Power Fruit Salad
A fruit salad is usually as boring and politically correct as it sounds. Not this one! Here's a variation that will stimulate all your senses, and add fuel to your digestive fire. It will also feel satiating — like a proper meal.
As much as I am a protein type, I love setting my teeth into a crunchy, juicy, rainbow-colored mix of raw fruit. Still, I like to add fat and protein into the mix — which, as it turns out, has its own benefits. Some of the vitamins found in fruit (A, D, E, and K) are absorbed better by the body in the presence of fats.
Ingredients
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 1 thumb-size piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 avocado, peeled and chopped
- 1 mango, peeled and chopped
- 1 grapefruit, peeled and wedges cut in half
- 2-3 pinches of turmeric-based Indian spice mix (Vadouvan, Sambhar, Garam Masala)
- 1 pinch salt
- a dash of olive oil
- 1-3 teaspoon cacao nibs (or ground cacao beans)
- 1-2 teaspoon seed butter (sesame or hemp), or you can grind up the seeds yourself
- cheese to taste (Roquefort is amazing with this!)
Procedure
- In a large fruit bowl, combine the shallots, ginger, and fruit.
- Sprinkle with the spice mix and salt; stir.
- Drizzle well with olive oil, and stir well so the entire mixture is soaked.
- Add in the cacao nibs and the ground seeds (or seed butter); stir.
- Arrange pieces of cheese on top. Give it a little final stir.
Final tip
You can substitute your fruits — for example, you can switch mango with bananas. Not every flavor pairing will be harmonious, though; the key is to achieve a balance of sweet, bitter, umami, sour, salty, and pungent.