I’m so honored to share simple, beautiful cooking classes with Humana in Mesa, Arizona, for the last few years. This week, our focus was on “High Fiber Foods” with a tasty, simple-to-prepare Asian Salad with Citrus Ginger Root Dressing.
Asian Salad with Vibrant Purple Cabbage and Tangy Citrus Ginger Root Dressing
Make your own gourmet Asian salad with a rainbow of raw organic veggies, your favorite toasted nuts, and intuitively created ginger root dressing.
A quick peek at the set at Humana, with my short Facebook Live.
Asian Salad: Ginger Salad Dressing: 3 Key Ingredients
The essential ingredients for a perfect Asian dressing every time are ginger root, a soy flavoring (wheat-free tamari soy sauce or Bragg’s amino acids), and fresh citrus.
Simple Ingredients
1” fresh ginger root, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup soy tamari or Bragg’s amino acids
½ orange, juiced
½ fresh-squeezed lemon or lime juice
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp local honey
⅓ cup organic extra virgin olive oil
Simple Steps
Finely mince ginger root and garlic.
Place in pint-size Mason jar.
Add all other ingredients (except olive oil) to jar and shake.
Taste and intuitively add ingredients to create your desired flavor.
Too much acid: add olive oil
Not sweet enough: add honey
Too oily: add lemon or lime juice
Asian Rainbow Salad
Along with a tangy ginger root dressing, a colorful rainbow of raw organic veggies creates a beautiful Asian salad.
Simple Ingredients
1 purple cabbage, shredded or sliced
2 cups Bok Choy, sliced
1 cup carrots, shredded
1 cucumber, julienned (long, thin slices)
1 cup snap peas or snow peas, cut on bias (Note: not have snap or snow peas)
6 green onions, cut on bias
1 cup red, purple, or watermelon radishes, sliced
1 cup almonds, sliced and dry toasted
Simple Steps
Dry toast (no oil) sliced almonds in small sauté pan on low heat for 5 minutes.
Toss all vegetables in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.
Drizzle the Asian salad dressing on the vegetables and gently toss.
Top with dry toasted almonds.
Enjoy!
Happy to share with you the beautiful, colorful, simple-to-prepare Asian Salad. At Humana, we all really enjoyed the freshness of the dish and the ginger-rich dressing.
And, I was so fortunate to enjoy left-overs with my sunset…
Hope you enjoy creating your version of an Awesome Asian Salad.
Please share your creations with us on our new Instagram @plantbasedfoodart and Facebook www.facebook.com/plantbasedfoodart
I’m excited to announce that Experience Nutrition is now offering exciting Beautiful Food Art Challenges…
If you’d like to hear about the next Challenge, please fill in your Name and Email.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
So honored and excited to create quick, simple, delicious, farm-to-table dishes from the weekly Winter POM Rhibafarms Box with the healthy-eating, vegetarian, vegan Pomegranate Café in Ahwatukee, Arizona and the incredible Rhibafarms and Mark Rhine in San Tan Valley, Arizona.
Let’s take a look at my favorite beauties in the POM Box…
POM Rhibafarms Box. Arizona Winter 2019
Mark Rhine, owner of Rhibafarms dried last Fall’s beautiful chili peppers for us over the last year. What a variety. Big Jim’s, Jalapeno, Habanero, Cayenne, Sweet Bell.
This week’s recipe is based on intuitively cooking almost all of my favorites in the POM Rhibafarms BOX. It started with being excited with my first fresh thyme of the year, plus the beauty of the dried peppers. You’ll see that I first created a pilaf and extended the meal to a fresh simple salad.
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right
PUBLIC COOKING CLASSES AT THE MARICOPA COUNTY LIBRARIES
I’m honored have been leading hands-on cooking and yoga classes with the Maricopa County Library District since 2016. For the Winter Reading Program, the class focuses on Mediterranean Plant-Based Culinary. We’ll be preparing Hempseed Tabouli, Olive Tapenade, and Herbal Hummus. Classes are Free to the Public. Call the libraries directly to make your reservation.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 5:00-6:30pm: Litchfield Park Branch Library
More to come in the Summer Reading Program: June & July 2019.
