Tossed Raw Greek Salad

Recipe: Tossed Raw Greek Salad

This is my "Go To" Dish. Even though it's not the most popular dish for my kids, I think this plate has a lot going for it. Lots of veggies, and tasty herbs to tantalize the taste buds and fill you up. As an added bonus, this dish lasts for a while in the fridge when stored properly and can be snacked on without heating, making it a great option for those quite literally on the go.

Main ingredients:

Cucumbers

Tomatoes

Peppers (red and greed bell)

Cauliflower

Artichokes

Black and Kalamata olives

Carrots

Spiral noodles

About the ingredients, this time I had cucumbers and tomatoes from my garden, two peppers left over from my turkey chili, and a head of cauliflower and some carrots I had in the fridge. I don't usually add carrots, but I also had some in the fridge so why not. I usually add broccoli, red onion, and pepperoncinis but I didn't have any this time.  This recipe is so versatile you could add most veggies and it would all work together. This is why I didn't add any quantities to the list, it's really all about what you like. This could just be all cucumbers if you wanted, and if you don't like olives, leave them out. It will only adjust the flavor to what you'll eat, and it won't ruin the dish one bit. The secret is in the dressing, really.

First step, rinse your vegetables! 

Next I turned on the stove to get the water going for the noodles. I don't always add noodles to this dish, you could use orzo, or cuscus, or even no grain at all. 

When the water comes to a boil, salt it and add the noodles to cook. 

While the noodles cook, I dice all my veggies up into larger pieces, or something complimentary to the grain I'm using. 

Put all the raw, diced veggies into a large bowl, stirring once to allow them to mingle and start rubbing off on each other.

When the noodles are cooked and drained, I add some olive oil to avoid them from getting sticky and leave them in the colander while I drain the Kalamata and Black olives, and the artichoke hearts. I dice them all and add them to the vegetable mixture, giving it another stir.

I usually add a bottled dressing at this time, for simplicity, but I am making dressing instead for the purpose of this class. I used:

Red wine vinegar

Olive oil

Minced garlic (my FAVORITE tool in the kitchen is the zester pictured above. It's my garlic buddy, just watch your fingers because the grate sneaks up on you!)

Dried Italian herbs

Honey

Salt.

I put the noodles in a little warm, which helps to release the garlic and herbs in the dressing and warms the veggies just enough to let them soak in the flavors of all the ingredients. Toss in the secret crumbled feta cheese, and give it a good stir. 

 This can be eaten immediately, but I encourage you to let it rest and marinate for a little while. A nice fresh, crunchy meal or salad snack. Enjoy!

Considering the  Center for Mind-Body Medicine's "Food as Medicine Plate" I think this dish falls within the recommended guidelines outlined on the plate diagram. There are some sweet items in it, like the honey and I consider tomatoes on the sweeter side. Even though the vegetable options are endless, the ones I selected for this particular meal represent a pretty complete rainbow, and include herbs. 

The healthy fats are represented in the olives and cold pressed olive oil added to the dressing.

No real starchy vegetables, but there is a splash of whole grain with the noodles. The amount of noodles in this dish are not overwhelming, it's a good amount to compliment the dish.

The only item that's missing from this particular dish is a protein. The feta cheese sprinkled in at the end may be considered a minimal source of protein as it is placed in the protein portion of this particular guideline. Perhaps adding a bean or legume would suffice, or as stated in my recipe I could add in an animal protein, a dried salami or pepperoni. Even though those versions are not necessarily considered a healthy protein. The beans might be a better choice.

All in all I would say this is an ideal representation of the "Food as Medicine" recommendations. I really like this idea of the food recommendations because of it's variety of options given in each area of consideration. I also appreciate the idea of food as medicine. This doesn't necessarily mean using food to treat ailments, but also using diet choices to avoid the preventable illnesses and diseases.