Lemon Plum Salad with a Poppy Seed Dressing

March 11th, 2012

This post is also available in: French
I can never pass by a vegetable or fruit that I’ve never seen before. The way most people are with clothes, I am with food. These lemon plums looked so intriguing at the produce stand, I had to try them. These curious fruit also turned out to be honey-sweet and delicious.
The lemon plums ended up where most produce ends up in our house these days – a salad. When local greens are in season, we cannot get enough of their fresh, green energy and want to prepare them in the most simple way possible.
Add delicious candied walnuts and yummy dressing, and your are in for a real treat.

The poppy seed dressing is my attempt at eliminating or at least minimizing the amount of oil in a dish. One of the guests at our 3D tango event was Amanda, who is a Green Mission specialist at Whole Foods. She teaches a nutritional program based on these four pillars. One of them is eating healthy fats by reducing the amount of extracted oils in your diet. This philosophy makes complete sense – it is much better to eat a whole unit, like an olive, rather than just a part of it, like the extracted olive oil. Nature provides us with the most perfect balance in a most effortless way.

Lemon Plum Salad
Poppy seed dressing
 3 tablespoons raw sesame tahini
1 tablespoon raw honey
 1 tablespoon poppy seeds, or more to taste
 Juice of 1/2 lime
 1 ripe lemon plum – pitted
 4 tablespoons fresh coconut water or purified water
 sea salt to taste
 1 tablespoon macadamia nut oil (optional)

Blend all the ingredients with the exception of macadamia nut oil in a high-speed blender. Add the oil in at the end of the process, with the blender still running. Store in the refrigerator until needed.

Candied Walnuts
(adapted from Raw Food/Real World)
2 cups walnuts – soaked for 1 hour
1/4 cup maple syrup powder
1/4 cup raw honey or agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon sea salt

Toss all the ingredients in a bowl. Spread on Teflex-lined dehydrator trays and dehydrate at 115F for about 12 hours or until crisp.

Assembly
Arrange the fresh salad greens on a plate, followed by slices of ripe lemon plums and a couple of scoops of cashew cheese (optional). Top with the dressing and candied walnuts, sprinkle with poppy seeds. Enjoy.

Tags: raw, recipe, salad

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