It’s that time of year again. The time when my inbox is flooded with emails asking what the best detoxes are and my top tips for detoxing. I totally get it. We’ve all just been through the holiday happenings. Grazing at cocktail parties and indulging in sugar and spice and everything nice. It’s only natural that come January we mentally and physically crave a break; an opportunity to clear out all the junk and allow our bodies to reboot.
The funny thing is (and this is depending where you live), the colder months can be the most tricky when it comes to safe and gentle detoxing. Our bodies naturally crave warmer and cooked foods to help combat the cold and often cooling juices with a lot of fruit can feel disconnected from our environments.
So, for this month’s food of the month I wanted to bring you my top 3 foods that will warm you through the winter AND detoxify your body. (more…)
I like to get a little intimate with my greens from time to time. Before I bite into a big mouthful of kale, I want to help it relax by giving it a nice, deep massage–with olive oil. Oh yeah! Really get your hands into this one, the more you massage, the easier it will be to digest this uber-fibrous, nutrient powerhouse of a vegetable. Once, it’s all relaxed, then you hit it with a bevy of Mediterranean flava (olives, tomatoes, tahini dressing, etc) and the deliciousness is undeniable. It will be like you and this salad were made for each other!!
Mediterranean massaged kale salad
- 1 bunch kale, de-stemmed and chopped
- 1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 10-12 olives
- ¼ cup cherry tomatoes, halved (optional)
- whole grain croutons (optional)
- sesame seeds (optional)
Tahini Dressing
- 1/4 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 lemon, juiced (2 tablespoons)
- salt and pepper, to taste
- pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
- water to thin, begin with 2 Tablespoons and add more until you’re at your desired consistency
De-stem and chop the kale into bite sized pieces. Drizzle the kale with olive oil and massage the oil into leaves, coating them evenly.
In a separate bowl combine the ingredients for the tahini dressing. Mix thoroughly, it can take a little elbow grease to fully incorporate the tahini.
Taste the dressing and make any adjustments.
Pour dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Then garnish with olives, tomatoes, croutons and sesame seeds!
Quinn Asteak is a featured In The Kitchen contributor and an holistic-health coach/ cooking teacher teaching people to have fun in the kitchen! For more about her click here for her full bio and all of her articles! read more →
Recently, a friend asked me, “How can I make kale yummy?” It occurred to me that perhaps a lot of people are new to the nutritional powerhouse that is kale. Maybe you only know it as that curly green thing underneath your potato salad, or shoved in between the ground beef and the New York strips in your butcher’s display case. It does look quite nice, but it is severely underutilized as a garnish. Loaded with calcium, iron, potassium, vitamins A, C, and K, and even some protein, you’d be much better off eating the kale, and tossing the potato salad. Here are five simple things you can do to make your kale yummy.
Eat it raw. Eating a salad comprised solely of raw kale is a little tough to take. Kale has pretty intense flavor and a tough texture. But if you want to give your salad a nutritional shot in the arm, simply remove the leaves from the stem, chop them up, and mix with other lettuces, like romaine, leaf, or butter. The added flavor and texture will, ahem, (switch to fancy voice) dance wonderfully across the palate and create a unique mouth-feel. Wow, I watch way too much Top Chef. (more…) read more →