Whole Foods Detox Salad Copycat
The “Detox Salad” at the Whole Foods salad bar is one of my favorites. I am really not a fan of raw broccoli, but somehow it’s ok when it is completely pulverized, as it is in this salad. I had been meaning to recreate this salad for a while, and then I remembered that Oh She Glows had done a remake of it. Of course I can’t leave well enough alone, so I added some kale and a little olive oil. I’ve been having it for lunch ever since. This recipe makes A LOT of detox salad. Enough for me to take it for lunch 5 days a week and the Huz to have a few tablespoons of the leftovers.
WF Detox Salad Copycat recipe, adapted from Oh She Glows Detox Salad, makes about 12 cups
-1 bunch carrots (about 3/4 pound of carrots, after the greens were removed)
-2 bunches broccoli
-1 head cauliflower
-3-4 leaves kale
-about 1/2 cup fresh parsley (more if you like parsley)
-1/2 cup sunflower seeds
-1/2 cup raisins
-1 cup currants (a.k.a. tiny expensive raisins. just use raisins if you can’t find these)
-1 T olive oil (the WF version is oil-free, but I have always read that the vitamins in raw veggies are absorbed better when eaten with a little oil, so I added it. Also, is this true?)
-juice from 1/2 lemon
-1 t kelp granules (optional)
-salt & pepper
This recipe comes together pretty quickly if you have a food processor. If not, roll up your sleeves and grab your elbow grease and let’s get started.
Start with the carrots. If you have this attachment for your food processor, your life just got way easier – it shreds for you!
Shred the carrots. Before:
After:
Add to the biggest bowl you can find.
Now roughly chop your broccoli and add to the food processor. Process for about 5 seconds (one one-thousand, two one-thousand…). I processed the broccoli in three batches.
Also, this is what it would look like on your windows if it could rain broccoli and carrots:
Add the broccoli to the carrot bowl.
Now on to the cauliflower.
Roughly chop and add to the food processor. Process in about 2-3 batches for about 5 seconds each. Each batch should look like this:
Add to the carrot/broccoli bowl.
Now for the kale. Cut the leaves off the stems and add the leaves to the food processor and process for about 10 seconds.
Before:
After:
Add to the bowl. I used about half a cup of parsley. Before:
And after:
Add the kale and parsley to the carrot/broccoli/cauliflower mixture.
Now add the raisins, currants, sunflower seeds, olive oil, lemon, kelp granules, and season with salt and pepper. Mix well.
All packed up for lunch!
I’m at it again with the Mexican/Spanish/Latin food. Must be Cinco de Mayo – I just can’t help myself! I think I’m trying to convince myself that it is warm enough here in Chicago to eat this outdoors.
I had this dressing on one of my Pinterest boards for ever, and now that I’ve finally made it, I don’t know what I ever did before! I have seriously been putting it on everything. If you don’t usually make your own salad dressing, give this one a try – sooo much better than bottled, and it only takes a few minutes!
This salad is pretty versatile, so try your own variation. If you don’t like tomatoes, you can be friends with Ruby. Girl ate a receipt yesterday on our walk, but wouldn’t touch a tomato that fell on the ground while I was making this.
That’s her “It wasn’t organic, ma!” face.
Shrimp Tex-Mex Salad, serves 2, inspired by this recipe
-1 T. olive oil
-1/2 lb. shrimp (I bought cooked shrimp because the little guys were on sale, and it makes preparation a little faster, but raw shrimp will work too!)
-1 T taco seasoning
-1 head romaine
-1/2 avocado
-1 ear corn
-2 cups cherry tomatoes
-2 green onions
-1/4 cup sunflower seeds
Creamy Cilantro-Lime-Avocado Dressing (inspired by this post, makes about a 1 1/2 cups):
-1/4 c. rice wine vinegar
-1/4 c. lime juice (juice of 2 limes)
-4 cloves garlic
-1/2 c. canola oil
-1/2 cup fresh cilantro
-1/2 avocado
-1/2 t. sea salt
1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the shrimp. Sprinkle some taco seasoning on the shrimp and stir for about a minute, until coated in seasoning. Remove from heat.
