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What’s gluten free, dairy free, vegan, lettuce free, delicious, filling, and takes minimal cooking?
These three salads!
Not that I am vegan, but I can certainly appreciate vegan cuisine and I’ve found all of these salads delicious and great for lunches. And people go crazy for them. My husband is a kayak guide and he and our guide friends make all of these for their guests, and they go insane. With delight, that is.
So without further adieu, here are the recipes.
Note that all of these make very large portions that can feed many people, or feed you with leftovers for days. A great idea to solve the dilemma of what to take to school or work for lunch is to make a huge batch of one of these on Sunday and eat it for lunch every day that week.
People really do go nuts over this one. I recently made this for my honeymoon kayak trip and my wedding and my friends couldn’t shut up about it! And these aren’t people who are normally into things like quinoa. And personally, I like this one so much that I made it all the time to the point where I got sick of it.
The Ingredients
- 1.5 cups dry quinoa
- 1 can chick peas (drained and rinsed)
- 2 cups tamari roasted almonds (or just roasted almonds), chopped
- 1 cup dried sweetened cranberries
- 10 inch chunk of cucumber, diced
- 3 large carrots, diced
- Optional: 5 inch chunk of zucchini, diced
- 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- Juice of 2 limes
The Instructions
Rinse and cook dry quinoa (google instructions if you don’t know how), and set aside to cool.
In the meantime, chop up almonds, cucumber, carrot, and zucchini into medium sized chunks. This may be easier in a food processor (especially the almond chopping which can be arduous). Place in a large bowl.
Add cooled quinoa, chick peas dried cranberries, curry powder, salt, olive oil, and lime juice. Mix thoroughly.
This one is a family relic, passed down from my new mother in law. It’s her shining dish for family gatherings and potlucks! So I hope I’m not letting go of a top secret Raftl legacy here and will be ostracized from the family… but anyway… I don’t think she’ll mind and this salad is too good to keep secret anyway:
Ingredients
Salad:
1.5 cups dry brown rice
1 red pepper, diced finely
6 sprigs of large green onion, diced, or 10 to 12 small sprigs
1 cup dried currents
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped finely
2 cups roasted cashew nuts, chopped roughly
Dressing:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons gluten free tamari (aka soy sauce)
1 clove of raw garlic
Juice of 1/2 lemon
The Instructions
Rinse and cook your brown rice and set aside to cool.
In the meantime, chop the red pepper, green onion, parsley, and cashews… add all of this along with the cooled dried rice and currents to a large bowl. Mix together.
In a blender, blend all the dressing ingredients together (note that you might have to double or even triple the dressing recipe just to cover the blades in your blender and get it to blend). Pour over salad and mix thoroughly! Enjoy!
Also – you may find the next day that the salad leftovers lose a bit of their flavour kick. If this is the case, add a little bit of tamari to your serving and you’re good to go. You may also choose to not put the dressing over the whole salad right away – instead keep it separate in a jar, and just put the dressing on the salad as you eat it.
This one, my friend Jackie makes for her kayak tours and claims that it gets her the big tips. She says she’s tried making other things for lunch and when she does, the tips dry up! lol!
Well, whether that’s an exact science or not, I enjoy this salad, and I hope you do too (I will forward any $$ tips to Jackie when you are overwhelmed by the party in your mouth):
Ingredients:
- 2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 to 3 medium to large ripe mangos, peeled and diced
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 1 small red onion, chopped finely
- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped finely
- Optional: 1 cup corn kernals, roasted
- 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped finely and roasted, or 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- Juice of 1 lime
- A dash of extra virgin olive oil
- Sea salt to taste
Instructions:
Dice mangos, red pepper, red onion, cilantro and add all to a large bowl. Add the drained and rinsed black beans to the bowl too.
If you are using corn and fresh garlic, add them to a frying pan with a little coconut oil and lightly sautee until browned. Add to bowl.
Add cumin powder, lime juice, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and garlic powder (if you didn’t use fresh garlic) to the bowl. Mix thoroughly and you’re done.
Hope you enjoyed these recipes as much as I do. Until next time, friends – happy dining! 🙂
TRACY RAFTL
Blog author Tracy Raftl used to have severe acne — now she teaches thousands of women how to take back control of their skin through natural, holistic, and mind-body methods.
