This recipe brings together flavors for an exciting salad as a main dinner selection. It features the sweet purple potato which roasts up very tasty, along with cashews, tender baby kale, chicken breast, and an all organic balsamic dressing purchased at the Whole Foods Market. It is a non-oil dressing that is gluten free, vegan friendly, and non-dairy. The main dressing ingredients includes blackberries, figs, and aged balsamic vinegar.
Upland cress is high in phytonutrients, such as iodine, iron and phosphorus, as well as antioxidant vitamin A and C. It also has 14.76 mg of lutein per four (4) ounces, which is great for eye sight.
Upland cress has a peppery flavor much like arugula, and will add zing to your favorite sandwich or salad recipes. It is also reported that Cress soup can cleanse the blood in the Spring after a long cold winter. Cress is often recommended in cholesterol lowering and weight reduction programs, making it an alternative medicine.
Our featured recipe has a wonderful vinaigrette, Sweet Onion and Apple Vinaigrette.
When grating the onions and apples use the small holes of the grater.
Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
Next wash 4 cups of Upland cress and set aside.
Dice up 1 mango into 1-inch chunks, or optional to use packaged thawed mango chunks, about 1 cup. Next peel and pit one firm, but ripe avocado, and slice.
Shred 1 1/2 cups of chicken meat or cut off in chunks from a fresh made rotisserie chicken.
Arrange cress onto plate, and top with mango chunks, meat, and avocado slices. Next pour or spoon on the vinaigrette.
Serve and enjoy this dense nutrient salad.
Take Note
According to Power Your Diet, cress contains under 1/2 mgs of oxalic acid per 100 grams of leaves. Oxalic acid occurs naturally in some vegetables, which can crystallize as oxalate stones in the urinary tract in some people. If you know that you have oxalate urinary tract stones it is advisable to avoid eating vegetables belong to the Brassica family.
Being a Brassica family vegetable, cress may also contain goitrogens, which may interfere with thyroid hormone production and can cause thyroxin hormone deficiency in individuals with thyroid dysfunction.
We went shopping for some fruits and vegetables and I found a good watermelon. The batch of melons we were examining were from Mexico. The watermelons were all the same weight and the same shape. If your asking how is that possible, it is because we bought it at Cost Co. All of the fruits and vegetables they stock have to be to their standards, that is shape, size, and weight. Especially if the produce is sold in singles, like watermelons. As they have no scales to weigh the produce, they need to be the same weight.
With that said, you may think that every watermelon in the bunch is equally as ripe and sweet. But not so. How is one able to choose the right melon?
I found this image on-line that is self explanatory. It shows how you can select the right melon, so when you cut it up and take your first bit, you won’t be dissatisfied with a non-sweet, pithy watermelon.
Once you have your rip, sweet watermelon, you need to try this wonderful salad: Watermelon Goat Cheese Salad.
Here is what you will need:
Wow, doesn’t that melon look rip and juicy. You need 1 ripe and sweet watermelon, cubed at desired size, 5-7 pieces per salad plate. You will use between 1/4 and 1/2 of the melon. It all depends on how many plates you will be serving.
In addition you will need:
1 shaved fennel bulb set in ice water to crisp
1/8 cup toasted hazelnuts, broken into small pieces
Whisk together shallots, chives, basil, honey and balsamic; slowly add olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Next remove the green top from the fennel and shave the bulb allowing the shaved parts to fall into a pie plate full of ice water to crisp the shavings. What ever method you want to use, chop the hazel nuts. I have a Progress-o Chopper in among my kitchen arsenal.
In a large bowl gently toss tender greens, crisp fennel, toasted hazelnut, add some salt and pepper to taste. Next add 2 tbsp. of the vinaigrette together with the leafy greens and incorporate well.
Plate the leafy greens mixture. Place cubed watermelon on salad mix, about 5 to 7 cubed pieces. Crumble goat cheese on top. Finish with drizzled vinaigrette around salad.
If you desire to add meat to this salad, cook up 12 to 16 oz. of pork bacon; but not crispy. Cut each strip into 5 or 6 slices. Top the bacon after adding watermelon and then top with goat cheese.
Take this salad to your next Pot Luck or Summer Picnic in the Park and nobody will stop talking about the person who brought that tasty and delectable salad.
the same weight and the same shape. If your asking how is that possible, it is because we bought it at Cost Co. All of the fruits and vegetables they stock have to be to their standards, that is shape, size, and weight. Especially if the produce is sold in singles, like watermelons. As they have no scales to weigh the produce, they need to be the same weight.
