One Super Summer Salad

Welcome back to It’s All Health! Now that summer is in full swing I have been looking for a light, refreshing salad that is 100% healthy and 100% delicious. I have found it! I am excited to share with you a recipe I created a few days ago and have had every night for dinner since then. It is called Lea’s Summer Salad.

In my quest for the perfect summer salad I knew I had to come up with the perfect dressing, since that is what makes or breaks a salad. My goal for this salad dressing is to steer clear of store bought, processed dressings. I wanted to create something completely homemade with no oils or vinegar that would just bring together flavors of the summer in one beautiful, delicious package. The recipe makes a lot of dressing but it is so good for you that you can have as much as you’d like. With most oil and vinegar dressings having more than 2 tablespoons will weigh you down. Not so with this healthy salad dressing! I wish I had thought of it sooner. It will leave you feeling light, but completely satisfied.

Fun Food Fact: Dates are the oldest cultivated fruit in the world. They are an all natural sweet treat that can be enjoyed year round and added to a variety of dishes to sweeten them or enjoyed alone. Loads of fiber, potassium (more than bananas, ounce for ounce) and a variety of B-complex vitamins including thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6, and pantothenic acid are among the date’s amazing nutritional qualities. Dates are also fat-free and sodium-free! In the recipe below, I use dates as a bacon substitute. That was not my original intent but after I added them to the salad, they look like bacon and actually somehow taste like it too!

Lea's Summer Salad:

• 1 big bunch of mixed greens
• 1 beefsteak tomato
• 1 Portobello mushroom top
• 4 dates, pitted
• ½ cucumber
• 1 Small Handful of raw nuts (pecans or cashews work really well)
• 1 Serving of dressing

Homemade Health Salad Dressing:

• 1 really ripe mango
• 1 handful of strawberries
• 1 Tbsp raw sunflower seeds

Arrange greens, tomato, Portobello and cucumber on plate. Chop mango and strawberries into small chunks then blend together with 1-2 tbsp of water and sunflower seeds for about 30 seconds. Pour over salad, top with nuts and chopped dates and enjoy! Another variation is to leave the sunflower seeds out or add some chopped pineapple for a more tropical dressing. The possibilities and endless and delicious!