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.
Aparna says
Delicious! Never heard of lemon plums before :-)
Elisa says
Looks very appetizing!
Elizabeth says
So beautiful!!!
Your dressing recipe sounds amazing.
I wish I could find ripe organic plums!!!
Peace and Raw Health,
Elizabeth
Elenore (E) says
Oh Wow! And concerning new exciting foods – I hear ya, sistah:) So greatly put about the glorious fats, whole foods rock!
b.alive! says
To Elizabeth: If you read Golubka’s post well, what she is trying to bring across is, look around, get inspired by what you find and what is in season and prepare your own creative salad from it. If you don’t have the plums, you might find another interesting exciting fruit that is just ripe and in season and smiles at you, take it and take her recipe as an inspiration to create your own :-)
Purabi Naha says
I loved this recipe. Lovely photographs as well!http://cosmopolitancurrymania.blogspot.com
Sweet Faery says
Thanks for presenting this fruit I never heard of before!
la domestique says
I’ve never seen lemon plums before! The salad is so cheerful and bright, I can’t wait to give this a try! Also, I’m intrigued by this thought of limiting expressed oils and eating the whole food. Thanks for sharing!
Golubka says
Thanks so much for your comments, everyone! I know it’s tough to find plums right now, but get creative and find some sort of yummy substitute :)
Yellowgirl says
Beyond beautiful. I could have a love affair with your blog.
Callie says
I love how creamy your poppyseed dressing looks! I’ve always sworn that I hate poppyseed dressing, but I think it’s just the scary translucent color of the store bought kind that has me running! I might have to try this one though, as I do love poppyseeds <3
Treesa says
Oh, I want a lemon plum! Yum.
Anonymous says
Hi! Just to let you know – there are no poppy seeds in the “poppy seed dressing” ingr list?
Aleksandra Boyarova says
so beautiful and I bet it’s delicious! thanks for sharing
xx
Anonymous says
nice idea.. thanks for sharing....
Margaret says
Looks wonderful. Love your photos!!
http://veganrawfood.net