You know those little salads that you get as an appetizer when you go out for hibachi? Those little square, beige plates that are chock full of iceburg lettuce and carrot shreds? Well, remember that glorious orange dressing that is dolloped on top? I love that dressing with all my being. Yes, I am that person who meticulously scrapes her little salad plate clean, hoping to taste any lingering slurps of that lovely oniony and gingery puree.  So, obviously I had to recreate this dressing. I modified the recipe from the wondrous kitchen wizard, Deb Perelman. I trust Deb’s recipes like no other- she thoroughly tests and tweaks each one of her recipes multiple times, and describes herself as an obsessive home-cook. I have made many of her recipes and not a one has ever been subpar. They were all out-of-the park a-mazing. Not only was I excited to make this recipe due to my hibachi dressing fanaticism, I was pumped to try out my new Cuisinart mini food processor that my parents got me …

As a break from my salad-themed Vegan Mofo posts, I thought I would join the What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW) party (for the first time ever- hooray!).  Without further ado, here are my eats from yesterday. As a side note- I am not vegan myself, but as this is for Vegan Mofo, all eats yesterday were vegan. Enjoy, fellow food oglers! My day started off with a large mug of TJ’s Pumpkin Spice coffee. For breakfast, I had a chocolate peppermint smoothie in a bowl, topped with almond butter and raw oats. In the smoothie was watermelon, banana, blueberries, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, chocolate Sunwarrior protein powder, mint extract and hemp milk.  For lunch, I had a massive salad with carrot-ginger dressing (recipe to come soon!). Salad is topped with cukes, tomatoes, butternut squash, black beans and a bit of lentils. And some cranberry kombucha! Kombucha rocks my socks. Around 2 pm, I paused work for a few handfuls of ‘Simply the Best’ trail mix- from Trader Joe’s, as well. Dinner was a leftover butternut …

This Reuben salad is packed with savory tempeh and mushrooms, acidic sauerkraut, caraway-flecked onions and carrots, and crisp cukes- all atop a bed of spinach. On the side is a creamy hemp-based Russian dressing.  My inspiration for this recipe was, oddly, my bout with Lyme disease. Nothing serious, folks- no need to worry. But, moral of the story is that I was taking antibiotics twice a day. I wanted to pack my body as full as possible with probiotics during these three weeks, as I was stripping it of all bacteria, friend and foe. So it being Vegan Mofo and all, I challenged myself to come up with a probiotic-heavy salad. Et voila: the Vegan Reuban Salad was born.Tempeh and sauerkraut are powerhouses of probiotics. Tempeh is an Indonesian meat substitute made of fermented soybeans (and sometimes grains), and sauerkraut is fermented cabbage. And what is fermentation? When lactobactilli and other friendly bacteria are allowed to run rampant on a fruit or veggie, preserving and souring it. I am still unsure whether the beneficial probiotic …