WINTER COOKING CLASSES & EVENTS IN THE PHOENIX ARIZONA AREA
February 18, 2019, 4:30-5:30pm: Grandfamilies Place, Gregory’s Fresh Market. Kids learn to mandoline & marinate veggies and build their own salads.
February 27, 2019, 12:30-1:30: Monthly Healthy Cooking Demo, Humana Mesa. Melanie’s favorite “Healthy Plate”
March 2, 2019, 10-11am: National Nutrition Month at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market
March 19, 2019, 5:00-6:30pm: Litchfield Public Library, Mediterranean Plant-Based Appetizers
March 27, 2019, 12:30-1:30pm: Humana Monthly Healthy Cooking Demo
HOLD THE DATE: September 13-16, 2019: Plant-based Cooking Retreat in Sedona!
During the retreat in beautiful Sedona, Arizona, you’ll be learning and practicing simple plant-based culinary skills for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. We’ll also enjoy Sedona hiking, yoga, massage, and special Sedona experiences. Please send me a note, Mel@MelanieAlbert.com, and I’ll keep you posted on the details.
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
More than kale chips. We can dehydrate all kinds of leafy greens to make chips.
This week I experimented with 5 different beautiful greens from this week’s CSA at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, grown by urban farm Billy Anthony at the Soil & Seed Garden.
When leafy greens are in season, I invite you to experiment with dehyrating them and notice which you prefer. I absolutely love shungiku (chrysanthemum) and loved this floral green dehydrated.
Simple Recipe: Leafy Green Chips: More Than Kale Chips
1 cup raw cashews, pre-soaked in water for 2-4 hours
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp roasted garlic powder
½ tsp dry basil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Pinch sea salt
2-4 tbsp water, for desired creaminess
Cashew Cream: Mise en Place
SIMPLE STEPS
Cashew Cream
Blend all ingredients in blender or processor.
Add water, as needed for desired creaminess.
Dehydrated Leafy Greens
Tear out any large stems in the leafy greens.
One variety of greens at a time, place leaves into a large bowl.
Add a few tablespoons of cashew cream to the greens.
Place greens and cashew cream into a small bowl.
Gently massage cashew cream into the leafy greens.
Lightly massage the cashew cream into the greens.
Spread greens onto dehydrator screen.
Mindfully spread greens onto dehydrator screens.
Dehydrate at 125 degrees F for about 3 hours.
Dehydrate greens at 125 degrees F for about 3 hours.
Test for desired crunchiness.
Dehydrate longer to suit your taste.
Enjoy as a snack.
More than Kale Chips. Enjoy all kinds of leafy green chips.
The Five Winter Greens
Shungiku, often known as edible chrysanthemum, is one of my favorite flavorful greens. These greens, popular in Japan, are aromatic and floral tasting. Shungiku are generally eaten raw or gently cooked to enjoy their crunchy texture and flavor.
Shungiku: The Soil & Seed Garden, The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona.
Mizuna, another Japanese green is a member of the mustard family, a little peppery, yet milder than arugula. These are growing in the Learning Garden at The Farm.
Mizuna: The Soil & Seed Garden, The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona.
Roquette Arugula, one of my favorite greens, a little spicy, nutty, and sweet, adds exciting flavor to all dishes. Arugula is enjoyed both as salad greens, as an herb, and now as a dehydrated chip.
Spigarello, technically in the broccoli family, looks like a spiral kale. Enjoy spigarello gently sauted or massaged with a simple acid-fat-salt dressing in a salad.
Cauliflower greens. Yes, there are the edible greens that grow on cauliflower. Enjoy!
Cauliflower Greens: The Soil & Seed Garden, The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona.
Purchase Melanie Albert’s award-winning cookbook,“A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods”
COOKING CLASSES AT THE FARM AT SOUTH MOUNTAIN IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right
By Melanie Albert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Intuitive Cooking Expert, and Award-Winning Cookbook Author
This week’s intuitive culinary creation was inspired by the fresh, vibrant Winter Greens & Citrus from The Farm at South Mountain Soil & Seed Garden CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), grown passionately by urban farmer, Billy Anthony.
