Yeah, I said it—The healthiest salad on the planet! This is my signature salad. I’m very proud of this salad recipe, which will keep me alive and thriving in this era of smoggy air and dis-ease. I have started to eat it several times a week to make sure I am always giving my body a range of healthy vitamins and minerals. This kind of habit over a lifetimes must do wonders for your health. It doesn’t hurt that I am uterly addicted to tahini salad dressing… mmmmm… makes me want to lick the plate after every salad.

I suggest quadrupling my tahini dressing and storing a big vat of it in the fridge, so you can enjoy it throughout the week. If you’re taking this to work, I suggest shredding the veggies on Sunday, and putting them in separate containers. Then assemble the salad at work and add the dressing. Voila!

There are 4 elements to this salad. Everything is raw:

Organic Greens: Pretty much whatever you have in the fridge that is a dark leafy green will work. Pick what you like. I like my baby spring lettuce mix, baby spinach, your favorite sprouts, or wilted kale.

(Wilted kale is one of the only ways to eat raw kale without gagging. Its pretty simple. Peel or cut off the leaves of your kale and throw away the stems. Place the kale it in a bowl with a small amount of salt sprinkled on the kale. Then squeeze the kale with your hands until it shrinks and starts to resemble a cooked texture. Hint: this is a popular way that kale is prepared in many raw kale salads that you see at the health foods markets.)

Organic Shredded Carrots: You can try to grate this stuff by hand, but I don’t recommend it! I use my mini-chopper grater attachment to grate my carrots. Most food processors come with a grater attachment which allows you to feed the produce through a shoot. Your produce gets spun through a grater, and sent out into the processor or into a bowl. It’s very fast and easy.

Organic Beets: Same technique as the carrots.

Tahini Dressing: Tahini salad dressing is popular at many vegan and raw restaurants. I have been playing around with this a bit and finally came up with what I believe to be the best tasting recipe. My secrets are adding a little agave to balance the bitter with sweet, and ginger makes everything all good… I am not a chef, but it sounds good when I talk like one so…. anyways, I must warn you if you haven’t had tahini dressing, you may want to make a small amount at first to see if you like it. It has a strong flavor, so its not for everyone, but to me its worthy of plate licking.

Ginger-licious  Tahini Dressing

• 2 T raw tahini (you can buy raw tahini or you can blend raw sesame seeds in your Vitamix)
• 1 and 1/2 t ginger
• 1/2 cup oil (olive or safflower both work well)
• 1/3 cup water
• 2-3 cloves garlic (optional depending on your taste for raw garlic, try a teaspoon of powdered garlic if you you’re not into raw)
• 1 T lemon juice (about 1/2 small lemon)
• 1 to 2 t Nama Shoyu or tamari
• 1 to 2 t agave
• dash of cumin (optional)

Blend until smooth. Taste and then play around with it until you get your desired thickness and taste.

I hope you get as much joy out of this salad as I do. Live long and prosper.