IMMUNE FOR HEALTH: SALADS

A salad is anything you want it to be. I’ve been served salads that consisted of 10 or 12 different sliced and chopped vegetables on a bed of spinach and lettuce. I’ve also eaten salads that were nothing more than a few slices of cucumber, one cherry tomato and a piece of iceberg lettuce.

I tell my patients to include at least four or five different kinds of vegetables in their salads. Which? My favorites are carrots, broccoli, cabbage, parsley, tomatoes, spinach, kale, collards, beet greens and onions. There’s also lettuce, cauliflower, jicama, mushrooms, cucumbers, celery, red and green peppers, okra, squash, radishes, sprouted peas, sprouted beans and sprouted lentils.

You can prepare the vegetables any way you like, from chopping them into big pieces to shredding them in a food processor. What do you top a salad with? Raisins, a few sunflower seeds or nuts, lemon juice or other fruit juice. But don’t ruin a healthy salad by covering it with fatty, sugary or oily dressings—that defeats the purpose. Special low-fat, low-sugar dressings are OK. Vinegar is also fine, if it’s not mixed with oil.

Fruit salads are mixtures of fresh fruits. You can eat a fruit salad as is, or with raisins or perhaps a few sunflower seeds. I like to chop up the fruit and mix it with low-fat cottage cheese, nonfat, plain yogurt, or Fairfax Hoop Dressing (see page 83).

With these notes on salads in mind, here are some salad recipes:

DR. FOX’S SUPER SALAD

1 2-inch wide slice of cabbage

2 leaves collards, large 1/3 cucumber, medium size

10 string beans 1/3 sweet red pepper

2 carrots, medium size 1/4 onion, white or purple, medium size

1 clove garlic

2 tsps. sunflower seeds

white pepper cumin

2 ozs. tuna, packed in water vinegar

This recipe requires a food processor. Wash all vegetables. Slice the ends off string beans. Crush garlic clove. Using shredding blade, shred all vegetables and garlic in food processor. Add sunflower seeds and toss. Add cumin and white pepper to taste. Break tuna into small flakes and sprinkle over the salad. Add vinegar to taste, and serve.

Try making this salad in different ways. Sometimes I use pineapple chunks instead of tuna and pineapple juice instead of vinegar. Or, try it with a tablespoon of low-fat cottage cheese instead of tuna.

Serves 2.

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