So often we sauté greens with a little olive oil, garlic, and sea salt for a nice side dish. Since The Soil & Seed Garden greens were so fresh and vibrant I decided to experiment with eating several different greens in a simple raw salad. And, I’m so glad I did. This salad is one of my very favorites. The textures and combination of citrus and mint are outstanding. Hope you try it.
The salad features Shungiku, Minutina, and Mizuna greens, Arizona navel orange, ruby grapefruit, and an Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil, imported to Arizona by Chef Chris Bianco.
The Three Winter Greens
Shungiku, often known as edible chrysanthemum, is one of my favorite flavorful greens. These greens, popular in Japan, are aromatic and floral tasting. Shungiku are generally eaten raw or gently cooked to enjoy their crunchy texture and flavor.
Mizuna, another Japanese green is a member of the mustard family, a little peppery, yet milder than arugula. These are growing in the Learning Garden at The Farm.
Minutina are long, slender, spiked leaves with forking antler-like horns. When harvested young, the crunchy leaves of minutina taste a little like a mix of parsley and spinach.
The Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
In addition to the greens, I’ve been experimenting with an organic extra virgin cold pressed olive oil that local Phoenix Chef Chris Bianco has recently imported from Italy. The oil, from the Pugila region, is a single variety pressed from Peranzana olives. Chef Bianco has mentioned that some of the olive trees are 400 years or more years old.
Arizona Winter Greens & Citrus Salad
This salad is perfect for the fresh Soil & Seed Garden vibrant mild tasting greens and citrus.
SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
1 large handful shungiku (chrysanthemum)
1 large handful minutina
1 large handful mizuna
1 navel orange, sliced, juiced, and zested
1 ruby grapefruit, sliced, juiced and zested
1/4 cup snap peas, sliced on diagonal
3-4 sprigs fresh mint
2 tbsp kalamata olives
1 tbsp capers
1/4 cup pecans
¼ cup organic extra virgin olive oil
SIMPLE STEPS
SALAD DRESSING
Squeeze ½ of juiced orange and ½ of juiced grapefruit into mason jar. Approximately ¼ cup juice total.
Pour in twice as much organic extra virgin olive oil as juice.
Shake the jar.
Notice if the dressing needs more acid (grapefruit / orange) or fat (olive oil) to suit your taste.
Add pinch of sea salt.
Add few mint leaves.
Shake jar.
PLATE THE SALAD
Place greens, snap peas, olives, capers, pecans, and mint leaves in a large bowl.
Gently pour the dressing onto the greens.
Hand toss to coat the greens with the dressing.
Plate the salad with slices of orange and grapefruit.
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Let’s take a look at the final salad..
Purchase Melanie Albert’s award-winning cookbook,“A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods”
COOKING CLASSES AT THE FARM AT SOUTH MOUNTAIN IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Thanks to Natural Awakenings AZ magazine for featuring my Plant-Based Chocolate Pie on the cover and Plant-Based Dessert recipes in the January 2019 issue.
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019
Natural Awakenings Arizona, January 2019. Start the New Year Off Right
by Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, speaker, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
I was so excited at the Uptown Farmers’ Market in Phoenix this week to see huge lettuce grown by Tom at Latchkey Gardens. The lettuce was so heavy, I asked Tom to weight it…it was an amazing 3 ¼ pounds.
Today’s intuitive salad features this lettuce, local Arizona farmer’s produce, and offers you some culinary ideas to create your own unique salad. Take a look at the techniques used to create this fresh farmers’ market salad and choose one or two add to your own salad creations.
Step 1: Get organized with a few of your favorite fresh veggies.Today I’m excited to make this salad with local Arizona farmers’ produce including a tangerine (thanks Community Exchange), carrots (thanks Steadfast Farms), tomatoes (thanks Tiger Mountain Foundation), along with asparagus, avocado, walnuts, and my favorite olives and capers.
