In Praise of the Blended Salad

What looks ugly as sin but feels great in your stomach?

A blended salad.

It's sad, but most Americans don't like salads. And by salad I don't mean a handful of iceburg lettuce with a slice of sorry hothouse tomato on top.

I mean a tub of dark, leafy green lettuces and celery and cauliflower and carrots and everything else that graces the produce aisle in the grocery store.

If the idea of eating all that "rabbit food" makes you want to puke, then try a blended salad, the answer for non-salad people who still know they need to eat veggies to be healthy.

How do you make a blended salad?

Simple.

Chet Day's Blended Salad Recipe

Let me walk you through my basic recipe: in my blender, I drop in a tomato which I have either quartered or whacked into eighths, depending on the size.

On top of the tomato pieces, I drop in one small quartered baby cucumber (usually about the size of two thumbs in length).

I hit the grind button and turn these two ingredients into mush.

Add one half to one whole avocado, and, yes, you peel it first.

Squeeze in the juice of one half lemon.

Now it's time for a teaspoon of dulse, which is a seaweed available at health food stores.

Then I add half of a bell pepper (green or red).

Next come five to eight leaves of Romaine or other green-leaf lettuce.

Pack all this stuff loosely into the blender. Toss in any other veggies (dice 'em a bit first) that you like.

Now pull off three or four good-sized celery stalks and turn on the blender and use the celery stalks to push the other ingredients into the blades.

The whole deal will eventually wind up as a liquified mass that doesn't look very appetizing.

If strangers were to break into CasaDay before I sat down to dine on my blended salad, they'd probably scream, "Yuck, you're going to eat THAT?"

If they did behave so rudely, I'd give 'em my most superior smile and nod sagely. Little do they know what they're missing.

So don't throw your blended salad away because it doesn't have the beautiful looks of Angelina Jolie!

Instead, pour it into your finest crystal bowl, pull out one of Granny's best spoons from the silver cabinet, and then sit in a quiet environment and enjoy a remarkably healthy and tasty treat.

Not only will you enjoy the taste (experiment with ingredients until you find combinations that make your tastebuds yell "Wow!"), but you'll also assimilate more vitamins, minerals, and other goodies than you would have had you chewed the ingredients separately.

If you have a recipe for a blended salad that you'd like to share, use the comment button below.

Chet Day
Editor, The Health Circus
http://chetday.com