Magenta Dream Salad

A delicious kale salad, plus an orange segmenting tutorial!

This is one of my all-time favourite salads (although I love all salads with fruit, avocado and nuts). It's sweet, slightly creamy, fresh, crunchy, contains jicama, and is an absolutely gorgeous shade of pink!

This also contains kale, which we should all know by know is a powerhouse of vegetable nutrition, and also tastes great in salads after a good massage.

This is my first dinner in my month-long raw food experiment, and it was delicious! I did have to eat about half of it before I was full, but I didn't mind one bit! I know tahini isn't raw (unless you specifically buy raw tahini), but I'm going to allow myself a few small cheats, as long as they're only condiments and I don't have them too often, or too much of them at once.

First of all, if you don't know how to segment an orange, here's how:

first, slice off the top an bottom

then cut off the rind with a knife, cutting in a bit of a curve to
get all the pith

your orange should know look like this

cut the orange out from between the membrane

 I usually like to cut the orange segments in half so more bites have orange in them, but this is optional.

Magenta Dream Salad

Ingredients

2 bunches kale, thinly sliced
1 fennel bulb, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
2 medium-smallish beets, grated
1/2 small jicama, cut however you want (I can never figure out the best way to cut jicama for salad, so just do whatever you think is best. I cut it into flat squares)

use about this much ginger, or more

3 oranges, 1 zested
1 tsp grated ginger
1 avocado, thinly sliced, slices cut into quarters, the riper it is the creamier the salad will be
2 Tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
pepper, to taste
1 tsp honey, optional
2 Tbsp tahini
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (toast them if you're not eating raw)

Directions

1. Whisk together the vinegar, olive oil, tahnini, salt, pepper, honey (if using), ginger, and orange zest.

2. Put the kale in a bowl or on a large cutting board. Pour the dressing over it.

3. Cut the segments out of the oranges over the kale, so the juice falls on it. Once all the segments are cut, squeeze the remaining pulpy stuff so the juice falls on the kale, then discard.

4. Using your hands, squeeze the kale and mix it up with dressing; "massage" it.

5. Toss the kale with the fennel, beets, jicama, orange segments, and walnuts.

6. Eat it right away, or allow to marinate for stronger flavours and softer kale. Kale salads keep well without turning limp and soggy like lettuce salads.

7. Enjoy!

before tossing

after tossing

This post has been shared with Healthy Vegan Fridays.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream

I have and obsession with peanut butter. I know it's not very healthy (peanuts contain toxic substances), but I just can't stop myself. It's sooooooo good! And peanut butter and jelly is a match made in Heaven. So peanut butter and jelly ice cream was obviously something that I came up with right away when thinking about what ice cream flavours I should try, and just had to make it. I'm glad I did, because it was utterly amazing! Besides, my peanut butter's organic, so it's not that bad. ;) This is for all the peanut butter addicts out there: eat it in moderation, but when you do eat it, be sure to savor every last sweet, creamy, toasty, fruity, peanut buttery bite!

Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Berry Jelly Swirl

Jelly

2 cups mixed berries, fresh or frozen

1 Tbsp honey

2 tsp arrowroot powder

water

1. Put the berries, honey and a splash of water in a saucepan and simmer until the berries start to break apart and the liquid reduces. Keep cooking until the mixture starts to thicken. This may take a while.

2. Puree either with a stick mixer or in a blender. You can strain this if you want, to remove the seeds, or just leave them in. Put this mixture back in the pot over low heat.

3. Mix the arrowroot powder with warm water in a small bowl (similar to a cornstarch slurry). Pour this into the berries slowly, stirring constantly. If you notice the mixture becoming thick, you can stop pouring in the arrowroot. If the mixture is still too thin, make more slurry and add it. Remember that it will thicken as it cools.

 4. Allow mixture to cool.

Ice Cream

3 cups organic full fat coconut milk, chilled

3/4 cup raw honey

3/4 cup smooth organic peanut butter (no sugar added)

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt (or more, I usually use twice this much because I like salty peanut butter)

1. Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth and well blended.

2. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturers directions.

Peanut Butter Chunks

3 tablespoons coconut oil

6 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (I use lightly salted)

4 tablespoons Honey (don’t sub sugar here, you want soft chunks)

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

pinch of salt

1.In a small saucepan over a low heat, stir and combine all ingredients.

2. Cook until melted. Keep it slightly warm, because it's harder to add to the ice cream when cold and thick.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream

peanut butter ice cream, straight from the ice cream maker

jelly

peanut butter chunks, warm

1. Put about one third of the ice cream in a container.

2. Add half of the jelly, or less if you want a higher peanut butter-to-jelly ratio.

3. Pour another third of the ice cream over the jelly.

4. Add the rest of the jelly.

5. Pour the rest of the ice cream over the jelly.

6. Pour the peanut butter chunk mixture over the ice cream. Try to spread it in as thin a layer as possible.

7. Close the lid and freeze the ice cream for about 30 minutes, or until the peanut butter chunk mixture has hardened.

8. Break up the peanut butter chunk mixture into chunks with a knife (I actually find this easier to do with my hands, but it's really messy that way. You can make smaller chunks, though).

9. Swirl everything together with a knife, making sure to reach the bottom to spread some jelly there too. Just be careful not to swirl too much, or the colour will be muddled and it won't freeze as nicely.

I over-swirled this a bit, but it was still delicious!