Lively Treats

Lively Treats!

Arun Sharma M.I.I.N.T., N.D.

Director,

International Institute of Mahayoga & Natural Hygiene

C o n t e n t s _/\_

Introduction to Natural Hygiene

The Cocoanut 6

Dressings 8

Cold Slaw 9

Green and gold 9

Triple C Refresher 10

CauliBell 11

SpinSquash 11

Caroccoli 11

Red White and Green 12

It’s Easy Being Green 12

Zucchini Crackers 12

Alkaline Detox 13

Turnip Tacos 13

Caulinut 13

Okra and Cucumber 14

Sprouts and Leaves 14

Dinner 14

An Introduction to Natural Health!

We are all children of Mother Nature and we are blessed with abundant natural resources which help us to live healthy. If we all lived as Nature intended us to live, we would never be sick; as active as the wild animals in the jungle and healthy until our last day. Thanks to modern civilization, our health level has gone down en-masse. Natural Hygiene is the true science of health which teaches individuals how to be civilized without suffering. Among other things, healthy positive eating includes such raw vegetable salads described in this book. Learn more about healthy natural life from this author’s book “Nature’s Care”.

_/\_

S a l a d s

Salads are simple, tasty, and ever so healthy for you, as long as they’re prepared the right way! Unfortunately, many people miss out on the full benefits of salad, because they drown its ingredients in fatty dressings, or heap on unhealthy things before serving them. Try these particular combinations as they are, unadulterated. You will be surprised at how good

the vegetables taste without any “help” from us humans. Mother nature is perfectly capable of providing us delicious and nutritious foods. True to the teachings of the Father of Medicine Hippocrates of Athens, Rome, “Thy food be thy Medicine!”, Raw Vegetable Salads prepared in a healthy manner also serve as best medicines to bring you up from ill health to heath and from health to better health!

How to use a Cocoanut?

Coconut is a wonderful source of fat, protein, sugar mineral salts and vitamins. They make the taste of salads very enjoyable.

There is a popular notion that coconuts add to the cholesterol in our body and some people tend to avoid it. Some people do not like the taste. I do not aim to change their opinion. They can take the sprouts in its place or soaked almonds in moderation if they choose. I do feel it important to mention here that our experience has been different. We have given plenty of salads with fresh grated coconuts for a week to patients who were concerned about their increased cholesterol level. The result was very encouraging. Within one week their cholesterol level went down to normal level! The secret is that fresh coconuts are water based and are associated with vitamin A. This is particularly useful in reducing cholesterol. The lesson we learn from this is that we should not cook coconut if we wish to take maximum benefit from coconuts.

Before you purchase a cocoanut, give it a few quality tests. First, feel the weight of it in your hand. It should feel heavy for its size. Listen to the sound of the water sloshing around inside. There should be lots of water. Empty cocoanuts have gone bad, and should not be eaten. Knock it on the sides a bit. You should get back a sound that’s like a wooden bell,

rather than the sound of a wooden spoon striking a wooden block. It’s hard to describe if you haven’t seen it done, but the more you get involved in knowing what foods you’re buying, the better you’ll feel after using those foods.

This goes double for fresh produce. When you buy tomatoes, smell them. If you smell nothing, it will taste like nothing. Look at the bunch of cilantro. It should be a vivid green, and have healthy looking roots. Smell the bunch. Many people don’t bother to smell their herbs, and end up with flat tasting food. Do not let yourself fall into this trap! There should never be any moldy or yellow leaves in a bunch of cilantro. If you do see this, then you know that it has been sitting around for too long, away from the land where it grew. Onions should be tight and firm, and feel heavy for their size. Sprouts should be firm, and able to stand up on their own. The surface should not have any soapy emulsion coating it. If it is, that shows that it has been soaking under water without any air contact for too long. Wash it thoroughly and let it air a few minutes to get fresh and alive. (It is not the food in your life, but the life in your food that matters!) Know your food before you buy it! Trust me, it’s worth it.

Removing cocoanuts from the shell and saving the water inside for drinking can be difficult if you’re not careful. South Indians are usually adept in this art. First, pierce through the softest of the three eyes in the coconut and drain the water in a cup before cracking

it open. You can use a screwdriver and a hammer to pierce the tough shell in the eyes. While you’re here, check the quality of the water that drains out. It should smell fairly clean, and be clear in color. If the water is cloudy, smells bad, or rotten, you have a spoiled cocoanut on your hands, and you would do well to discard it immediately. If you’re making large quantities of cocoanuts for

large group of people, and you’re looking to go through many coconuts, drain out the water for each cocoanut in a separate cup before mixing it into a larger pitcher. This will ensure that you determine the quality of the water in each cocoanut before eating it.