Step 2: Make the 3-Ingredient Salad Dressing.Start with an acid, add twice as much fat, and a little sea salt to create the base for your dressing. Today’s acid is a tangerine and the fat is organic extra virgin olive oil. I added fresh thyme for extra flavor. Experiment with other fresh herbs and/or minced garlic.
Step 3: Peel a few carrots. Place carrots in a bowl with ice and water to curl.
Step 4: Add a quick steam / sautéed veggie.Try a quick steam and saute a veggie, such as asparagus. Place the veggie in a small pan with a little water on medium heat. Onc water has cooked the veggie, add about a tablespoon of olive oil to saute.
Step 5: Add broiled avocado. Quick broil avocado with a little olive oil and sea salt.
Step 6: Tear the lettuce into bitesize pieces and place in a large bowl. Gently toss and coat the lettuce with the salad dressing.
Step 7: Add other ingredients to the lettuce to create your salad. Be creative using your local farmers produce. Today’s salad features carrots, tomatoes, asparagus, avocado, walnuts, olives, and capers.
Step 8: Mindfully plate your salad and enjoy.
Action: Have fun creating your own lettuce salad using a new culinary technique. Share photos of your salads with us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating
Melanie’s book, “A New View of Healthy Eating: Simple Intuitive Cooking with Real Whole Foods” features 54 simple plant-based recipes, 3 wild salmon recipes, and 84 simple culinary techniques.
by Melanie Albert, Food and nutrition expert, author and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
For several years I’ve been guiding clients, from young golfers, to holistic practitioners, to former NFL players, to seniors to create a raw kale salad. The key is a simple-to-prepare salad dressing. In my next book to be released in April 2016, “A New View of Healthy Eating,” I share simple culinary techniques. Once you learn the techniques, you can intuitively create your own dishes.
How to make a basic salad dressing is one of those simple culinary techniques. I’m sharing the draft from the book around creating salad dressings and look forward your feedback when you experiment with your own salad dressings.
EXPERIENCE NUTRITION SIGNATURE RAW MASSAGED KALE SALAD
Make your own gourmet raw kale salad with your favorite fruit, berries, nuts and seeds. Learn how to make a simple salad dressing, massage your kale, and add-in your favorite seasonal fruit and berries, and nuts and seeds.
“The key to a tender kale salad is a simple dressing and massaging the kale. And, the fun is in creating a beautiful, tasty kale salad is the seasonal fruit and berries. One of my very favorite add-ins in a kale salad is local Arizona organic pomegranate seeds.”Melanie Albert
Basic Salad Dressing: 3 Ingredients. That’s It
Three key ingredients for a salad dressing include a fat, acid and salt. Optional add-ins include aromatics (such as garlic and onions), fresh herbs and sweeteners like raw local honey and fresh dates. To make your initial dressing for a kale salad, start with fresh lemon, organic extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and garlic. Once you have learned how to prepare a dressing with this technique, you can use this method to create your own unique salad dressings for a raw kale salad or other fresh salads.
Simple Ingredients
1 fresh lemon, squeezed, approximately ¼ cup
Organic extra virgin olive oil, twice as much as the lemon juice, approximately ½ cup
¼ tsp sea salt
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
Simple Steps
Squeeze a fresh organic lemon into a pint-size Mason jar
Pour in twice as much olive oil as the lemon
Sprinkle in sea salt and minced garlic
Shake the jar
Taste and notice if your dressing seems too oily, acidy or too little or too much salt. This is a great place to mindfully use your cooking intuition. Add-in ingredients until the dressing tastes great to you.
A New View of Healthy Eating: Basic Salad Dressing
Create Your Own Salad Dressing
Learn the simple salad dressing technique and then create your own with different fats, different acids, and add-ins, such as sweeteners or freshly minced herbs or sweeteners. Sweeteners such as honey, can be used to balance a dressing that seems too acid tasting.
Fats: Olive oil, grape seed oil, nut oils, such as walnut oil
Acid: Citrus (Lemon, limes, oranges); Vinegars (Balsamic, rice red or white wine), stone-ground mustard
Salt:Your choice of sea salt or Himalayan salt
Optional Sweeteners:Raw honey or dates
Optional Aromatics: Garlic, green onions, shallots, red onions
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