Lotus Energy Salad

Makes 2 Generous Servings

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chopped Lotus Root
• 1 teaspoon black sesame seeds
• 1/2 tablespoon raw sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup chopped or sliced seaweed/kelp
• 1 cup fresh organic spinach
• 1 reg. size organic orange (use the peel only and thinly slice)
• 1 tsp of sesame oil
• Sea Salt to taste

Prepare and Add to Your Salad Bowl

1. Wash and peel the fresh lotus root.
2. Chop root to make ½ a cup. You can find lotus root at most Asian markets. Kelp or seaweed usually comes dried. You can steam it for a few minutes to soften it and then coarsely chop it or slice in thin strips. There are many varieties of kelp and seaweed and you can experiment with to discover which ones you like most. Many health food stores carry organic varieties of sea vegetable.
3. Wash, clean and dry your fresh spinach. My favorite is organic baby spinach.
4. Then prepare the orange peel. All my life I have eaten the whole orange including all the skin. It is very healthy for you. For this salad, the most powerful orange skin is from the mandarin orange. If you can’t find a mandarin orange you can use a navel or juice orange. You want to wash your orange first, then cut off the hard orange part and slice it very thinly and then add ½ cup of the thinly sliced peel to your salad. If you are using a mandarin, sometimes the white part sticks to the skin. You can always use a spoon and scrape off the white pith before you cut thinly slice the peel.
5. Add all ingredients together in a bowl and toss with sesame oil. Add healthy sea salt or Himalayan salt to taste and serve.

Benefits

Lotus Root

Good for taking away the extra acidic heat in the body. It helps to heal any little internal infection and it is good for the stomach pancreas and lungs. Lotus root has been used for many years to strengthen the immune system. Lotus root helps clear mucus accumulation in the body. It helps alleviate coughing, asthma and other respiratory issues.

Black Sesame Seeds

Good for the liver, the kidneys and good for the blood to support all the activities. Black sesame seeds are associated with the kidney and liver meridians and have sweet and neutral properties. They increase the yin jing and blood, moisten the intestines, and help build the spirit, or shen.

Black sesame seeds are an extremely good source of calcium; studies have shown that one gram of seeds contains approximately 85 milligrams of calcium. Black sesame seeds also have high amounts of protein, phosphorous, iron and magnesium.

Raw Sunflower Seeds

Help to calm down High Blood Pressure. In the summer time when you are active and use lots of water, your body can get out of balance. When the body gets out of balance it needs to work twice
as hard to pump the blood and these seeds help to calm that down. Sunflower seeds are high in potassium and zinc and are a good source of protein and offer a healthy alternative to meat proteins. A 1/4-cup serving of sunflower seeds contains 7 g of protein. Sunflower seeds are also a good source of antioxidants, including selenium and vitamin E and heart healthy oils.

Seaweed/Kelp>

Good for the kidneys and lungs and thyroid. Both of these plants have minerals, vitamins and proteins necessary for health including iron, magnesium and calcium. A study done at UC Berkeley shows that adding kelp to a diet can help lower estradiol levels, a hormone that is linked to breast cancer in women. You can read this report here.

Spinach

Good for muscle strength and helps the body produce stronger and healthier blood. Spinach is an excellent source of vitamin K, carotenes, vitamin C, and folic acid. It’s a very good source of manganese, magnesium, iron, and vitamin B2, B6, E, and B1.

Orange

Is a balancing energy. It benefits the pancreas and stomach, improves digestion and helps to balance all of the energy in this Lotus Spinach salad. For many hundreds of years the Chinese have used orange peel in their food and as a tea for all its health benefits.