 Green Goodness salad dressing Tasty condiments can transform simple, healthy fare into delicious meals. The secret to packing your diet full of vibrant vegetables is to couple them with delectable dressings! They can also be a vehicle for some powerful healing foods that support our health and digestion, such as vinegar, lemon, garlic and miso. These condiments can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge, allowing them to be part of your healthful convenience food options. Green Goodness Salad Dressing This dressing is creamy thanks to the avocado, and packed full of nutrient dense garden herbs. Adjust herbs according to what you find in your garden. Great to serve alongside grilled vegetables and barbecue fare in the summertime, as well as salads and pasta dishes.
Add all ingredients to food processor and blend until smooth. Keeps around 4 days.  Green Goodness salad dressing surrounded by Self heal Tahini Mustard Dressing
This is thick, creamy and tangy while being completely free of dairy and poor quality fats that most store bought dressings are loaded with. Tahini is a great source of calcium.
Creamy Salad Dressing The creaminess of this dressing comes from the soaked cashew nuts. Nutritional yeast packs a cheesy flavour and is high in B vitamins and chromium for energy and blood sugar balance.
Orange Ginger Miso Dressing This Japanese inspired dressing is a great way to incorporate probiotic-rich miso into your diet without heating it. Serve over steamed or sauteed veges or as a salad dressing.
Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Store in the fridge. Can thin with water to serve. I was delighted with our first harvest of Marshmallow root from the bed we planted. In celebration, I decided to make a truly delicious herbal preparation from this wonderful healer - real herbal marshmallows!  A one year old Marshmallow root. I divided this root for replanting and then used half of the root to make marshmallows and marshmallow syrup. Traditionally, marshmallows were made using real Marshmallow root, a wonderful herb that has an abundance of gooey mucilage and pectin, providing the soft structure of marshmallows. The ingredient list on a packet of modern day marshmallows showed the following ingredients, with no real Marshmallow in sight: Sugar, Wheat Glucose Syrup, Water, Gelatine, Corn Starch, Flavours, Colour. Many of the homemade recipes on the web also use little or no Marshmallow root, instead relying on the sugar and gelatin to provide the structure of the marshmallows. Of the recipes I found using real Marshmallow root, the root was often extracted using hot water - which does not sufficiently extract the wonderful gooey constituents that you need for creating that fluffy structure. Here’s the trick - to best extract the mucilage from Marshmallow root, start with a cold water infusion. Simply let the chopped herb sit in cold water for 2+ hours and you will notice the water get thick and gooey - this is the mucilage and pectin coming out. Simmering the mixture after this further extracts other constituents.  Marshmallow root, cold infused and decocted (simmered) giving a golden, thick consistency Now the marshmallow extract just requires some sweetening, a little vanilla to flavour, and something to give some firmness to the structure. Options for this include egg whites, gelatin, gum tragacanth or agar (these last two are vegan options). I chose gelatin for this recipe, however I would also add egg white next time for increased fluffiness. Apart from the fun of making this herbal creation, why is Marshmallow such a wonderful herb to grow and use? This soft and gentle healer, Althaea officinalis, has much to offer us as plant medicine. The soothing properties of Marshmallow root heal hot, inflamed and irritated conditions of the body, whether this is in the form of a sore throat, chronic cough, stomach ulcer, reflux, burning urination or eczema on the skin. Research has shown the anti-inflammatory action of Marshmallow to be superior to medication (1), and the protective qualities have been shown to also enhance the immune response to heal infections in the gut and skin (2).  Pretty, soft and sweet to taste, Marshmallow is a wonderful plant to grow in the garden To use Marshmallow root as medicine, infuse 1-2 tsp of dried root in a half cup of cold water for 2 hours. Top up with boiling water and drink as a tea. Marshmallow root also extracts well as a glycetract. Marshmallow Recipe
 Beating the mixture together makes a creamy consistency. Continue beating until fluffy.
Sweetener note: honey can be used for this recipe, however I chose not to as the recipe requires boiling the honey which is seen to be toxic in Ayurveda. On a practical note, the heaviness of honey can mean it falls to the bottom of the marshmallows, and the flavour can be a bit overpowering.
References: 1 - (Beaune, A. and Balea, T. [Anti-inflammatory experimental properties of marshmallow: its potentiating action on the local effects of corticoids]. Therapie 1966;21(2):341-347) 2 - (Recio MC and et al. Antimicrobial activity of selected plants employed in the Spanish Mediterranean area, Part II. Phytother Res 1989;3:77-80) |
Kelly PhillipsThetaHealer, Naturopath, Ayurvedic Practitioner, Wholefood Cook and Mother. Archives
October 2021
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