Broccoli Salad

I've decided to try and eat as much "live" food as possible, meaning as many raw dishes as I can. I believe it's so much better for you. I recently went to a raw foods meetup and it was so great. I was amazed at the dishes that were all raw. There was even a raw pumpkin pie, which I think was even better than the regular kind. The crust was made of nuts and dates, and the filling was actually butternut squash instead of pumpkin. But I dare you to tell the difference.

One of the great things about eating raw is that you don't have to worry about meat or wheat, in most cases. Some might use soy sauce, but it's clearly marked if it's there. Tonight I decided to try my hand at a broccoli salad. It was awfully yummy and I wish I had made more. I think I'll make some and let it sit overnight, which will soften up the broccoli a bit and blend the flavors. But I'm not complaining, I love the crunchy broccoli, sunflower seeds and sweet tomatoes. Since I just threw this together, the measurements are not as specific as usual. But you get the idea.

Broccoli Salad
About 1 1/2 cups of broccoli florets
1/2 tsp grated raw onion
About 1 TBS sunflower seeds (mine were roasted, but you could use raw)
About 6-8 grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 1/2 tsp ground flax seeds
1-2 TBS honey mustard dressing
1 pinch of sea salt

1. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix. It's that simple. Add 1 TBS of dressing and mix, then add more to taste.

I like to grate the onion so that the flavor isn't so powerful. I don't like biting into raw onion, but the flavor is great. I just cut off the end of a sweet onion and grated it into the salad. It's about 1/2-1 tsp. It's up to you if you like onion or not, so decide for yourself dear chef. You can even leave it out and it will still be great.

Honey mustard dressing can be a store-bought brand or just a quick mix of honey, mustard, olive oil and salt. This time I was out of honey and used the spray-on brand of honey mustard dressing. It's great if you just want a little dressing at a time, and low cal.

Enjoy!