Tasty Tuesday ~ Emerald City Salad

Its been really tough while doing this elimination diet to eat any food that was not prepared by my own two hands. I love to cook, and thoroughly enjoy learning new recipes and tweaking them to suit me, but life is anything but predictable, and sometimes I am unable to walk out the door at 5:30 in the morning with my Elimination Diet-friendly lunch in hand. On these days, I pop up to PCC for a bag of carrots, a head of broccoli and some dried fruit. While I know I can't partake, I always peruse the deli counter to see what tasty delights they have that day.

A few days ago, a co-worker offered my some of his "Emerald City Salad" - a PCC staple and crowd favorite. I had to turn it down because of the red bell peppers, but it got me to thinking... I could recreate the salad at home and still be on track! Its a basic salad, but packs a flavorful punch, AND offers a great base for mixing things up - I can't think of anything that wouldn't be good on this salad. I changed it up to meet Phase 2 requirements, and will continue to add more as I can incorporate more into my diet. This recipe makes a big bowl, I usually just put it in smaller tupperwares and pack it for lunches throughout my week.

Emerald City Salad

1 cup uncooked wild rice

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp salt

1/2 black pepper

1/2 bunch kale

1/2 bunch Chard

2 red chard leaves

1/2 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

1 bunch green onions

1/2 cup chopped parsley

Optional Additions

Diced red or yellow bell peppers

Diced red onion

Diced cucumber

Grape tomatoes

Sunflower seeds

Avocados

Dried cherries or cranberries

Bring 3 cups of water to boil, add rice. Bring rice to boil, cover, reduce heat to simmer and for about 60 minutes (when all the water is absorbed, remove rice from heat and let cool).

Whisk together the olive oil, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper for the dressing. Once rice has cooled, toss the dressing with the rice.

Remove stems and ribs from the green and chiffonade. Combine greens with fennel and green onion (add any other veggies at this point if you choose to do so).

Just before serving, toss greens with the rice/dressing mixture.

Enjoy!