In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), we recommend following seasonal cues when selecting foods to eat. We focus on local, seasonally available foods and think about the temperature outside (as well as how hot or cold we feel) when we choose ingredients and recipes. Your standard salad recipe is cooling in nature, not particularly suitable when the weather is cold or if you tends to experience symptoms of cold (feeling cold, achy joints in cold weather, bloating and slow digestion). But perhaps you’ve been craving a salad. Or maybe you recognize the benefits of raw leafy greens, but find it hard to digest a pile of them. Or maybe you just want a healthy recipe that will help with the transition of the seasons, from winter to spring or summer to fall.

A Season’s Transition Salad Recipe

This salad recipe will fit the bill. If you don’t dig these ones, you can choose different vegetables to roast or use different greens. You can also vary the proportions of roasted vegetables to raw ones. The warmer you are, the more raw you might add, and vice versa.

The salad recipe that I based this one on stated that it serves 4, but since we’re only 2, I had lots of leftovers, so one day I had it for lunch with a boiled egg on top, and another day I mixed in some leftover rice and added some avocado to it. Because we kept the dressing separate and because kale is a pretty hearty leaf that doesn’t go soggy easily, it was delicious for a couple more meals. I love leftovers!

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower, broken into bite-size florets
• 2-3 Tbsp extra virgin coconut, avocado, or olive oil
• 1 bunch of kale, stems removed and torn or chopped into bite-size pieces
• 1 cucumber, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• optional add ons: boiled egg, chickpeas, hummus, cottage cheese, dried fruit like cranberries or raisins, chopped nuts, seeds like sunflower, sprouts

Lemon Tahini Dressing

•  1/3 cup well-stirred tahini
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 3 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• Pinch chili powder
• Pinch ground cumin
• 4 Tbsp. water, plus more if needed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix 1-2 Tbsp oil and salt and pepper (to taste) with cauliflower. Spread cauliflower onto baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes ( you may want to flip it halfway through), until slightly browned.
3. Massage kale with oil to make it softer and more digestible.
4. Mix all lemon tahini ingredients together. 
5. Toss roasted cauliflower, kale, and lemon tahini dressing together. 
6. Top with other ingredients, if you like.

Note: If you don’t like cauliflower or if you just want something different, you can use another vegetable, such as sweet potato, yams, turnips, broccoli, etc.