There are three lines that run vertically along the cocoanut, originating from the “eyes” in the opposite direction across from the eye at the top. Choose the odd eye of the three eyes and It should be the middle point of the line opposite that eye, which is supposed to be the weakest spot in the coconut.

They will be your guidelines for where you should tap the shell to break it open. First and foremost, before you pick up that chisel, get on an oven mitt or gardening glove onto your exposed hand. Give your spot a few experimental taps (so that your hand can grow accustomed to the feel of a hammer against the cocoanut) and then cut loose, and give the shell a good hard wallop with your hammer. The shell will probably look back at you stubbornly.

Give the cocoanut a quarter turn, and give it another good hard whack. Within three or four solid hits, you should most likely have two roughly equally sized halves of cocoanut. If you don’t have two roughly equal sized pieces, don’t fret, because neatness doesn’t count! If all else fails, and you’re ready to lose your temper, throw the cocoanut into a burlap sack, and hurl it as hard as you can against your kitchen floor. It’ll break open the cocoanut, and you’ll feel worlds better from having vented your frustration on this obstinate little gem of the culinary world.

Removing the Nut from the Shell

This next step can be mindlessly simple, or endlessly difficult, depending on how you approach the situation. First and foremost, before you pick up that chisel, get on an oven mitt or gardening glove onto your exposed hand. We don’t want to hear angry phone calls from people who have managed to get themselves a trip to the emergency room because they were being incautious with sharp instruments.

Get out to your local hardware store, and pick up a steel woodworking chisel. These are the basic ones with a rubber or plastic handle, and with a sharp point at one end. They shouldn’t cost more than a dollar or two at the most. When you get home, wash the entire chisel in 1 litre or water that has a few teaspoons of chlorine bleach in it. Let it soak in the bleach and water solution for about five minutes at the most. Remove it from the water, and rinse it thoroughly. Dry it off with a clean towel, and give it one more rinsing with water. The reason for this is to remove any of the oils, dust, and other germs that the tool may have picked up on its trip to your house.

Once your chisel is cleaned, and your cocoanut shell is broken open, and you’re wearing your oven mitt or gardening glove, you’re ready to start harvesting the cocoanut meat. Place a piece of the cocoanut and hold it sideways onto a sturdy cutting board. Hold the chisel in your dominant hand, at a 45° angle (with respect to the cocoanut, that is), starting from its rim dig into the nut and plough a line at an angle of approximately 15 degrees from its rim or outermost line of the white part of the coconut. Score it in 1 centimetre slants as long as you can plough through.. The strips of nut should pop right out. Continue with the rest of the cocoanut, and have your coconut in a bowl, ready to go. From this point on, things get easy. Depending on how you’d like them, you can grate them in a food processor in varying thicknesses, and use them accordingly. If you’d prefer to use a blender, use some water (or coconut water) to make a paste.

Figure 1: Removing nut from the Coconut Shell. This is a side view of the operation. Starting from the tip of the rim, dig in and move the chisel’s blade forward at a 15 degree slant along the side of the shell, and scrape out horizontal strips of cocoanut .

Angle and point to start digging the chisel and ploughing along

Dressings

• We encourage you to try all of these recipes with any one of the dressings here.

• It is important to note that you want to avoid adding salt to these recipes at all costs. Salt leeches out the water from the vegetables, as well as your system.

• If you’re looking to avoid acid, omit the tomato..

• That being said, all of these topping ideas are wonderful.

It would be to your benefit to try the variations, and find something that suits your palate best.

Variations:

A. All Mix Pasty Dressings

½ cocoanut

¼ cup chopped cilantro

1 medium tomato, cut in four

½ small onion, cut into four

1/2 cup of water, ( or as little as needed - add little by little as it grinds)

In the jar of a blender, combine the cilantro, tomato, and cocoanut. Add in half of the water, and pulse a few times until it makes a paste. Add the onions, and pulse a few times more. Drizzle in more water to thin it out, as needed. Keep grinding until it forms as smooth a consistency as you can achieve.

