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.

***

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.