Salads are one of my favorite lunch choices. Most of the time, I make my lunch salads with whatever I have in the fridge. Though to be fair, my fridge is always stocked with fresh organic vegetables and healthy proteins such as pulses and fish.
And while we’re on the topic of eating organic, I know some people have expressed concern about organic food being a waste of money (there was even a show on Dutch television about this, pretty much with the same conclusion). They said that eating organic was good for the environment, but didn’t make a difference for our health (here in the Netherlands, anyway). First, let me say that what you choose to eat is very personal. Food has become a touchy subject, almost as touchy as religion. It all comes down to respecting other people’s choices. I am by no means pushing my organic eating beliefs down anyone’s throat. But I can say that since I started eating almost exclusively organic four months ago, I have noticed some amazing health benefits. I will spare you the details, but before I switched to organic, I was in and out of doctor’s offices with a list of symptoms that were rather worrying. I was advised to go on pretty heavy medication, and refused. No way was I going to make the problem even worse. I didn’t trust the doctors at all and couldn’t follow their logic. After a lot of research I decided to change that one aspect of my diet — everything we ate had to be free of chemicals and pesticides. We ate a natural diet to begin with and cooked only with fresh ingredients, but I wanted our diet to be even better, cleaner. I have now applied that same philosophy to our home and personal care products. Everything is organic and pure. No more chemicals and pesticides are welcome here! Even our dog eats a home cooked organic diet. And yes, an almost fully organic lifestyle is more expensive (I spend about 60-80 euros per week more than I would otherwise), but in the end, it’s about choices. I don’t own fancy shoes or designer clothes and I am quite okay with that! My biggest priority is our health. That’s where I want to spend my money.
But back to the salad I had this afternoon…
I called it my ‘sunshine salad’ because of the vibrant flavors and the light yellow color from the turmeric. I use quite a lot of turmeric in my cooking. You can read why here. By the way, I LOVE Dr. Axe!
Here’s the recipe:
Sunshine Salad
Serves 1
- 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 2 1/2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- freshly cracked pepper
- fleur de sel
- two handfuls of mixed greens
- 1 carrot, finely chopped
- 1/4 cucumber quartered and thinly sliced
- 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup chickpeas
In a large bowl, whisk the mustard, lemon juice, turmeric, olive oil and salt and pepper. Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir well to combine, making sure everything is coated in the dressing. Plate and enjoy!