B. Acid Free

½ cocoanut

¼ cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup of water, ( or as little as needed - add little by little as it grinds)

In the jar of a blender, combine the cilantro, and coconut. Add in half of the water, and pulse a few times until it makes a paste. Drizzle in more water to thin it out, as needed. Keep grinding until it forms as smooth a consistency as you can achieve.

C. Iron Booster

• ½ cocoanut

• 1 medium tomato, cut in four

• ½ Cup or a handful of Curry Leaves

• ½ small onion, cut into four

• 1/2 cup of water, ( or as little as needed - add little by little as it grinds)

In the jar of a blender, combine the curry leaves, tomato, and coconut. Add in half of the water, and pulse a few times until it makes a paste. Add the onions, and pulse a few times more. Drizzle in more water to thin it out, as needed. Keep grinding until it forms as smooth a consistency as you can achieve.

D. A Little Spicy

• ½ cocoanut

• 1 medium tomato, cut in four

• ½ Cup or a handful of Curry Leaves

• ½ small onion, cut into four

• 2 cm cube of ginger

• 1/2 cup of water, ( or as little as needed - add little by little as it grinds)

In the jar of a blender, combine the curry leaves, tomato, ginger and coconut. Add in half of the water, and pulse a few times until it makes a paste. Add the onions, and pulse a few times more. Drizzle in more water to thin it out, as needed. Keep grinding until it forms as smooth a consistency as you can achieve.

E. Mild & Nice

• ½ cocoanut

• ¼ cup chopped cilantro

• 1 medium tomato, cut in four

• ½ Cucumber

• 1/2 cup of water, ( or as little as needed - add little by little as it grinds)

In the jar of a blender, combine the cilantro leaves, tomato, cucumber and coconut. Add in half of the water, and pulse a few times until it makes a paste. Add the onions, and pulse a few times more. Drizzle in more water to thin it out, as needed. Keep grinding until it forms as smooth a consistency as you can achieve.

F. Hot

• ½ cocoanut

• 1 medium tomato, cut in four

• ½ Cup or a handful of Curry Leaves

• ½ small onion, cut into four

• 2 cm cube of ginger

• ½ a chili (Either a jalapeno or as mild as a bell pepper – your choice)

• 1/2 cup of water, ( or as little as needed - add little by little as it grinds)

In the jar of a blender, combine the curry leaves, tomato, ginger, chili and coconut. Add in half of the water, and pulse a few times until it makes a paste. Add the onions, and pulse a few times more. Drizzle in more water to thin it out, as needed. Keep grinding until it forms as smooth a consistency as you can achieve.

Omit the tomato and onion for an acid-free topping.

Add curry leaves for a boost of iron.

Add ginger and curry leaves for more flavour.

Omit the onions.

Add curry leaves, ginger, and chillies of your choosing. A good choice is the Thai Bird chilly, which is hot, but not too hot. Another

good choice is the Jalapeno pepper. If you cannot tolerate heat, use Bell Peppers instead of chillies.

G. Grate choice

*Dinakar,(Describe the process of grating in a food processor or a grating plate and present it as a recipe instead of just saying – what you said below)

If you prefer a chunkier texture, simply grate up the onions, ginger, chillies, and cocoanut on the side of a box grater, and sprinkle

liberally over the salad.

F. Protein Booster

*( Do the same with this recipe too)

Add a small handful of soaked peanuts.

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Cold Slaw

I remember being young, and going to picnics, where they would have food in those shelters that they have at the state parks. Regardless of how many I’ve been to, cabbage is often abused, either as sauerkraut, or coleslaw. There is no reason for cabbage to be mistreated in this way. It’s a tasty vegetable that can shine on its own, were we to give it the chance to do so. Instead, it’s either fermented in salt (sauerkraut), or swimming in some disgusting mayonnaise and sugar thing (coleslaw), that gets runny and gross in no time flat, and is a health hazard if you’re having food outside and don’t have refrigeration. We can certainly do better for ourselves. Check out the following nutrition pack:

¼ cup mung beans, sprouted

1 small head of cabbage, grated

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 bunch cilantro, minced

1 small purple onion, minced finely

2 small tomatoes , diced

Rinse the mung beans under cold running water, until the water runs clear. Feel through the beans, and make sure there are no foreign particles (rocks, etc.) in there. Few things are as unpleasant as chomping down on a rock. Soak the mung beans in water

(pour water into the soaking pot until the level of the water is about 1 centimetre above the level of the mung benas) over night.

