A friend of mine once told me that putting a raw carrot in the earth will make it grow, but steaming it for 30 seconds will not. Now I’m not sure how accurate this is since I haven’t tried it, but the point was that even a short cooking time removes the ‘life’ from it. This stuck with me. Eating raw produce is the single best thing you can possibly do for your body.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love all food both cooked and raw. There’s nothing quite like slow roasted lamb shoulder with mashed potatoes and wilted spinach and your body really does need both, but it is essential to incorporate fresh, crunchy veggies regularly. The benefits are countless.
But what about flavor? How do we make these meals equally yummy?
There are many ways. Dressings, toasted nuts and seeds, flavored olive oils, fresh herbs and berries. That’s how.
Ingredients:
Rocket salad
Romain lettuce
Snap peas
Cucumber
Tomato
Red onion
Blueberries
Roasted sesame seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Smoked paprika
Black pepper
Method:
Add a generous splash of olive oil to a hot pan. Add the sesame seeds. Sear the tuna on all its sides for about 15secs each. Put on a cutting board to rest.
Wash your salad leaves well and chop everything else as fine as you prefer it.
Using a sharp knife slice the tuna as thin as you like. Now build your salad.
Dressing:
Add the lemon juice, smoked paprika and black pepper to the olive oil and sesame seeds in the pan with a splash more olive oil. Mix well and drizzle over the salad.
Tips:
Make sure the tuna is seasoned with salt before starting to slice it.
Use a sharp knife to slice the tuna. I clearly didn’t as you can tell by the picture so it ripped it a little. I’ll remember for next time…
When you toast your pumpkin and sesame seeds do them separately and PLEASE don’t walk away from the pan. They burn so quickly.
Make sure the oil in the pan has cooled down, or simply use fresh oil when making your dressing.
If you add things layer by layer it’s fine but it doesn’t look as good, so after building the salad pull some of your ingredients into view for that magazine’ee kinda look.
Never, ever use butter, cream or mayonnaise in a salad dressing. It’s simply too gross for words.
For a more Asian style salad substitute the smoked paprika for soy sauce, leave out the pumpkin seeds and add coriander. Ta-Da!!!
Enjoy!