Avocado Mixed Vegetable Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Sick and tired of your regular salad recipes? Why not try this amazingly refreshing, and satiating salad that only takes 5-10 minutes to prepare?! It includes ingredients which are easily available during any time of the year, and contains mineral-dense vegetables which help satisfy both your tummy and brain at the same time!

Why are baby greens, and green plant-based foods important? They contain chlorophyll which closely resembles red blood cells in the respect that hemoglobin contains a centre molecule iron and chlorophyll a centre molecule magnesium. Aside from that, both hemoglobin and chlorophyll are structurally the same - the only difference is their centre atom! That means that when you consume green plant-based foods you are literally giving yourself a "blood transfusion," which helps cleanse and detox your blood, improves oxygen transfer throughout the body and helps build strong healthy blood (and thus prevents anemia from developing). 

It is also important to include essential fatty acids (EFAs) in your diet, and one of the purest sources of EFAs are the almighty avocado! Avocado not only contains EFAs, but is a wonderful source of phytosterols, carotenoid antioxidants, other non-carotenoid antioxidants (like flavonoids, vitamins E and C), minerals like zinc, selenium and manganese, and polyhydroxylated fatty alcohols (PFAs). Did you know that just one cup of avocado added to a salad can help increase absorption of carotenoids from the salad by up to 200-400%!? This makes sense because carotenoids are fat-soluble and require a form of fat for proper absorption in the body. 

Ingredients:
- organic mixed baby salad greens including radicchio, arugula, baby romaine, and any other baby green (I normally eat around 1-2lbs of these, but vary according to your own hunger)
- 1 avocado, cut into slices or cubes (I like to vary it up!)
- 6-8 radishes, thinly sliced into rounds
- 1 red pepper, julienned
- 1 cup cucumber, sliced into rounds
- 1/4 cup red onion, cut into rounds
- 1-2 cups cherry tomatoes or regular tomatoes cut into small cubes

Salad dressing:
- 2 tsp. hemp oil (or other high quality cold-pressed oil. If you do not consume oil, simply opt out)
- 1 lemon, squeezed for juice
- 1 tsp. ground mustard
- 1 medjool date, pitted
- ground black pepper
- optional: little bit of cayenne (a pinch)

Blend the salad dressing together, and make it more thin if you please by adding more oil or more lemon

Toss the salad dressing together with the salad ingredients & serve! Bon appetit!