I Mean, Right?
Oh, Arugula. I treated it as some leper in my former eating life. That life was filled with Subway and Carl’s Jr. runs. A life of an extremely simple and cheap pallet. Even with my anti-inflammatory eating habits, I cast off arugula as the red headed step child (poor Gingers) of the greens family and really didn’t eat it. Old beliefs (no chance to be a habit) die hard. I had a block!
Until I had a lapsus memoriae
(That 4 years of Latin didn’t go to waste! Thanks Mrs. Harding!) I was doing my typical recipe researching when I came across a yummy looking salad with arugula in it. I must’ve been in a hurry or totally distracted by the great food photography, but I ended up writing down arugula on my grocery shopping list in order to make this certain recipe.
What The Heck?
My husband, being the top chef that he is, did the cooking on this fateful arugula night. He plated up the arugula salad with the other wonderful food that evening and it still didn’t dawn on me what I was about to do. I was about to put arugula in my mouth for the first time since God knows when. This red headed step child was no longer a cast off. Holy Moly it was….dare I say….GOOD!?!? Like really good! Arugula? Good? I needed a few moments to catch up with myself. The brain needed to process this. Then I was like, “Why haven’t we been eating arugula?!” Well, now we do and I created this recipe with a new found love of the once cast off grass!
Ingredients
- Arugula - 10 oz
- Red Wine Vinegar - 4 T
- Shallot - 1 large shallot or 2 small ones
- Pecans - Sprinkle over salad to taste (Omit if AIP)
- Olive Oil - 2T
- Nectarine - 1 (optional)
- Salt
- Pepper (Omit if AIP)
Instructions
- I normally take two 5 oz containers of pre-washed organic arugula that I get from the store and dump it into a big bowl.
- I take the shallot and halve, peel and mince it.
- In a separate bowl I make the vinaigrette. I whisk together the red wine vinegar, minced shallot and olive oil together and then season with salt and pepper to taste.
- I drizzle the vinaigrette over the arugula and toss.
- Then I slice up a nectarine (optional) and put the slices into the salad.
- I chop up some raw pecans and throw them into the salad and give it one last toss.
Notes
*I like to say that the nectarine is optional because of two reasons. The first, I'm not eating fruit right now and really haven't for about 3 years (help me Lord!). Secondly, if you ditch the nectarine it is no longer just a summer salad but a salad that works for all seasons.
Here are some of the steps.
Tossed the arugula in a bowl
Making the vinaigrette
All of the goodies together and giving it a good toss!
I like to pair this salad with flank steak but honestly it would be good with salmon, chicken or pork! The vinaigrette is such a winner that I carry this over to other salads because it is just too good!
I actually just made this for my sister during our planning retreat and she loved it and kept saying I was holding out on her! Don’t hold out with the people in your own life. Make it. Love it. Share it.
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Do you have any foods that you steer clear from like I did with arugula?
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Check out more recipes like this on the Phoenix Helix Roundtable http://www.phoenixhelix.com/2016/07/27/paleo-aip-recipe-roundtable-130/