Shredded Spinach Salad with Pear Vinaigrette

 

The threesome of  shredded zucchini, and carrots always makes me think of being in college.  Before instagram (gasp) and before the craze of mason jar salads, we used to make our salad and put it in tupperware.  Nowadays, the USC cafeteria is pretty much a small Wholefoods but when I was a student, a cinema major who spent hours upon hours in the editing lab, foley stage, sound mixing, etc., I had limited selection.  My options were premade cucumber avocado sushi or froyo (yes, I was only vegetarian in college).  So, I had to start making my own food for the first time in my life.  Salads are so easy to pack, they keep well, and you can eat them pretty much anywhere.  My go to salad was always spinach, shredded apple/carrot/zucchini with a little bit of olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper.  The dressing was light so the spinach stayed crisp and with shredded veggies, I could eat in class and not draw attention with loud crunching.  A love of this blissful threesome was born and I am now a shredded spinach salad devotee.

 

Last weekend, a friend invited me to their orchard to pick some gorgeous pears! There were so many to choose but picking fruit is hard work! The best ones are always hard to reach!

 

 

 

 

These gorgeous and local beauties were perfectly ripe and quite a few of them didn't survive the trip home! With the pears that I managed to not gobble up on the ride home, I saved for this recipe.  Shredded Spinach Salad with Creamy Pear Vinaigrette is a favorite and is one of my most used recipes for late summer and early autumn.  The dressing is tart, creamy and sweet all at the same time and pairs beautifully with the earthy flavor of spinach.  If I were still in college, this would be a mason jar salad every week!  For now, it will grace my deck while I sunbathe and blog.

 

 

Shredded Spinach Salad Ingredients:

1 carrot, shredded

1 apple, shredded (if your apples are organic, do not peel them because the skin is loaded with nutrition)

1/2 zucchini or soft yellow squash, shredded

3 cups spinach, stems removed

1 Tbsp. cashew halves to garnish

 

Creamy Pear Vinaigrette Ingredients:

1/2 - 3/4 cup pear, peeled, cored, diced

1/4 cup raw macadamia nuts or raw cashews

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 Tbsp. champagne vinegar or apple cider vinegar to keep it raw

pinch of Himalayan salt

 

Method:

Add all ingredients to a blender and process until smooth and creamy.  To plate your salad, you can either lay out your ingredients so that you may first eat with eyes and size up all the goodness you are about to enjoy (pictured at the top) or you can toss the salad (pictured below) and serve.  Either way, I hope this tart and creamy salad will soon become a staple in your home as it is mine! Happy eating!

 

 

Thank you for visiting! I hope you've found some delicious foodspiration while on the VV blogosphere and I hope you'll visit again soon!

Raw Pear Tart

Life in the Pacific Northwest can be harsh for a California girl. Cold winters, minimalist produce selections, and expensive apples (wait! I can't actually get a Washington apple in Washington? I'm not paying $2 for an imported apple) have dampened the bounty of my heart.  Driving through the country in late Fall, the roads are lined with apple trees just bursting with delicious looking fruit.  Of course, the stores don't carry them.  There is more profit to be had for the powers at be to ship off our beautiful and locally grown fruit and then import sub-par, prematurely picked substitutes.  Fortunately, one of my clients has 10 acres of farmland where she has a veritable orchard of pear trees!  Thanks to my favorite doggy acupuncturist, I've been pretty much assured my fill of local, rich, and juicy pears! 

 

One day after a dropping off a weeks supply of raw, vegan VV meals, I found two large buckets of pears with a little sign that said, "Take all you want!"  Digging through buckets of fruits, searching for the most perfect specimen brought memories of flea markets and fruit vendors in Brisbane where all produce was displayed in boxes on a dirt floor.  Is there anything as satisfying as buying fruit from a dirt floored local market?  Maybe.  Picking fruit ripe from the tree or produce fresh from your kitchen garden scores pretty high on my happiness charts.  With all of these locally sourced gems, what is one to do with the abundance of pears?  Make pie! It breaks my heart to think about baking or cooking fresh fruits.  The sweetness of fruit is a sensory treat in of itself and the confetti of nutrients, antioxidants, and vitamins are just a pretty awesome bonus.  With perfection being in the raw, why bother to heat these perfect little packages and damages the goods?  In my humble opinion, fruit is best served and enjoyed in the raw.  Therefore, here is my version of the most delicious unbaked pear pie you will ever taste.  Enjoy the process, enjoy the ride, and please be grateful for the privilege that is a perfectly ripe pear on the taste buds.

Let's begin with the crust:
Ingredients

• 3 cups raw cashews
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped or 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup medjool dates, pitted  (if your dates are dry, soak in water for 30 minutes to an hour)
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

Method:

1. To a food processor fitted with the "S-type" blade, add the cashews, salt, and vanilla.  Process into a powder. 
2. Roughly chop the dates and add them to the food processor slowly while it is running.
3. When the mixture forms a dough that sticks together (test by pinching a piece between two fingers and see if it holds together).  If it sticks together than it is ready, if not, add another date and process again.
4. Take a pie pan and line with plastic wrap.  Press dough into the pan to form a pie crust.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 3 hours.  While it cools, make the filling.
5. Once the crust is cool, it will be firm enough to remove and still maintain its shape.  Gently remove and discard plastic wrap. 

 

For the filling:

• 3 ripe pears, cored and sliced thin
• 1/2 cup medjool dates, pitted, chopped
• 1 tbsp. coconut oil, melted
• 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 organic orange, seeded and peeled
 

Method for filling:

1. To a blender, add the orange, dates, vanilla, and coconut oil.  Blend well until smooth.
2. Gently add sliced pears to a large bowl.  Cover with orange sauce and mix until all slices are covered.

Take pie crust and lay the pear slices in facing the same direction.  Wrap around in a circular pattern until all the pears are in the crust.  Take one or two pieces of pear to lay in the center.  Garnish with shredded coconut, optional.

 

 

This pie will keep for a few days covered in the refrigerator.  Enjoy!