantro about 3-4 inches up. Wash in a colander and shake off just some of the excess water.

Put wet, washed cilantro into blender, add remaining ingredients and blend on high until completely blended.

If the dressing seems a little thick or too vinegary, add some water a tablespoon at a time until it is the right consistency/taste.

If the dressing is very thin or if you would like a very thick dressing you can add the xanthan gum to thicken it. Bob’s Red Mill is a good source for this ingredient.