Raw Kale And Avocado Salad With Great Northern Beans

Great Northern beans add quality protein and fiber to this healthful salad

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Using up our Garden Kale
Even after waking up to 29 degree weather the other day, which is quite unusual for Sebastopol, our garden kale didnt flinch. I was so afraid Id find frozen greens where my beautiful kale once stood but luckily all the plants survived. Ive been trying to eat it all before my luck runs out so I came up with another raw kale recipe. This one is very similar to Garbanzo Bean and Raw Kale Salad with Lemon Turmeric Dressing so if you like that recipe, youll like this one too! Great Northern beans take the place of garbanzos and an entire avocado adds creaminess to each bite. This salad also uses three times as much raw kale! This is a dish I like to categorize as "mostly raw" where you get all the benefits of eating the raw kale greens and avocado while getting the nutrient density of the beans. Many people cannot maintain their weight or get enough calories on a 100% raw food diet. "Hybrid" recipes like this offer the best of both worlds. 

Kale is still flourishing in our winter garden despite flirting with unusually low temperatures.

Raw Kale Salad with Avocado and Great Northern Beans
[Makes 4 servings]
For the dressing:
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons shallot, minced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
For the salad:
3 packed cups kale, cleaned and thinly sliced
One 15 ounce can Great Northern beans, drained
1 avocado, pitted and thinly sliced
Freshly ground black pepper to taste


Combine all the dressing ingredients and mix well. Set aside.
Place the kale in a large bowl.
Add the dressing and mix well until the kale is thoroughly coated.
Add the beans and avocado and toss until combined.
Top with freshly ground black pepper and serve.


Per serving: 202.7 calories, 8.8 g fat, 1.3 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 8.4 g protein, 26 g carbohydrates and 8.3 g dietary fiber.

Raw Kale Corn and Red Bell Pepper Salad

Day 4 of our “One Month Raw Food Cleanse”
As I posted in January, kale is one of the most nutritious vegetables around. As we do our “one month raw food cleanse”, it’s important to select foods that are going to give us the nutrients we need. Eating kale is like taking a delicious vitamin pill filled with vitamins A, C, E, and K, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, B6 and folate. It also is packed with minerals like copper, calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, manganese and phosphorus. It even delivers the important omega 3 essential fatty acid.

Non-heme iron, or iron that is from non meat sources like veggies and beans, is not easily absorbed. That’s why vegetarians and raw foodist could become anemic. However, by eating foods high in vitamin C, the non-heme iron becomes significantly more absorbable!

The kale and red bell pepper in this recipe provides abundant vitamin C to allow you to absorb the iron from the kale and corn in this salad. So this recipe can be enjoyed frequently during our one month cleanse.

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Raw Kale, Corn And Red Bell Pepper Salad [serves 4]
4 cups of shredded raw kale (dinosaur, red or green Russian or a mixture of all three)
Kernels from 1 large ear of raw white or yellow corn
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt (more or less to taste)
Dash of black pepper

Wash the kale well. Remove and discard the center stalk and thinly slice to get 4 packed cups of kale. Place the kale in a salad bowl. Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and add to the kale, gently working it in with your hands to tenderize it. Add the corn, red bell pepper and mix well. Add additional salt and pepper if needed.

Per serving: 103 calories, 5.5 g fat, .8 g saturated fat, zero g cholesterol, 1 g protein, 12.5 g carbohydrates and 2 g of fiber.

Menu for Day 4
A large fruit salad topped with sunflower and pumpkin seeds for breakfast; a sprout salad from my favorite veggie restaurant, “slice of life” in Sebastopol for lunch. This salad is full of greens and organic sprouts (sunflower, clover, adzuki, lentil and mung) and topped with pumpkin seeds and raw carrot, It comes with a raw tahini poppy seed dressing, (yum – this restaurant was one of the reasons I moved to Sebastopol!). For dinner, I will have today’s featured recipe, “raw kale, corn and red bell pepper salad” and some marinated mushrooms I have left over from the other day.