2. Chop your romaine, tomatoes, avocado, and remove corn kernels from cob.
3. Make dressing: add all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend for about 30 seconds to a minute.
4. Add all salad ingredients to a bowl and serve with dressing!
Black rice salad with avocado and grapefruit
Here’s the some advice, friends, and don’t say I never gave you anything. Don’t drop black rice. Don’t drop it anywhere, but definitely don’t drop it all over your kitchen. Because you know what it looks like scattered all over the kitchen floor? Yeah, mouse poop. And cleaning it up is like a real-life, super-frustrating game of Operation. And I guarantee you’ll never find every last kernel, but some random guest will, and do you think they’ll believe you when you tell them its black rice? Of course not, because who in the hell buys black rice? People who are so bored with white rice that they are willing to pay twice the price?!
Well, I bought black rice because I wanted to make a salad I saw on Pinterest. What I got was a lifetime of picking black rice out from in between floorboards.
Black Rice Salad with Avocado and Grapefruit, adapted from The Kitchn, serves about 4
-1 c black rice
-1 avocado
-1 grapefruit
-3 green onions
-1 T olive oil
-1/4 cup orange champagne vinaigrette (if you don’t have a trader joe’s near you, you can follow the original recipe and use orange juice + rice wine vinegar)
-salt & pepper
Rinse the black rice in a mesh colander under cold water until the water runs clear. Bring 2 cups water plus a dash of salt to a boil, then add the rice. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cook for about 30 minutes, or until rice is cooked and the water is absorbed.
While the rice is cooking, chop your green onion, segment your grapefruit, and dice the avocado.
When the rice is done cooking, transfer back to the mesh colander and run the rice under cool water to bring the temperature down. Add the rice to a large bowl, and mix in the olive oil and vinaigrette.
Add in the onion, grapefruit and avocado. Stir and add salt & pepper to taste.
Don’t serve in your kitchen – all of your guests think you have mice.
Sweet and spicy walnuts
I’m back and my ego is almost healed from Zumba-gate!
I made these walnuts a few months ago in a class by the Centered Chef. They were so good, I can’t believe it took me so long to remake them at home! Centered Chef says you should limit yourself to about 1/4 cup of nuts per day. Unfortunately, I can’t eat only 1/4 cup of anything, so there goes that. But these are just the right amount of spicy that you can’t eat them mindlessly.
Sweet & Spicy Walnuts, adapted from The Centered Chef
-1 egg white
-1 T honey
-1/4 t cayenne
-1 t cinnamon
-2 cups walnut halves & pieces
-1/2 t salt
Preheat oven to 325.
Whisk the egg white in a bowl until it gets foamy. Add in the remaining ingredients and stir until combined.
Add in the walnuts.
Grab a cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper. Spread the walnut mixture out evenly on the cookie sheet.
Bake for about 5 minutes, then remove from oven and stir. Bake for about 5-7 more minutes.
Serve in these adorbs little bowls I got as a gift (Thanks, B!!).
Easy black bean and salsa burritos
By the amount of Mexican food on this blog, you might think I have some Latin roots. That is, unless you have ever seen me. And especially if you have ever seen me in a Zumba class, which I just happened to be in last week. I’ll just say this: unless we were doing jumping jacks (this happened twice), I was flailing around like I was being chased by a swarm of bees or trying to walk over hot coals. Maybe both. Note to self: find Zumba class with no mirrors. And no windows.
Don’t worry though, I memorized all the “moves”. And I plan to bust them out unceremoniously after 1.5 cocktails at Ling‘s wedding. (Ling: I hereby request a Zumba song).
For now, I’ll stick to my Latin food and save the dance moves for when everyone is blindfolded. Behold: easy weeknight black bean burritos!
Easy Black Bean & Salsa Burritos, serves 2, plus leftovers for lunch
-1 can black beans
-3/4 c salsa (any kind will work)
-1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese (I tried vegan cheese this time, but its not as good as the real stuff!)