The next morning, rinse the mung beans off once more, and drain the water out. Let them sit, in the open air, for a day or so. They should begin to sprout fairly quickly. Once the beans are sprouted, you can continue with the preparation of the salad.

Grate the cabbage first. Combine the grated cabbage with the mung beans. Slice the peppers in half, lengthwise. This will expose the insides, and the seeds.

Firmly grasp the stem of the bell pepper, and pull out the seeds and stem in one clean movement. Remove the white ribs if you’d like to reduce the bitterness. Slice the half of bell pepper in half again, length-wise. Then, slice the strips of peppers crosswise to create thin strands of bell pepper.

Bunch up the leaves of cilantro into a tight bundle, and run your knife through the bundle to chop up the leaves as finely as you can. The reason that we’re doing the cilantro now, is so that you can “wash” your cutting board with the vegetables that you cut on them

after this point. Slice the onion in half, lengthwise. Remove the first layer of skin. Dice up the onions as finely as you can get them. The reason we’re using purple onions is because they are milder in flavor and easier on your stomach than the yellow or Spanish onions.

Finally, dice the tomatoes. Set the tomatoes aside, and top each individual portion of salad with a few tablespoons of tomatoes.

Green and gold

1 zucchini

1 yellow bell pepper

Slice the zucchini in half, lengthwise. Slice the halves in half, lengthwise. This will give you four zucchini spears. Cut the spears into bite sized pieces. Slice the bell pepper in half, lengthwise. Remove the seeds and stem. Cut the halves of bell pepper into halves. Slice each piece of bell pepper in half lengthwise again. You’ll be left with relatively thin sticks of bell pepper. Cut the sticks into bite sized pieces as well. Toss the zucchini and bell peppers together to combine. Serve immediately. Use the grated topping variation (G) of the dressing just before serving.

Triple C Refresher

For this particular salad which involves a lot of chewing, feel free to play around with the exact amounts of the ingredients. All the ingredients are a good jaw workout, so tweaking the exact amounts of carrot or cabbage, based on what you have in the fridge, is definitely not a problem. This recipe can easily be scaled back; this one is written in this manner to use up a full head of cabbage. If you have red cabbage, feel free to use it, but make sure that you’re grating it very finely, and interspersing it with lots of the white cabbage.

Cilantro is delicious on its own, but when paired with tomato, it becomes a taste of divinity. If you don’t care for cilantro, feel free to substitute Italian flat leaf parsley. Please do not try to use dried cilantro or parsley, as the flavor will be completely off-putting in a salad.

While we’re here, let me tell you one important thing: do not discard the cilantro stems. Chop them up finely, and use them in the salad as well. There’s no need to waste good herbs in the trash, when they’re perfectly tasty and still healthy. Furthermore, you’re missing

out on insoluble fibre, which is important for the health of the intestines. Keep the stems, and chop them up finely into this salad.

A mature cocoanut is different from a tender cocoanut, in that its flesh has become thick and

fatty, as well as becoming an opaque, as opposed to a translucent white colour.

1 lb carrots, grated

2 lbs cabbage, grated

1 bunch (roughly 4 oz) cilantro, chopped finely

½ lb tomatoes, diced

½ mature Cocoanut, removed from the shell and grated finely

Wash all the vegetables before you cut them. You don’t want to spend all this time preparing vegetables, only to wash the vitamins down the sink! Be especially vigorous when scrubbing the carrots. Since they grow underground, they often times have dirt in hidden places.

If you’re using a box grater to grate the carrot, leave the stems on so that you have a little “handle” when you start getting towards the top of the carrot. If you’re running the vegetables through a food processor, feel free to remove the stems, of course.

*/ ( Dinakar, my practice has been that I grate the cabbage first and do not clean off the walls.  Just turn the food processor jar upside down into the mixing bowl and then grate carrots next, which does not leave any stain on the walls of the jar anyway due to the cabbage on the wall. This is ok because we are going to mix carrots and cabbage any way)

Start grating the carrots first. This way, the orange colour that they leave on your utensils will be “washed” off when you grate the cabbage. Next, grate the cabbage (leaving the stem on for your handle, of course).

Until you’re ready to serve it, don’t bother mixing up the cabbage and carrot in the bowl.

To grate the coconut, either run it through a food processor or blender.

*/ ( Dinakar, I would use only the grated dressing through the food processor for everything except Tomatoes – diced – Do not give a choice here.)