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38 Responses
Great post! I will definitely try the quinoa one. Thank you for sharing!
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You’re welcome! Hope you enjoy it 🙂 it’s a good one
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Wow, I just found you today, and, I’m already feeling more hopeful! I’ve been struggling with acne for to long, but it got completely out of control after I took a safflower supplement (tonalin) for 30 days, it’s been over 30 days since I stopped taking it with no improvement, not even with the help of an antibiotic prescribed by my doctor (surprise)! I just know your blog is going to help, can’t wait to get started and make that black bean and mango salad!
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Good luck with everything Ana 🙂 Really hope The Love Vitamin holds some answers for you in regards to clearing your skin. love x
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These all look SOOO good!
Isn’t it nice (and weird at first) saying “my husband”?
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Haha yeah, it’s really weird. I’m off on a little adventure right now without Luke visiting my friends in another town, and so I’m meeting all these new people (my friends’ friends)… for the first time I’m now having to refer to him as “my husband”… it feels like I’m an imposter trying to sound all grown up ahah
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Hi, Tracy!
I’m a long time reader, first time commenter. You’ve read my mind! While I love leafy greens, I live in Indonesia, and eating raw greens can be difficult (you can’t peel them, and it is difficult to wash them in sanitary water). Your “lettuce free” line caught my eye. I love salads and am thrilled to see a few with simple ingredients I can find in SE Asia, especially the mango recipe!
Anyway, congrats on the wedding…your happiness is contagious, even all the way over here!Reply
Yay that’s great KP! Glad I could provide some food ideas that are a go over in your side of the world. And thanks for coming out of the shadows and leaving a comment! Always good to finally meet a long time reader, first timer commenter 🙂
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Hi Tracy,
First of all congrats on your wedding, i’m so happy for you! The pictures looked lovely!
I can’t wait to try your recipes, but if I want to make a whole batch for the week is it ok to store it in the fridge? Can you keep it in the fridge for 5 days? Or should I put it in the freezer?
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Hi Doreen,
I guess this link (storage times of leftovers in the fridge) will clarify your question:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/fresh-ideas/dinner-food-facts/leave-leftovers-in-the-fridge.htmThis means: 3-4 days are okay.
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Thanks!
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Just from personal experience… I would totally eat it for five days if it was kept in the fridge the whole time. I made all three of these for a trip that I just got back from, and was eating them on day 5, maybe even 6
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Hi Tracy,
I just tried your Quinoa salad recipe and it is great!! I’m already excited for tomorrow when I can eat it at lunch again!
I’ll keep your advice in mind, if you’re still walking around feeling fine eating it on day 5, I guess it’s okay. I think the lime or lemon juice will also work as a good preservative.
I just don’t know if my salad will make it till day 5..it’s just too delicious!Reply
Yay! Glad you liked it. It’s hard not to eat it too much hahah… it’s so good. But that’s how I got sick of it so be careful! lol
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Hey Tracy, hope all is going well with you 🙂 greetings from Ontario ! I need help with fruit flies!! Ever since I started eating healthier and eating more organic fruit, my apartment has a bunch of fruit flies flying around. I tryed filling a bowl with apple cidar vinegar and some soap and put cyran rap over it with some poked holes but none of the fruit flies will go in it, any suggestions please?! Thankss
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Hi alexi,
here are a few more tips:
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Fruit-FliesReply
hah actually I don’t know, I came back from my little trip yesterday and my kitchen has been overtaken with them… so we’re in this together, if you figure it out tell me… I’ll tell you if I solve it
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Hi Tracy,
Is there any way I can do a parasite/bowel cleanse wihout losing any weight? As I’m already underweight as it is. And what foods would you recommend that I eat or don’t eat? Thank you.Reply
Hi Chloe,
Well, which specific parasite/bowel cleanse are you doing? I have used Humaworm before as a parasite cleanse, and you don’t need to do a special diet with it, just take some herbs for a month. And bowel cleanse, you can take psyllium husk every, or perhaps psyllium and bentonite shakes. Neither of which require a special diet. But if you are doing a specific cleanse/protocol, then surely they have their own instructions on what to eat? xReply
Hi, to be honest I’m not sure what specific cleanse I’m doing, my doctor just said that I need to do a parasite cleanse, so iv been doing some research and is recommended that you cut out basically anything that turns to sugar like grains and fruit, because that’s what the worms feed on, and take these herbs daily. x
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Hi Chloe!
