WARVS :- Warm and Raw Vegetable Salad

In English this acronym doesn’t run easily off the tongue but it does summarise what I hope will become a kind of staple.

With a little care and attention this dish, even on its own,  can be as flavoursome and welcome as a steak. .The spectrum of colour, taste texture and what it can contain and  contribute to health is incalculable. A little time consuming at first it is the easiest dish ever to make.

This truly subserves the preservation of goodness and natural roughage of vegetable.

You need any vegetable except potatoes (but sweet potatoes are just fine), some sort of pot or pan to warm them in, a sharp knife and a chopping board.

WARM  means just that never heated beyond baby bath temperature. This means the components will not be damaged  yet will be welcome when it is cold and that the flavours therein will radiate and move through the mix.

AND

RAW

Having laboured the point that cooking is akin to the rotting of food, raw takes on a better light. It means the food will have a pleasing crunch and a texture to stimulate your guts. Some things you add as you experiment might not be so crunchy  - cooked pulses, quinoa, brown rice etc can be used as expanders and that means furthering tastes, textures and appearance. However their use should be modest as the real health benefits come by way of nutrients and complex carbohydrates in the raw vegetables

VEGETABLE

This can be anything that can be eaten raw and, apart from potatoes and aubergine, this is just about all vegetables. This does not exclude fruit but what is not wanted is sweet and soft fruit. Unripe, or barely ripe is the order of the day - they should be sharp in taste and firm.

SALAD  There is no need for recipes-the word speaks for itself.

Preparation:-  Yes this is a little time consuming but it gets easier and easier all the time.

washing:-
a vegetable brush and  water do well. Remember to keep and use the skin. On  some it will not be intuitive to save the skin eg pumpkin, swedes but they really do add texture, taste and importantly fibre. It is remarkable too that the paper thin  skin on say carrots, turnips and parsnips manages to keep at bay a myriad of earth insects and bugs so don’t scrub hard so hard as to lose them. Some use vinegar in the water. I think it’s most important to remove any bits that look  touch fungal. It and the underlying vegetable will be soft and spoil the taste and  no one wants to eat an unknown fungus.
 A little salt in the washing water might take your fancy.

cutting up:- 
This is so important. Smallish is important - apart from just coping with it in the mouth it offers an enhanced surface area for your additives. As nice as Juliened vegetables can be they mustn’t be so long as to be difficult to manage. Beware chunkiness too, also slices be they ever so thin. Grating and fine chopping is just fine. Naturally for the kids use a finer grating.

mixing:-        
For this use a pan, pot or anything that will hold what you have cut up but with enough spare  room to allow you to lift and mix easily. A thick based pan is good   as it will offer better control over getting things ‘just warm’. Greens discolour rapidly so I tend to add these last- though just defrosted ones might go in earlier.

                

Your additives:-  
This is the crux of making the whole thing work 
- making what can be a nightmare to eat into something scrumptious and welcoming.. Please do your level best to avoid buying ready mixed flavourings and sauces.Learn to make your own-they will be fresher, and have the quality of ingredients you choose and none of the preservatives they need to maintain shelf life. Also the variety is infinite.

At the outset the thing that pulls everything together is oil but as this will added the very end  we shall discuss this later.

Patently additives are your choice and taste. Many spices are in the league of superfoods like turmeric and cinnamon and herbs, fresh and dried,  can be like this too. A squidge of lemon juice adds a marvellous fruity sharpness as do sour apples like Bramley. Finely chopped lemon pulp adds a mild bitterness and good fibre. Amchur, powdered dried green mango, adds a fruity sharpness.

Salt and pepper are good; I use a high potassium salt to keep the sodium intake down and fairly course ground black pepper. Ground mustard seeds are good.

It’s almost insulting your intelligence to suggest any more as you will know what you like already.

Nut butters, especially almond butter, used sparingly and ground sunflower seed  give interest and texture.

I use good quality olive oil and this will not be damaged by low temperature of the mix - be generous for it is this that makes it go down so well. Rice bran and cold pressed rapeseed oil works well and occasional coconut oil is good too.

I keep one or two ‘expanders’ in the fridge already cooked. Brown rice, quinoa, cracked buckwheat, millet, and some from dried beans and peas - butter beans and blackeye beans are favourite.

This might irk some readers but now and then I buy turkey breast mince, cook it so its free to separate into course granules. I freeze it in very small quantities and add one of these occasionally for a change.

A hard boiled egg finely chopped also bumps up the flavour and the protein content.

Mostly against using bought sources I keep some Tamari or Bragg’s Aminos on hand.

I hope you get the hang of warvs and keep some at hand all the time by making a little extra.

Good luck.