I wrote a post on Facebook saying that it would be advisable to start the meal with a salad. Here is the post:
” Before a high-carbohydrate meal eat a salad of green leaves or raw non-starchy vegetables, sprinkled abundantly with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.
Raw vegetables start digestion, and through their intake of enzymes and fiber, they support it. We will no longer bloat and become sleepy slugs after a meal. And this habit also helps to lose weight.
We have a lot of food fixations, genetically inherited. One of them is the order in which we eat the food in Romania: first the soup, then the second course, accompanied (sometimes) by a salad, then dessert (possibly fruit). And everything with bread, even fruit sometimes. Although we don’t feel good eating like this, we bloat, doze off after a meal and are kind of… fluffy, God forbid we try to eat differently, because that’s how we learned from our ancestors. If we started with the salad, then the main course, a small bowl of warm soup, a biscuit or a cookie, if we left the fruit as a snack between meals and the bread only occasionally, for breakfast or a slice of hummus or whipped beans as the main course, well, if we did that, we would basically eat the same foods, but in a different order, correct for our body. We would no longer be bloated, we would no longer gain weight, digestion would occur fluently, without effort”.
I received the question: apart from the usual lettuce and arugula, what other leaves can we make a salad from? I will tell you what I make salads or raw sauces from, which are also a kind of salad, but processed in a blender. I won’t list vitamins, minerals, fiber and other benefits, because all plants have benefits, just notice them and consume them. I will emphasize the taste benefits more, many of you ask me fearfully: but what does it taste like? Let’s see, I say.
1. Radish leaves.
They contain 15 times more vitamin C and iron, 8 times more calcium and 3 times more protein than the radishes they are attached to. They are tasty, sour, when they are fresh they give an excellent taste to the salad.
2. Spinach.
We are used to eating spinach cooked. It’s ok, it keeps some of its properties and others are improved, such as the beta-carotene content. But it is also tasty and sweet raw, in salads, smoothies or in green sauces.
3. Purslane.
Or pig grass. It seems that pigs are smarter than us, because they enjoy this weed that grows on all the roads and in all the yards. It’s tasty, has a pronounced grassy taste and goes great in salads or green sauces. It has a lot of vitamins and minerals and should be taken into account.
4. Dandelion.
The tastiest are the small and young leaves, but the bigger ones are not to be discarded either. It would be advisable to use dandelion leaves in combination with other leaves, because they are a bit bitter.
5. Kale.
It’s a cabbage, so why are we avoiding it? There are several types of kale on the market: smooth and thick leaf, curly leaf or a red leaf variety. All very good.
6. Swiss chard.
I discovered it a year ago and fell in love. It’s my favorite for breakfast. If kale is a cabbage, Swiss chard is a beet. It has fleshy, sweet leaves and colorful green, yellow, red or orange stems. Use the stems in pans with sautéed vegetables or in raw leaf and vegetable sauces.
7. Parsley.
It’s the king of vitamin C, you can’t not know it. What you don’t know is that it can be used in large quantities in salads, in smoothies or in green sauces.
8. Dill.
It is also well known. Courage, you can put it generously in salads.
9. Lovage.
When we say lovage we think of soup. But it’s also tasty in salads, it’s true, in smaller quantities, because it has a very strong flavor.
10. Bok choi.
Another cabbage, Chinese this time. Very good in salads and sautéed vegetables.
11. Nettles.
They are nasty, they sting and we cannot eat them raw. We have the habit of boiling them until only the fiber remains, the rest of the goodies is transferred to the water in which they were boiled. Which we throw away. I boil the water, dip the nettles in that boiled water for a minute and that’s it, they’re good to eat. I freeze them for the winter and enjoy them all the time, make nettle sauces with garlic, salt and olive oil.
12. Beetroot leaves.
Like Swiss chard, with which they are sisters, they are eaten with stems. Some goodies.
13. Collard leaves.
Fleshy, sour. Chop finely and add to salads.
14. Clover.
Very sweet. There are many species of clovers, and while we are looking for one with 4 leaves, we can also harvest for salad. But let’s not be fooled by its sweetness, we can’t make a salad only from clover, but mix it with other leaves.
15. Arugula.
It looks like the dandelion, but it’s not the same. It’s more like a cabbage, although you wouldn’t say it. What we find in the supermarket, in that boxes, are just baby arugula, they don’t have the peppery taste of the mature leaves that we should buy from the farmer’s market. Very good in salads, in sauces and as a pizza topping.
16. Watercress.
It is short-lived, early spring, has small, sweet leaves and is found in the forest. Hard to catch, but tasty in salads.
17. Wasabi.
It is more of a spice, with a large leaf, strong aroma and hot taste. A leaf or two, finely chopped, gives flavor to a salad. And in raw sauces as well, let’s not exaggerate.
18. Ramsons.
Or wild garlic. Like watercress, it has a short life. It is found in the forest and is sometimes sold in the farmer’s market as a delicacy. Be careful when you buy it, because it can be “counterfeit”. In the forest there is another weed with similar leaves, which is much more common, so it can be confused. By buyers, not sellers, who know well what they are selling. You just have to crush the stem of a leaf a little, and if it doesn’t give off a strong smell of garlic, it’s fake.
19. Orach.
Yes, orach is also tasty in salads, not just in soup.
20. Stevia.
Sour, fleshy, found all around us. I don’t like it cooked, but I love it in a salad.
