In the week or so since my last post, 6 Tips to Stop Emotional Eating, I’ve managed to rope in the urge to go flying off on food benders. (Yeah!) It’s a feat I’m pretty impressed with, given that I’m still getting used to being back in school, and—surprise!—I had to put together a 25-minute group presentation with two classmates on less than a week’s notice.
The topic I drew by sheer luck? “Which is Better: Animal or Plant Protein?” (I can’t make this stuff up.)
Luckily, it all went smoothly—as you can imagine, I already had some good studies pulled on the benefits of a plant-based diet, although I had to present both sides of the argument, which I found a little challenging. Luckily, it’s finished—and before midterms, no less!
Needless to say, I’m glad to be back to the land of blogging, and I’m excited to share a tasty tropical chopped salad with you.
Crunchy and delicious!
So take a break from the daily grind and enjoy a taste of the tropics right in your dining room. You deserve it!I know, I know, it’s fall and this salad is all about summer! But I’m deep in denial that winter will soon be here, so I’m reliving those sweet July days with food that brings to mind hammocks and sea breezes. And this salad does just that.
Sweet and crunchy with a little kick in its giddy-up (a bit like me, come to think of it), it’s brimming with mango, crisp jicama, colorful cabbage and refreshing ginger that will have you on island time in no time. Which, with the back-to-school hubbub, sounds like just the thing to me.
- ½ large jicama, peeled and chopped into small sticks (2 c)
- 2 c stringless sugar snap peas, halved
- 1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, halved and sliced (about 2 c cucumber "moons")
- 2 large or 4 small mangoes, peeled and chopped (2 c)
- 2 c shredded or chopped red cabbage
- ¼ c sliced green onions
- ¼ c chopped fresh cilantro
- ½ c 5-minute ginger dressing (I recommend the pineapple-lime variation)
- Toss all ingredients together and serve. To make in advance for company, prep all ingredients the day before except the jicama and cilantro. (Chop those at the last minute for max crispness and color.) Toss everything together with the dressing just before serving, or serve the dressing alongside.
Shared on Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Raw Foods Thursdays and Wellness Weekends.
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I'm Lee, an RD thriving on a healthy plant based diet.
Mmmm this salad sounds fabulous. There is NOTHING wrong with being in denial with cold weather quickly approaching ;p<br />So glad you are managing to stay on the healthy eats track – let's encourage each other and be "healthy eating buddies"!<br />Glad school is going well too =)
Thanks Kimmy! You're in Northern CA, so your weather never gets too cold, right? I'm a lot jealous of that.<br /><br />Also., I love that you'll be a healthy eating buddy–I co-hosted a baby shower for a friend last weekend, and got totally derailed with cake and pie. (I don't even want to talk about it! :-p ) So once again, I'm back on the straight and narrow. (Although I'
This looks so good – I LOVE mango. I'm still curious about the jicama, I really need to go and see if I can get some. It must have been challenging presenting both sides of that debate. Hope you're loving being back at school 🙂
Hi Lizzy, it was tough to do both sides of the presentation for sure! But people were really surprised to learn that vegetarian/vegan diets are associated with a lower risk of not only heart disease but cancer and kidney disease. We even had a discussion going afterwards, so I was pretty happy with it.<br /><br />Anyhoo, hope you're able to find a jicama soon (they go by some other names;