I am going through quite a health journey myself at the moment, and in my experience, fruit does not need to be eliminated in order to effectively cleanse the body of parasites. For me, eating garlic and oregano in pretty much everything did the job. Fresh, raw garlic is one of the best things you can eat to rid your body of parasites. Oregano is a bit more strong. Eat as much as your body wants. Trust your body, it knows best. Also, no, a parasite cleanse does not always mean weight loss. I wish you good luck and happy cleansing!!
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Hi Kailani,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I will definitely start eating lots of garlic, how many cloves a day do you think would be best? And good because I could never give up my fruit haha! I love it far too much.
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Chloe,
Eat no more than a bulb of garlic per day (you can eat too much, lol). If you can’t eat a full bulb, don’t worry about it, just eat as much as you can while still feeling okay. Also remember that when parasites start dying off inside you, it will not be the most pleasant experience. Feel free to slow down on the garlic if the die-off gets really awful. Research is awesome, but at the end of the day your body knows best. When I first started eating garlic, I could only eat a couple cloves per day. I got a burning sensation in my stomach when I ate it, and had some crazy rumbles. I later had the idea of juicing it (weird, I know) and that worked well. Now I can eat a ton of garlic and it makes me feel amazing… and smell awful.
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Oh, but do stay away from grains. Parasites do love them. They also stick to the walls of your intestines, yucky.
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Seriously – MAD PROPS for these recipes!!! I just wanted to report back after trying each of them over the past week with MUCH SUCCESS. they are all super easy to make and SO GOOD. SERIOUSLY – THANK YOU! My boyfriend and I cannot get over how delicious these dishes were. I love how COLORFUL and beautiful they look, not to mention how tasty and healthful! Thank you so much for helping feed us these last few days 😀
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Yay that’s awesome!! Stoked you like them. They really are good, aren’t they? I just went on a week long road trip and made them all prior to going so that I wouldn’t have to worry about food on the trip, they were great
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Tracy,
I am eating the Quinoa salad recipe right now and it is BOMB! The flavor is so simple yet complex… amazing! Even though I think I added a bit too much water and my quinoa turned out a bit “wet”, the recipe still worked great… hard one to screw up!
I love that these recipes are so filling! It seems difficult to find very healthy recipes that actually fill you up and keep you satisfied for awhile. These definitely fit the bill! Thank you for making a positive lifestyle change much more feasible and simple!
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I know, isn’t it shocking how filling they are? Especially the quinoa one. I was surprised every time I ate it how full I got.
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hey Tracy..,
a big congrats for your wedding…your couple is like made for each other.
I like your work and suggestions very much and they are very useful too. actually I have been searching for Manuka honey and apple cider vinegar but here in India , in my city I couldn’t get it yet. and I loved your salad recipes are awesome like you. I am going to try them for sure. thanks a lot for sharing your secrets.
also , I wanted to ask you that, I was suffered from chickenpox last month. and have scars and marks of it on my body and face too…, will you please suggest me something to get rid of them.( I am 22 years old).
please, reply asap..thanx,
Natasha.Reply
Hi Natasha, thank you very much! 🙂
you might want to try some of these: https://thelovevitamin.com/1150/a-quick-guide-to-natural-treatments-for-acne-scars/Reply
Thanx Tracy…..!! Thanks alot to reply.:)
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Hey Tracy, can you please suggest me any online megastore or any other option from where I can have manuka honey as you recommended in your blog.Thanks.
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Hi Natasha 🙂
In the manuka honey article, I link to lots of options on Amazon.com –> https://thelovevitamin.com/1248/why-is-manuka-honey-so-special-for-acne-and-acne-scars/ – if you don’t live in the United States though, I’m not sure what to suggest as the best online store to purchase through, that would all depend on your countryReply
What’s wrong with lettuce? Should I not be eating it?
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Oh nothing wrong with lettuce, it’s just nice to have some lettuce free salads for a change! Also people admittedly don’t tend to think “filling” when it comes to salads with lettuce
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Thanks Tracy. I’m new to your site but finding it pretty inspiring so far, good on you for all this work!
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The quinoa salad is so gooood C: Definitely making it again, thanks for the recipes.
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Glad you enjoyed it Isabel! 🙂
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