You’re most likely not going to have much luck with it on your box grater. Chop your cilantro as finely as you can. Dice your tomatoes but don’t add them to the bowl yet. Tomatoes are a

wonderful addition to any salad, but they don’t keep very well under most circumstances. It’s best to top off your serving with the desired amount of tomato, rather than making the entire salad watery and runny. Feel free to toss the tomatoes with the cilantro, however, because the cilantro is really only interested in hanging out with the tomato. The two cling to each other like best friends.

When you’re ready to serve the salad, toss the carrots, cocoanut, and cabbage (The Triple C, that is) together in a large bowl. Set down a serving of our 3Cs on each diner’s plate. Toss the tomatoes and cilantro together. Mound on a bit of the tomato/cilantro on top of the pile of vegetables, and serve.

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CauliBell

If you enjoy having raw cauliflower (which is fairly neutral in flavour) and bell peppers, this one is for you. Enjoy this one in the winter time, as a more tempting and beautiful alternative to those boring old crudités or veggie platter things that everyone seems to have (but never eats!) at a party. Imagine having the pale cauliflower alongside the vibrant peppers, with the fresh herbs as a counterpoint. It’s definitely worth trying for your next big event.

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1 orange bell pepper, sliced

1 green bell pepper, sliced

O 1 head of cauliflower broken to small heads of 1” cube/globes

Break up the head of cauliflower into florets. Slice the peppers in half, lengthwise. This will expose the insides, and the seeds. Firmly grasp the stem of the bell pepper, and pull out the seeds and stem in one clean movement. Remove the white ribs if you’d like to reduce the bitterness. Slice the half of bell pepper in half again, length-wise. Then, slice the strips of peppers crosswise to create thin strands of bell pepper. The trick is to make it easy for you to get a little bit of each pepper, along with a little bit of the cauliflower, and a bit of the grated cocoanut. Allow them to chill in the fridge for up to fifteen minutes before serving, so that the flavors

can concentrate. Drizzle on the dressing, and toss the vegetables together. The reason for adding the dressing at the last minute is to avoid refrigerating cocoanut, which changes its properties. If you’d prefer a tighter presentation, avoid using a wet dressing, and stick with a dry topping of grated cocoanut (and its accoutrements) instead of the ones that are ground in the blender.

SpinSquash

This combination of squash and baby greens is especially refreshing in the summer, when your garden is giving you more vegetables than you know what to do with. The title isn’t to be taken seriously, of course.

4 yellow summer squash

1 lb baby spinach

1 lb baby field greens

½ lb watercress

6 oz bean or alfalfa sprouts

In a large pot, pour in four gallons of water. Set your spinach to soak in there for about five minutes or so. Gently rub the spinach leaves to remove any trapped dirt. Repeat with the watercress, which will have a fair bit more dirt. By now, the water should have lots

of dirt collected in the bottom. Don’t worry, this is normal. I’d worry if I didn’t have any dirt on vegetables! Lay the spinach leaves and watercress leaves out onto a clean bath towel to air dry. Baby greens don’t handle being sent through a salad spinner very well.

Pour out the greens’ soaking liquid, and clean out your pot. Add about two gallons of water, and soak the baby field greens for fifteen minutes. While the greens soak, begin slicing the squash into thin slices. Once the field greens are soaked, and the squash is sliced, lay the field greens out to dry on a clean towel. Start chopping up the watercress finely, as the field greens dry. Watercress has a peppery taste, and you’ll want to have it distributed evenly throughout

the salad, rather than having little clumps of it around. If you like the strong taste, feel free to leave them as is.

Finally, when the greens are no longer dripping wet, toss the greens, the squash, and the spinach along with the minced up watercress. Serve immediately, or after chilling in the fridge for fifteen minutes. Generously sprinkle on the sprouts at the table.

Caroccoli

The reason that I specify here that you should combine the salad with the dressing A (from the first page of this section) is because both broccoli and carrots can be a little dry when you’re eating them. The dressing will make the salad easier to eat.

2 medium carrots

1 bunch broccoli crowns

Break the broccoli up into florets. Grate the carrots. Combine with the grated topping, and serve.

Red White and Green

The flesh of both the chayote and the radish is a translucent white. The radish, of course, has a pink or red skin, while the chayote has a pale green color. Both are juicy and taste excellent raw. This is one of those dishes that does well in the summer or winter, because it’s so versatile. In the summer, the clean wetness of the chayote is refreshing in the middle of a hot day. In the winter, the dark peppery radish spices up the taste buds, and leaves behind a pleasant warming

sensation. Feel free to adjust the amounts of the chayote or radish, depending on the season that you’re serving this.

