The Svelte Kitchen

This salad is so delicious! It is almost like a meal in itself and happens to be my fabourite way to eat spinach! Spinach well known for being very high in antioxidants but less known for it’s high folate or folic acid

What we love: This salad is healthy, delicious and filling! It doesn’t take very long to make yet is fabuous!

What we love less: nothing unhealthy about this one! However you do have to make the correct amount as it doesn’t keep well.

Dressing
½ cup balsamic vinegar (or slightly less)
½ cup olive oil
¾ teaspoon salt
2 or 3 turns of the pepper grinder

Grill (or under the broiler)
½ red or orange pepper
½ green pepper
½ yellow pepper
(if you like zucchini slice into ovals and grill 1 zucchini as well)

Cut these into large chunks and put them in a bowl. Pour some olive oil over them and season with salt and Garlic Plus seasoning or your favourite seasoning. (Garlic Plus can be found at Costco in the ClubHouse seasoning section)

Place baby spinach on a platter with a sprinkling of baby greens and pour half of the dressing over the salad. Place the grilled veggies on top as well as:

2 sliced tomatoes or half a package of cherry or grape tomatoes (better if you slice them)
Pickled artichoke hearts cut in half (as many as you like)
A handful of green and black olives (each, whatever kinds you prefer — Mediterranean being an obvious choice!)

Pour the rest of the dressing or some Little Creek dressing over the top of the veggies and serve! To take this salad up a level, add some lightly steamed asparagus with a little Garlic Plus on them. Delicious!

Salad || Grilled Mediterranean Salad

It’s fall and in our house that means another excuse to make soup! Soup is such a healthy and easy meal option. You can make it over the weekend and have it on hand for most of the week! You can even freeze it.

This Cabbage & Dill Borscht is one of our family favourites! Cabbage is something worth adding to your diet. Along with broccoli and other brassica vegetables, cabbage is a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells. The base of this (traditionally cream) soup is Almond Milk — which we discussed the health benefits of in the Alomond Milk recipe post. All round delicious and healthy!

Cabbage & Dill Borscht

Saute in 2 tablespoons of coconut oil:
2 Onions
4 Celery sticks
2 large Carrots, shredded on large
2 small Potatoes cubed
1/2 of one small Cabbage shredded finely

Add:
7 cups Almond Milk (see earlier post)
4 cups Veggie Broth
1-28oz can of diced tomato’s (with juice)
1 bunch fresh dill, chopped
1 tablespoon Garlic Plus (a Club House seasoning)
2 1/2 large stirring spoons of spaghetti sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste.
1 can garbanzo beans (added at the end)

This soup will stay in the fridge for up to 5 days. It’s a delicious fall favourite!

Soup || Cabbage & Dill Borscht

This fabulous tea is from South Africa. It has some great health properties — it is very high in antioxidants, is herbal so has no caffeine and has very low tannin levels compared to black or green tea. Word has it that it helps with nervous tension, allergies and digestive problems as well as infantile colic, asthma and dermatological problems.

It is a fabulously refreshing beverage and great hot summer days. And it’s so healthy you want your kids to drink it!

Iced Lemon Rooibos Tea

6 tablespoons loose-leaf rooibos tea
2 lemons
1 teaspoon agave nectar (optional)

Boil 8 cups of water. Put the tea into an 8 cup french press. Add the boiled water and let it sit for 5 minutes. Plunge the press. Cut one lemon into rounds squeeze the juice from the other lemon. You can either let the tea chill in the fridge or immediately add ice and lemons and serve. Add the lemons and lemon juice when you are ready to serve. If you like tea sweetened add a teaspoon of agave nectar. If you prefer a stronger tea flavour add 2 more tablespoons of the loose-leaf tea and let it steep for 10 minutes.

Beverage || Iced Lemon Rooibos Tea

Even though it’s almost June, it has been a little cold here and it seems that a soup recipe might be in order. Great flavour and hearty ingredients make this a classic in our house. Lentils are a great food for vegetarians to embrace. They are very high in protein, vitamin B and folate. Cilantro is full of antioxidants

Studies have shown a direct relationship between soup consumption and successful weight loss.  As a weight loss strategy eating soup helps by slowing your rate of intake and reducing your appetite by filling your stomach. (This is from Dr. Joel Fuhrman author of Eat to Live)

What we love: Lentils are so healthy and this is a great way to eat them. Especially when you choose the French lentils — delicious!

What we love less: So this is not a raw dish … but lentils are best not consumed raw so really this soup is pretty perfect!

Homemade Lentil Cilantro Soup

2 medium sized onions
4 stalks of celery
4 large carrots
1/2 of one green pepper
1 bulb of garlic
1 cup french green or blue lentils
2 liters of water

Finlely chop the two onions and the celery. Grate the carrots very finly so that the carrots become part of the broth. Put all of these ingredients into a dutch oven and add the water. Let it cook until the lentils are done (about 30 minutes). French lentils do not need to be soaked and never turn mushy like other varieties of lentils (bonus!).

1-28oz can of large diced tomatoes
2 liters of vegetable broth
2 cups tomato sauce (we use Prego)
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch cilantro
1 rounded teaspoon curry powder
1 rounded tablespoon dried basal
3 turns of fresh ground pepper

Add all of this to the original pot. Finely chop the parsley and cilantro. Let it cook for another 30-40 minutes and serve! Keep in mind that soup can always be frozen or refrigerated for up to 5 days and that each day it tastes better as the flavours merge.

Soup || Homemade Lentil Cilantro Soup

This is the best way to eat Kale, by far! It maintains all of its nutritional value because it is a salad (hence not cooked) but is delicious and easy to eat as it is marinated. Kale has gained fame as a source of calcium that is absorbed by our bodies about twice as well as the calcium from dairy products. Kale, contains sulforaphane, a chemical believed to have potent anti-cancer properties.Kale is also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells.

Hemp seeds are another awesome ingredient in this salad. It is rich in omega 3, 6, and 9. Protein is the other major component of hemp seeds, second only to soy yet easier to digest than soy.Hemp seed is one of those “super foods” that you should go out of your way to eat!

What we love: Delicious combination of sweet and salty and a recipe that actually makes the kale tender to eat.This salad will last 2-3 days in the fridge so long as you don’t add the tomato and avocado until you are ready to serve. Something else to love — it doesn’t have any dressing! The 2 tablespoons of sesame oil and the juices from the oranges combine to make it fabulous!

What we love less: This is a great-all-round salad.

Orange & Sesame Kale Salad

2 bunches of kale, washed and de-spined (remove the leaves from the stalk)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons sesame oil

Massage the salt and sesame oil into the kale leaves in a bowl. Let it sit, covered, for 2 hours.

2-3 oranges sliced
1 large red pepper
2 tablespoons of hemp seed
1 bunch green onions
2 turns of freshly ground pepper

Slice the oranges and red pepper long and thinly. Cut the green onions thinly, into small rounds. Mix this into the kale after the 2 hours

1 large tomato
1 Avocado

Once you are ready to serve slice the large tomato into thin strips in the salad and garnish with avocado.

You can also add slices of strawberry, mango and pineapple for a more tropical, fruity blend!

Salad || Orange & Sesame Kale Salad