Last night was detox class #2 (out of 4). We talked about poop pretty much the whole time. Yeah. Poop. We were instructed, among other things, to do an enema a day. I’m scared *@!*less to do an enema (pun intended). Jury’s out on that one – not sure I can do it. But apparently it makes a huge difference. And the thought of gross mucus lining my intestines isn’t too pretty. I kinda want to get that stuff outta there. Ya know?!

As I mentioned in my last post, one of my goals for the remainder of the detox (21 more days) is to eat only raw food as much as possible. Yesterday, I made this beautiful salad for lunch…

And is was sooooooooooooo good!!! I’m amazed at how FLAVORFUL raw food is. I think when we cook the nutrients and vitamins out of our food, we also cook a lot of the flavor out of it. Don’t let the long ingredient list scare you off – many of the ingredients are probably already in your cupboard. I found the original recipe on rawfoodrecipes.com and altered it just slightly based on a single serving and what I had on hand. Here’s my version…

YIELDS 1 SALAD (with extra mayo/dressing)

***

INGREDIENTS:

Bed of Veggies:
1 cup chopped kale
1 cup chopped spinach (I used baby spinach)
1 small to medium carrot, shredded
⅛ tsp. celery seed

BBQ Walnut Crumble:
2 or 3 sundried tomatoes, soaked for 2 hours, drained, and rinsed
½ Tbsp. olive oil
½ Tbsp. water
½ tsp. maple syrup
½ tsp. apple cider vinegar
½ tsp. smoked paprika
¼ tsp. chili powder
⅛ tsp. ground chipotle
⅛ tsp. salt
¾ cups raw walnuts
1 green onion, chopped

Mayo/Dressing:
⅓ cup raw cashews, soaked for 1 hour, drained, and rinsed
⅓ cup raw sunflower seeds, soaked for 4 hours, drained, and rinsed
¼ cup water
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. maple syrup
¾ tsp. salt (If you’re using salted cashews or seeds, you may not need any salt at all.)

STEP 1:
Combine kale and spinach, then form a bed of greens on a plate. Top with shredded carrots and sprinkled celery seed.

STEP 2:
For the barbecue walnut crumble, in a food processor, place sundried tomatoes, olive oil, water, maple syrup, vinegar, paprika, chili powder, chipotle, and salt. Process until a smooth paste forms. Add walnuts and pulse to create a crumbly texture. Add green onion and pulse just a couple of times to combine. Place crumble mixture on top of the bed of veggies (breaking it up with your hands as needed). Top with a teaspoon of raw sunflower seeds, if desired.

STEP 3:
To create the mayo/dressing, add all ingredients to a blender and blend until very smooth. Place a large dollop on top of the salad. Refrigerate the rest  for future use. (Before I dug in, I mixed everything on my plate together really well so that the dressing was incorporated throughout. Otherwise, I have a hard time with the bitter taste of kale on its own.)

The barbecue walnut crumble has a rich, bold, kind of smoky flavor. It’s the whole combination together that really has a wow factor, though. I will definitely make it again. Hubs didn’t get a chance to try it, but I think he would dig it.

Hang on to that extra mayo/dressing – I’ll be finding a use for it in the next day or two ;)