1 lb chayote, sliced

½ lb radish, sliced

To begin, wash the chayote and radish in cold running water, until all the dirt has come off. Radishes grow in the ground and will carry a fair amount of dirt, even if the packaging claims to have washed them. While chayote looks relatively clean, the groove that runs along the bottom of the fruit will have collected some measure of dirt. Use a clean brush to jostle loose the hidden dirt, and be left with sparkling clean produce. Cut the chayote in half, lengthwise. Remove the small white seed. Slice the half chayote in half again. Slice the spear of chayote thinly, so that you end up with little triangles with rounded bottoms. This is just about the perfect size to match up with the radish. Slice the radish into thin rounds. Serve immediately

It’s Easy Being Green

Kale is a challenging leaf to have raw, but a nice change from the weak lettuces that most people are used to. Be prepared for some serious chewing, though! To minimize the amount of time you spend chewing the kale, feel free to remove the stems, and cut the leaves relatively small. If you can’t find the smaller Kirby cucumbers, go ahead and use either an English cucumber, or any other type of cucumber you have around the house. This particular dish is really delectable with Jordan cucumbers, which, in my opinion, everyone must try at least once in her or his lifetime.

½ pound Kale, chopped finely

1 head iceberg, romaine, or Boston bib lettuce, hand torn

4 Kirby cucumbers, sliced into circles

Begin with a large basin or pot, filled with about four gallons of water. Before you chop up the kale, when it’s still in whole leaves, soak the kale leaves in the water for about 10 minutes. The soaking allows you to remove the bulk of the dirt. Make sure to get in there, and rub down the leaves to remove any clinging dirt. It’s best to start with clean kale, because you don’t want to cut up the leaves, and then end up washing all the vitamins into the sink!

While the kale soaks, slice the cucumbers into thin slices. You should not peel them, because the skins are thin enough that they are easily eaten. The skin of a Kirby cucumber also has flavour, which is slightly bitter, but pleasant. Lightly wash the lettuce. When the kale is done soaking, cut off the stems (and save them for cooking later). Chop the kale into small pieces (as small as you can get them). Combine the torn lettuce, the sliced cucumber, and chopped kale. Add Dressing G from dressing section.

Zucchini Crackers

The skin of a beet is unappetising to look at and to eat. Make sure to wash the beets under plenty of cold running water before you start to peel them. You can combine the whole lot of vegetables into a salad, but the sliced zucchini looks so pretty on the plate when it’s being offset by the bright red beets and the dark green scallions (green onions). Presentation counts for a lot. If you don’t like beets, feel free to use radishes, and slice them up thinly.

2 Green Zucchini sliced into circles

1 beet root peeled and chopped finely (or ½ lb radish, sliced thin)

2 stalks of green onion, chopped finely

Peel and chop the beets. Slice the zucchini into medium sized circles. You want them to be about ½ inch in thickness, at the most.

Finely chop the green onions. On a plate, arrange the zucchini slices so that they are one layer deep. Spoon on a bit of the chopped beets, and a bit of the green onion. Top off with a bit of the grated topping. Serve these as appetizers, or palate cleansers.

Alkaline Detox

There are times when you’re in serious trouble, physically. Whether it be because you just got back from a wedding or vacation, and your stomach is letting you know how it feels about all those fried, fatty food, or if you’re just in the mood for a quick detox, this particular

salad is for you. Be prepared for a bitter taste. It will go through your system, and pick up any loose things that are causing you trouble.

The stalk of the banana tree is harvested when a banana tree has given a bunch of fruit. When you chop down the tree, you allow a new tree to grow in its place. You can request the banana stalk at a health food store, or Chinese store. It will look like a white log, with layers. Cut off both ends, and peel off the outermost layer to get started on the stalk.

Bear in mind that this dish is primarily a medicinal recipe to handle issues with prostate inflammation, kidney problems, and other major infections from which it is difficult to recover. Please avoid experimenting with this particular recipe if you’re using the recipe for treatment of a condition.

4 inch long banana stalk

¼ cup grated cocoanut

¼ cup finely minced cilantro

Slice the banana stalk in half, lengthwise. Cut each half in half again, lengthwise. This should leave you with four sticks of stalk. Cut each of those halves into half again, lengthwise. This should leave you with eight sticks. Cut each stick crosswise, so that you are left with diced banana stalk. Combine the diced banana stalk with the cocoanut and cilantro.