-1/2 avocado
-about 5 tortillas
Heat oven to 325. Drain and rinse your black beans. Add them to a bowl with your salsa.
Mash the beans with a fork, combining the salsa and beans into this lovely mixture (hey, it ain’t pretty, but it’s good).
Scoop about 1/2 cup of the bean/salsa mixture into each tortilla, top with a little cheese and avocado, and roll up.
Repeat for each tortilla.
Bake for about 15 minutes, and enjoy on the porch with some Mexican beer!
Almond butter and jelly vegan thumbprints
It’s Oscars day, readers! And some poor sap put me in charge of cookies for the Oscars party! I’m sure they were thinking: I sure hope she brings something vegan. Next time I’ll be put in charge of wine or like paper plates or something. That is, if I ever get invited again.
Almond Butter & Jelly Vegan Thumbprint Cookies, makes about 3 dozen cookies. Adapted from The Kitchn.
2 cups raw almonds
4 cups rolled oats
1 1/4 cup + 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, divided
1/4 t salt
1 cup canola oil
1 cup agave + maple syrup (original recipe uses just maple syrup, but that’s just throwing money around! I found a mixture at Trader Joe’s for a fraction of the price.)
Jelly flavor of choice
Creamy almond butter
(forgot to include the almond butter in that pic – sorry!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put the almonds in the food processor and process for about 15 seconds. Mine looked like this when done:
Put the almonds in a large bowl. Back to the food processor: add the oats and process about 20 seconds. Again, here’s mine after 20 seconds:
Add the oats to the bowl with the almonds. Stir in 1 1/4 cup flour and the salt. Add the canola oil and maple syrup (note: you can use the same measuring cup and add the canola oil first then maple syrup, and the syrup slides right out!) and stir. Add the additional flour if your dough is really sticky.
I used a 2 T cookie scoop to scoop out my dough onto lined cookie sheets:
Use your thumb or an adorable tiny spoon you got at Ikea to make indentations in the cookies.
Add a dollop of almond butter and jelly to each cookie (or just jelly – I made some of each!).
Bake for 15 minutes and let cool.
Broccoli and Winter Greens Soup
Here’s a few things that stress me out, because I’m sure you care.
1. Real Simple magazine.
Nothing about remembering to vacuum my refrigerator coils is really simple. Unfortunately for everyone who will ever come to my house, I will never be one of those people who has a calendar entry for cleaning my baseboards or goes through a daily cleaning checklist (for real?!). Sometimes, I want to know what it feels like to be one of those people, but then I think: No, I just want to know what it feels like to kick those people in the shins.
2. The Wire.
How is a girl supposed to sleep after watching this show?! The Huz spends the whole hour assuring me its not real while I shout advice at the characters.
3. Getting enough greens.
If you haven’t seen Forks Over Knives, stop what you are doing right now and go watch it, then come back. I like to try to get in greens whenever I can, and hence this recipe was born. If you are a wimp about greens, then add another potato to this recipe and use spinach for the greens. If you like strong greens, use kale or chard. I used a mixture.
Broccoli and Winter Greens Soup, serves about 4, adapted from Power Foods
-1 quart vegetable broth
-2 cups water
-2 russet potatoes
-4 garlic cloves
-3 scallions
-1 head broccoli
-3 big handfuls of greens (I used a blend of spinach and swiss chard that I found, but spinach will be the most mild. If you love your greens, go for the bag of southern mixed greens they sell at Trader Joe’s)
-salt & pepper
-shredded Parmesan cheese for garnish
Pour the vegetable broth and water in a large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. While the broth is warming, do some prep work: Dice the potatoes, slice your scallions, and roughly chop the broccoli.
Add the diced potato, garlic, scallions and broccoli to the pot and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potato and broccoli are soft.
Add the greens and cook for about 5 more minutes.
Puree, either in batches in a blender or using Stick Blendy Wendy.
For me soup is really just a vehicle to eat bread, so pair this with a piece of toasted whole wheat bread for dipping.
