Winter Salad And Juices

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little antsy for spring. It’s been fairly white or grey around here for months, and I am longing for colour and fresh, I mean REALLY fresh, food. To quench my thirst, so to speak, I decided to do some juicing. I grabbed some long-storing (i.e. easily found in winter) fruit and veg: a bag of organic apples, a bag of organic carrots, some ginger, a lemon… and a hothouse cucumber. I also dug out some of the beets I still had in the crisper, from my harvest last summer (as that’s about all I have left), and I got to work.

Apple-Carrot-Ginger Juice

• 5-6 apples (I used Gala)
• 10-12 medium carrots
• 3″-4″ ginger

Scrub your produce. Quarter and core the apples. Take the ends off the carrots and cut into pieces. Peel and cut the ginger. Toss into the juicer, a couple of each item at a time and juice. I like a bit more tang to my juice, so I also added 1/2 of a peeled lemon to the mix. Makes about 1L.

Apple-Beet-Cucumber Juice

• 5-6 apples (I used Gala)
• 2-3 large beets
• 1 whole cucumber
• 3″-4″ ginger

Scrub your produce. Quarter and core the apples. Take the ends off the cucumber and cut into pieces. Peel the beets and cut into pieces. Peel and cut the ginger. Toss into the juicer, a couple of each item at a time and juice. Again, I added 1/2 of a peeled lemon to the mix for tang. Makes about 1L.

Lastly, I decided to use some of the produce in a salad. I figured it also needed a bit of a dressing of some kind, so I just started throwing things together to taste. This is what I came up with.

Apple-Beet-Carrot Salad

• 1 large apple
• 1 large carrot
• 1 large beet
• about a tbsp olive oil
• a dash or two balsamic vinegar
• about a tbsp maple syrup
• dash of both salt and pepper
• about a tsp dried basil
• about a tsp sesame seeds
• handful of pecans, broken into pieces
• greens (lettuce, spinach, kale, whatever)

Peel the apple and beet. Core the apple. Scrub the carrot and cut the ends off. Shred in a cheese grater, using the largest holes. Toss in a big bowl with the rest of the ingredients (I used my hands, Jamie Oliver style, to get it good and mixed). Serve on greens. YUM!!!

While the juice wasn’t quite as tasty as it is in the summer and fall (when the produce is freshest), it was a delightful burst of flavour for these humdrum months. I now have two large containers chilling in the fridge to be enjoyed later this week (I’m thinking in a hot bath would be nice). And the salad… WOW! I had mine on a bed of baby kale and practically inhaled it! I am totally looking forward to enjoying the rest of it tomorrow. Even my meat-loving husband said it was tasty! Lesson learned – don’t be afraid to dig into new greens and raw beet – it’s SO worth it! Anyhow. I hope y’all have yourselves a wonderful weekend!  =)