Turnip Tacos

This is for you, when you want something interesting to break up the monotony of a mess of greens on your plate.

1 medium size Turnip

1 head Romaine Lettuce

½ pound Baby Spinach

¼ cup mung beans sprouted

Rinse the mung beans under cold running water, until the water runs clear. Feel through the beans, and make sure there are no foreign particles (rocks, etc.) in there. Few things are as unpleasant as chomping down on a rock. Soak the mung beans in six cups of water

over night. The next morning, rinse the mung beans off once more, and drain the water out. Let them sit, in the open air, for a day or so. They should begin to sprout fairly quickly. Once the beans are sprouted, you can continue with the preparation of the salad.

Cut off the stalk and root tip of the turnip. Peel the skin off. Cut the turnip into thin slices. Stack the slices into little stacks, and cut the slices into matchsticks. Thoroughly wash the spinach and lettuce. Each leaf of romaine lettuce is like a little boat. We’re going to take advantage of this. Into the cavity of the romaine lettuce, mound up the baby spinach, the mung bean sprouts, and the turnip matchsticks.

Drizzle on dressing G, and serve as is. You can close up the leaves, but you don’t have to. Leaving them open is perfectly fine.

Caulinut

1 head Cauliflower

¼ cup raw peanuts, soaked

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 small purple onion, minced

Soak the peanuts overnight. If you can get your hands on tender, fresh young peanuts, there is no need to soak them at all. While the peanuts soak, thoroughly wash the cilantro, the onion, and the cauliflower to remove any dirt. Break up the cauliflower into florets.

Mince the cilantro and the onions up as finely as you can get them. Chill in the fridge while the peanuts continue to soak. When the peanuts are soaked through, drain out the water, and give them a rough chopping. Combine with the cauliflower, cilantro, and onion.

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Okra and Cucumber

Imagine coming home after a day of hard, physical labour. You’ve been working out in the sun, and you feel like you’ve just sweated out your weight in the fields. You get back home, and someone gives you a bowl of raw vegetables, that have been tossed with some cilantro and cocoanut. I ate this dish quite a few years back after spending a day working in a farm, and

it was refreshing and tasty. Be sure to use the freshest okra you can find. The purpose of this is to get people to think about eating okra in the raw state. It is possible, and an option you might consider the next time you have a batch of okra.

2 large cucumbers, diced

2 tablespoons raw peanuts soaked overnight

¼ pound fresh okra, sliced into rounds

1 cup cilantro, minced

1 medium onion, minced

2 tomatoes, diced finely

½ cup grated cocoanut

Wash the cucumber and the okra. Slice the cucumbers in half, lengthwise. Cut the halves into half again, to make four spears of cucumber. Cut the spears into a chunky dice. Cut the tops off of the okra. Make little round slices of the okra. Mince up the cilantro as finely as you can get it. Combine the cucumbers, cilantro and okra in a dish, and sprinkle on the soaked peanuts.

Dice up the tomatoes to “wash” the cutting board (and avoid wasting cilantro!), and finally, the onion. Toss the vegetables together, to combine the cilantro through. Toss the mixed vegetables with the grated cocoanut, and serve immediately.

Sprouts and Leaves

1 head cabbage , shredded

½ pound baby spinach

¼ cup mung beans, sprouted

¼ pound red radish, grated

Grate the cabbage and radish. Combine with the baby spinach and sprouted mung beans. Serve with dressing.

Dinner

There are times when you need something that’s truly filling. This is when you come out with the dinner salad. Feel

free to omit any of the vegetables that you don’t like, or to recombine them in whatever way you deem fit.

1 head cabbage shredded

1 medium turnip grated

1 head romaine lettuce hand torn

1 red bell pepper sliced

4 Kirby cucumbers, sliced into rounds

¼ pound baby spinach

1 yellow squash, diced

Grate the cabbage and turnip. Quickly tear up the romaine lettuce leaves, and mound it on top of the cabbage

and turnip. Soak the baby spinach in water (to let the dirt settle out). Slice up the Kirby cucumbers. Dice

the bell peppers. Dice up the squash. Combine all the vegetables together, and drizzle on the dressing just

before serving. Garnish with some whole cilantro leaves and slices of fresh tomato, if desired.

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