If you are ever in need of live food inspiration, turn to Sarma Melngailis’ great cookbooks, blog, and restaurant (which will be our first stop next time we’re in NYC – we’ve never been). Her vision combines health and elegance, never echoing the “granola” approach, that is often associated with raw food.
With this Green Market Salad (from Raw Food/Real World), we wanted to bring you the palette of spring, as it slowly transforms the landscape with fragrant blossoms and freshly crowned trees. The salad greens are at the peak of their season in Florida, and there is so much pleasure in bringing these delicate leaves from the market straight onto our table. The dressing is truly this brilliant in real life, if not greener – as if it has been squeezed out of a tube of gouache.
I usually make this salad when friends come over – it’s impressively complex in flavour, and the amount of dressing you end up with is enough for quite a few portions.
I like to garnish this salad with marinated mushrooms from another recipe in the same cookbook:
1/2 pound of Shiitake and Crimini mushrooms (or any wild mushrooms) – sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
some fresh herbs (I used basil and cilantro)
some sea salt
garnish with freshly ground black pepper
Combine the ingredients. After 2 to 3 hours of dehydration at 115F, the mushrooms become soft and taste just as if they were sauteed. This is a great way of preparing mushrooms, I use it frequently in other dishes.
I substituted some ingredients in the original recipe with what I had on hand, those alterations are included.
Dressing:
1 avocado – peeled and pitted
1 cup orange juice – freshly squeezed
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons lime juice – freshly squeezed
1 green onion
1 tablespoon chopped yellow onion
1/2 small jalapeno – seeded
handful of cilantro
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup olive oil
garnish with freshly ground black pepper
Blend all the ingredients until smooth, gradually adding the olive oil while the blender is still running.
Salad:
Salad greens
Radish – any kind, I used Daikon radish, cut on a spiral slicer
Macadamia nuts – coarsely chopped and mixed with a pinch of sea salt, some ground black pepper, and nut oil (or any other cold-pressed oil)
Pour the dressing over the salad. Garnish with the marinated mushrooms.
Thanks for the great discussion on the previous post. We’re currently exploring Waldorf schools.
Post by: A<
Shelley says
Good morning Anya,
I love your blog. You take such care with all of your photo’s. Your presentations are magnificent! I want to run over to sit at your table. I experienced the raw food diet while living in Santa Cruz and stopped eating it when I moved back to New England. Your pages inspire me to want to try it again.
Thanks for the efforts. So glad to hear you are looking into Waldorf for Paloma.
Hugs.
Anonymous says
Your photographs are fabulous, I check out your posts even when I know the recipe (ie: Sarma’s salad) just to see the photos! BTW…I’ve been to Sarma’s restuarant many times (it’s one of my first stops when I’m in NY) and it is WONDERFUL…the patio in summer is magical…
Congratulations again on your photos (& your site)
Holly Sarian
Buenos Aires, Argentina
kiki says
i tried your chili recipe and apart that i put too much salt:), it tasted excellent but my body couldn’t digest raw eggplant and zucchini and i got terrible bloating and stomachache:( i cooked it and ate it next day-no prob…so not everybody can digest entirely raw food…i have problems with mushrooms and raw cabbage too…after all, cows have 4 stomachs and different digestion system than humans…but i like mixing some raw and some cooked vegetables!
Anonymous says
I was going to buy that Sarma book (who funny but true has a same name as a Balkan meat dish) but after reading (what I thought was an excellent book review) decided not to buy it…I somehow believe that woman Nikki has a point and that there are better recepies online and Sarma is all about money and fame….
read what NIKKI D had to say….
http://tinyurl.com/y5yqgr3
Anonymous says
i’m both avocado and mushrooms intolerant:( any substitute?
Natali ilataN says
What a fabulous idea for dressing.
i can eat only salads, so any new recipe is so appreciated.
this salad look amazing i will let you know how do i find taste, but i am almost certain that i will enjoy it.
keep on doing this blog.
thank you
elra says
This is truly beautiful salad. I can not get over the color of your dressing. So pretty and delicious.
Sue says
There’s nothing quite like a delicious salad! I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again,,,,,your culinary expertise, and your photography are amazing!
lisa kay says
OH MY SALADS—My husband just about faints when I say we are having a salad for dinner. But I now give him your photography and show him the menu with the ingredients and his mouth begins to water.
I disagree with anonymous who claimed Sarma was all about money and fame. What restauranteur isnt? They must be proactive!!
