Blended Salad

I first learned about “blended salad” from Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  If you don’t know who Dr. Fuhrman is, be sure to click the link!  In my opinion, his book “Eat to Live” is one of the best books on nutrition.  I love his “nutritarian” approach to health.  It’s all about nutrient density.

A blended salad is basically another type of green smoothie.  My morning green smoothie contains a lot of fruit.  My evening blended salad contains mostly vegetables.

Here’s what I put in my blended salad last night (serves 2):

Parsley, spinach, zucchini, carrot, cucumber, apple, red pepper and lemon juice (frozen).

PREPARATION

These are tips for preparing lots of vegetables ahead of time.  This cuts down on the amount of work involved.  If it’s too much work, then you probably won’t make blended salads regularly.  Not good!

1.  Buy several bunches of parsley.  Discard the thickest stems. (I don’t need that much fiber!)  Rinse, spin dry, and freeze on parchment paper.  Store in a freezer container.

2.  Have dark leafy greens in your fridge at ALL times.  Rotate through kale, spinach, chard, collards, etc.  Rinse the leaves and remove the tough stem.  Most of the time I throw the stem away, but sometimes I mince it up for soup.

3.  Buy a large variety of vegetables and apples.  Wash, chop (2″ pieces) and freeze most of it.  Always save some of everything for the fridge.  Don’t forget about tomatoes, celery, and avocado.  Keep the tomatoes and avocado fresh.

4.  Use a citrus reamer to juice a whole bunch of lemons at once.  Freeze the juice in ice cube trays.

5.  If you have a juicer, you can also juice some of the vegetables and freeze the juice in ice cube trays.  Using some vegetable juice instead of all whole veggies will cut down on some of the fiber (if getting too much fiber is an issue.)  Save your carrot pulp for other uses (like these muffins).

5.  Blend everything in a high-powered blender like a Vitamix.  Add at least a cup of water per serving.

It’s interesting to read nutrition charts showing the percentage of protein, carbohydrate, and fat found in fruits and vegetables.  People are surprised to learn that fruits contain protein and vegetables contain fat.

Please repeat after me:

ALL PLANTS CONTAIN PROTEIN.

PARSLEY:  27% protein, 57% carb, 16% fat

SPINACH:  39% protein, 49% carb, 12% fat

ZUCCHINI:  25% protein, 67% carb, 8% fat

CARROT:  8% protein, 87% carb, 5% fat

CUCUMBER:  19% protein, 69% carb, 12% fat

APPLE:  2% protein, 95% carb, 3% fat

RED PEPPER:  13% protein, 78% carb, 9% fat

LEMON:  7% protein, 90% carb, 3% fat

(Protein, carb, and fat percentages are from the book, “Becoming Raw:  The Essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets,” by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina.  This is another excellent book on nutrition.  You don’t need to be “raw” to read it.)

Happy blending!