Recipe: Mojito Salad

I know...Another salad??? Yep, must be summer. :) 

The other night I went out for drinks with two of my oldest and best girlfriends, and I ordered a mojito. A total treat; I can't remember when I had one before that (besides college days). And maybe it was me, or the ice, or just the ratios of things, but it's was "meh". Not great. I didn't come close to finishing it. Overall kinda disappointing. I missed the freshness of the mint, the crisp cool taste and sweet but astringent lingering finish. Instead I was left with feeling like, "Is this what I was so excited about?" And that friends, is what Ayurveda does to you. It ruins your cocktail experience. ;) 

Ok, I'm joking, but only somewhat. When your palette grows accustomed to delicious, nourishing, fresh food, the old treats just don't have the same appeal. (This reminds me of the number of peeps I used to consume as a child and how I didn't touch any this year; another love lost.) So eating the Ayurveda-way, which is to say eating whole, fresh, warm meals and drinks, starts to convert not just your stomach but your tastebuds and overall energy into something that starts to want/crave aligning with things that make it feel good at a cellular level. It's pretty neat. Have you experienced this? Tell me about it in the comments below; I'm curious. 

So the salad...I was invited to a pot luck dinner thrown by a fellow Shadow Yogini (What's Shadow Yoga?), and wanted to bring something that would a) support my digestion when I was eating a (very tasty) random mix of foods and b) something that would go well with most anything. And that's how the Mojito Salad came to be. It went perfectly with the delicious quinoa kitchari, potato salad and stuffed dates we had. And you know the great thing about going to dinner with my Shadow Yogis? There is an entire conversation about what portions of grain to beans we use in our kitcharis- for real. (Apparently, I use much more grain than my friends, fyi.)

I hope you'll enjoy this salad and share it with friends. :) Ommmmmmm....

MOJITO SALAD

Serves 6+. 

*Note: The below are estimates, so please adjust as you see fit. 

For the Salad: 

1 1/2 heads of green and red lettuce: washed, dried and torn into bize-size pieces

1/2 a large english cucumber, sliced almost paper thin

1/2 a bulb of fennel, sliced into half rings as thinly as possible 

medium-size handful of fresh mint leaves, torn into small pieces (about 5-6 pieces per leaf)

For the Dressing: 

1/2 T fresh ginger juice, made by grating 2-3 inches of fresh ginger root and pressing it against a strainer to extract the juice. 

2 T champagne vinegar

1/3 c extra virgin olive oil 

1 t maple syrup

salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing: In a small bowl combine all the dressing ingredients but oil, then slowly whisk oil in to combine. Taste and adjust as needed. Some will like it more tangy/spicy, some more sweet. 

To make the salad: Place salad ingredients in a large bowl. When ready to serve, pour dressing on top. Mix with your hands and be sure all is well coated. Taste. Add more salt if needed. Serve. 

• Vata Dosha: Raw foods are not generally recommended for vata types. However, this salad is much better than many for Vatas. Be sure to chew very very well, enjoy with hot tea or soup, and make the following adjustments: increase ginger juice to 3/4 T and be sure to serve salad at room temp- not cold. 
• Pitta Dosha: The general salad ingredients are perfect for you, but the dressing can be a bit warm. Try eliminating the champagne vinegar and substituting fresh lime juice. Reduce ginger juice to a scant teaspoon. 
• Kapha Dosha: Good overall. Even better by: adding sliced radishes and reducing amount of cucumber, substituting honey for maple syrup, and topping with a hearty grind of fresh black pepper.