Ever walk into an unknown restaurant and immediately know you’ve entered one of your new favorite places?  This happened today to me at Thrive.  The minute I set foot in this place I felt both uplifted and relaxed.  The friendly staff was smiling while they worked.  Beyond the eating area was a store to buy healthy products and equipment such as bulk grains and juicers.   The owner of the restaurant, Monika Kinsman, was working the register, and my friend and I found her instantly easy to talk to. 

Did I mention that everything on the menu is raw, organic, and vegan?  Oh, yeah.  Thrive’s food is both delicious and specially desiged to fill your body with robust health. 

Everything I tasted was perfectly and speedily prepared, full of vibrant flavors and life.    In addition to enjoying a wonderful lunch (I ordered Oh My Samurai, a teriyaki noodle dish), I brought home a salad to go, the one pictured above. This salad, called Enlighten, brings walnuts, mushrooms, spinach, and spiralized zucchini “noodles” to delicious heights with a perfect, creamy Thai dressing.   I also had a taste of my friend’s lunch, Chili con Marvelous. Only good manners kept me from gobbling all of his chili right there in front of him.  As it was, I also bought an order of that to go “for my husband to try.”  He loved it, too. Yes, I did let my husband eat some when I brought it home for him.   Now that’s love.

And I love Thrive.  You think I’m kidding? I’m going back tomorrow. I’m going to take my little Rosalie there for lunch.  I feel virtuous already that my daughter will have such a healthy lunch tomorrow  (and I will generously finish it for her if she needs me to).

If salad is one of my favorite foods, then fruit salad is a favorite of the favorites.  Here’s my favorite way to make this favorite-favorite: 

In the cookbook Vegetarian Nights: Fresh from Hawaii, Bonnie Mandoe recommends making your fruit salad with very small cubes of fruit, so that each spoonful contains several different pops of juicy, bright flavor.  Ever since reading this over 10 years ago I have used this technique in my fruit salads so often, and I’m always glad I do.  It’s pure party joy in each bite. 

Tonight I whipped up some of this fruit salad for breakfast tomorrow. My plan is to pour it over my morning oatmeal–though it would be wonderful poured over a bowl of other cereals, a bowl of yogurt, even atop a piece of toast. 

Can I just tell you how happily I’m looking forward to the morning?

I first made this slaw to go with fish tacos, but glory be, I generally cannot stop eating it, even without the tacos. It’s so refreshing, crunchy, and tart.  It’s the perfect bright and juicy counterpoint to Tex-Mex dishes, such as the chicken enchiladas we had for dinner tonight.   I’ve tried adding other ingredients and spices to this slaw, but we’ve decided it’s gilding the lily to do so.  It’s just right this way, in its role as supporting salad.

Cilantro-Lime Coleslaw

This salad is fine on its own but is a total delight in conjunction with other dishes that are heavy in garlic, cumin, and peppers.

Ingredients:

• 1 small head cabbage
• 1 onion
• juice of two limes
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 tsp sea salt, or to taste

Directions:

1. Slice cabbage in quarters and remove core.  Shred each quarter thinly so that the individual shreds are slender in width but a few inches in length. 
2. Put cabbage in a bowl and mix in all the other ingredients.  Adjust seasonings to taste. 
3. Serve immediately or chill for half an hour before serving.

Last night’s “salad” (Thai fresh rolls) got me thinking about how nice it would be to have more fork-free salad options. This one is a total winner.  Cut the top off of an apple, then carve the insides out with a melon baller or other scooper.  Use the apple flesh for the salad, along with the ingredients listed below.  When you close it up, I wonder if you could hold it closed with a rubber band?  What a cute addition to a sack lunch!  It’s kind of a spin on Waldorf salad, but lighter and more zesty.

Stuffed Apple Salad with Pistachios and Oranges

Ingredients:

• 2 crisp apples
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 handful of pistachios
• 1 handful of raisins
• 2 radishes, quartered and sliced
• 1 orange, peeled and diced

Directions:

1. Cut the tops off of the apples.  Reserve the tops. 
2. Scoop the apples out with a melon baller. 
3. Chop up the apple flesh and mix it with the rest of the ingredients. 
4. Stuff the apples and close them with the tops of the apples. 
5.  To eat, take off “lid,” hold the apple vertically, and carefully eat the salad as you also take bites around the edges of the apple shell, as if you were eating  the last of an ice cream cone or a messy burrito. 

Serves 2.

This “creamy” dressing is made by making a puree of pistachios with grapefruit juice.  Bring out a green color in your dressing by adding a few spinach leaves to the mix. 

Grapefruit Pistachio Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

• Juice of one grapefruit
• 2 handfuls of pistachios
• small cube of fresh ginger (about 3/4 inch)
• 1 T orange blossom honey (or other honey)
• 1 or 2 T rice vinegar
• 3 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pepper, to taste
• Basil or tarragon, to taste
• A few spinach leaves, for color

Directions:

Whiz all ingredients together in a blender or mini-food processor until smooth.  Adjust seasonings to taste. Serve with greens and some chopped grapefruit and pistachios.

My husband scares me sometimes.  Last night we were both doing our own thing in companionable silence. Out of the blue I asked, “What’s that white thing called…?”

And he said, “Jicama?”  Uh, yes. Actually, that’s exactly what I was thinking about.  How does he do that? 

Anyway, my friend Ammi invited me over for a delicious dinner of tortilla soup, so I offered to bring a salad.   She said that cilantro was already in the soup and that she didn’t love big heaping amounts of cilantro.  I also know that she has a sweet tooth, so she would be okay with a sweeter salad, something I enjoy as well.  I set about putting together a salad that would fit the bill.  That’s really fun–being given a certain set of criteria and creating a salad from that.

At the dinner table, Ammi and I thrilled at the combination of her delicious soup and the salad.  They were perfect together, providing counterbalance in both flavors and textures.

Jicama, Orange, & Mango Salad

I was making this up as I went along, so the measurements may be a bit fuzzy. 

Ingredients”

• 1 medium jicama, peeled and julienned
• 1 or 2 oranges, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 large mango, peeled and cut into cubes
• 1/2 or 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• A few tablespoons of finely chopped red onion
• 1 T rice wine vinegar
• juice of 1/2 orange
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• cumin, to taste (about 1/2 tsp)
• salt, to taste (about 1/4 tsp)
• cayenne or piment d’Espelette, to taste (about 2 dashes)

Directions:

1. Place all the fruits and vegetables together in a medium bowl. 
2. In a small bowl, mix together the vinegar, juices, cumin, and salt.   Pour over salad.  Mix together gently.  Chill and serve with something delicious and savory like tortilla soup!

Serves 2 – 4