Keep on bloggin kiddos
L
Golubka says
Shelley: Thank you so much for your sweet comment. Come over to our kitchen and eat with us :)
Holly: Awh thank you! It’s so cool to have a reader all the way from Argentina. The PF&W garden sounds so beautiful, hoping to visit it soon.
Kiki: That’s so cool that you tried the chili, glad that you liked the flavour. I’m sorry about your stomach, but have to tell you that those symptoms are common to when you start eating raw, as your body goes through a sort of detox/cleanse. We too experienced that during transitional period. But now it’s the opposite – eating anything overcooked or fried makes our stomachs angry :)
Anon 10:35 – Thanks for sharing that review. I think I read it before buying the book. I disagree with many of Nikki’s points. For me visuals are important, I can’t stand cookbooks without photography, and I was thrilled to find a raw food book that I could enjoy aesthetically. Sarma’s beauty doesn’t distract me, quite the contrary, actually. The fact that the recipes are complex or require expensive ingredients can be justified by the fact that they are straight from the menu of their fine dining restaurant. There are plenty of raw food books with simpler recipes, but if you are looking for something special to cook, something challenging and interesting, maybe something to surprise your friends with, then this is a great book for that purpose. The anorexic statements are completely ridiculous, I don’t even want to talk about those.
Anon 10:40 – Awh, sorry about that. This salad can be enjoyed without the mushrooms, they’re just something I like to add as a garnish. But I’m not sure what you could substitute for the avocado in this particular case. Stay tuned for other, avocado-less salads that we have coming up :)
Natali: Why can you only eat salads? Hope you like it!
Elra: Thank you! That dressing is insanely brilliant…
Sue: So true & thank you!
Lisa: Haha, that’s so funny about Ed and fainting at the mention of salads. Maybe he’d like this one? Definitely agree, restaurant owners need to be determined and proactive, why not.
Anonymous says
Hello there!
When you go out or eat at friend’s house, what do you eat?
When Paloma goes to a friend’s birthdy party, what does she eat? I find it very difficult understanding exclusive food choices especially more extreme then veganism for instance (since 99.9% of ALL humans cook from the very discovery of fire in the prehistory;I don’t think there is any tribe left out there that doesn’t use fire)
I have a feeling you are ready for compromise though (Cooked potatoes, hot vegetable broth etc.) so that sounds reasonable and good for your child who will not be marginalized and left out of society.
Compliments for your photos!How do you find time to both take pictures AND cook?
Anonymous says
Me again LOL
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1H7A95KBV34A9/ref=cm_cr_pr_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0061458473&nodeID=#wasThisHelpful
Just can’t digest all this Sarma-self-loving stuff
Don’t you see what I mean? With all these other great cookbooks out there?
Natali ilataN says
Anya,
i sad that i can eat exclusively salads i love them,
Any new delish. recipe is so appreciated.
thank you
Mohammed says
Good morning Anya,I love your blog. You take such care with all of your photo’s. Your prnnsetatioes are magnificent! I want to run over to sit at your table. I experienced the raw food diet while living in Santa Cruz and stopped eating it when I moved back to New England. Your pages inspire me to want to try it again.Thanks for the efforts. So glad to hear you are looking into Waldorf for Paloma. Hugs.
Golubka says
Anon 4:28 – Hello! Thank you so much for your compliments. I write this blog together with my older daughter, so we assist each other in cooking and taking photos. We don’t like to be fanatical about food and don’t claim to be 100% raw. As long as the food is good and fresh, we’ll eat it, with pleasure :) When we go out, which is rare, we eat whatever looks appetizing at the restaurant. As for socializing – the majority of my friends share and understand my point of view towards food, so it’s not difficult for us to hang out. Paloma is only 19 months old, so she hasn’t been to any birthday parties yet. It’s quite sad that you’re put in front of two choices: to feed your child well or for her/him to be accepted in society with eating birthday cake etc., no? It shouldn’t be this way, and I am trying to make sure that it’s not. I hope to raise Paloma to understand the difference between good quality food and rubbish, it’s such a useful knowledge to have. Besides, raw food has had such a positive effect on the health of our family, that it’s worth compromising several things. Again, we’re not extreme, not even vegan – we eat cheese and kefir.
Anon 4:34 – I see your point, but I explained up there^ why I feel differently. It sounds like those reviewers are a bit bitter. Again, we have plenty of other great cookbooks, but use this one for cooking something special. And we like Sarma :)
Natali: Gotcha :)
Tara says
That dressing looks divine! We are just coming into salad season here in Maine, which I am SO looking forward to! I can’t wait to try yours!
Good luck with your exploration of Waldorf!
Golubka says
Tara: Thank you! I hope you get a chance to make it.