01

Prepare edamame beans. Place fresh or frozen shelled edamame beans in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain and cool.

02

In a large salad bowl with at least 8 cups capacity, place the spinach and top with the seasonal fruits you choose for your salad meal. My favorite combination is oranges, raspberries or pomegranates, blueberries, and diced apples. Feel free to use seasonal fruits here, like replacing apples with pears or replacing raspberries with pomegranates that are ripe in the fall when berries are not in season.

03

Just before serving, add the cooled edamame beans and toasted almonds and drizzle the Sweet Citrus Dressing over the top. Toss to lightly coat the greens. Place 4 cups of the well-mixed salad in each main dish salad bowl or plate and serve immediately.

04

Want to kick this up a notch and turn this Main Dish Salad into a Nourish Bowl? Add ½ cup of cooked whole grain quinoa or cooked whole grain wild rice or any cooked whole grain you prefer to each serving and turn this meal into a Nourish Bowl. This adds one serving of cooked whole grains to your meal.

01

What are edamame beans? Premature soybeans. They can be purchased frozen in the shell or shelled. For this recipe, I used frozen, shelled edamame beans for quick preparation.

02

Should I buy organic edamame? My simple answer would be yes if you can afford this. Organic and non-genetically modified soybeans in their whole form are my first and best choice for eating soy. However, if you cannot afford to buy organic or you can’t find organic edamame soybeans in your local grocery store, I would use any edamame beans I could buy.

03

Should I use frozen or fresh edamame? I keep a supply of frozen shelled and unshelled edamame in my freezer. You can purchase this at most local grocery stores and find it in the frozen vegetable section. This is a delicious way to add plant proteins to your meal. Edamame is naturally very high in protein and low in fat, giving you plant protein and adding one point to your daily longevity score for ½ cup of beans daily.

04

Can I toast the nuts in the oven? Yes. To toast the nuts in the oven, simply spread nuts on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake at 350° for about 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

05

How do I store my nuts so they do not get rancid? Nuts get rancid very quickly when kept at room temperature. If you keep your nuts in a pantry that is not at a consistently cool temperature and not properly sealed, they can get rancid in just a few weeks. The fat in nuts is plant fat and is not saturated, which means with warm temperatures and air, the fat will get rancid. What this means is the nuts are still safe to eat, but they taste bad. Your recipes will not turn out as delicious as you’d like, and some people don’t realize the nuts were the problem and then end up adding more seasonings like salt and sugar, not realizing we are adjusting taste because of bad ingredients. I always smell or taste nuts before using them in a recipe because rancid nuts will ruin the flavor of any recipe. Unfortunately, I do not recommend buying nuts in your local grocery store. I find that 95% of the time, they are rancid the day you buy them.

06

Where do I buy my nuts? I try to purchase my nuts directly from growers through Amazon. I look for fresh nuts from that same season to get the freshest, most delicious nuts. I buy organic nuts, and I purchase them in larger quantities a few times per year. When the nuts come in larger quantities, I store them in 1-quart freezer bags in my freezer or refrigerator, this way my nuts will taste fresh for several years without being rancid, and I always have a supply of nuts for last-minute meal prep.

07

Are nuts healthy? Yes. Nuts provide healthy plant protein and healthy plant fat that is needed for a healthy diet. I often say that nuts are my beef replacement. Nuts provide fullness and satiety to meals like beef. Nuts also reduce the risk of heart attack, lower blood pressure, and are naturally loaded with fibers that heal the gut and turn on healing for the body. Nuts contain healthy plant fats and have zero cholesterol. So, store up on healthy nuts since they are the new beef and support living the longest, healthiest life. You earn one point daily on The Longevity Score for eating ¼ cup of nuts daily.

08

Can I add whole grains to this salad and turn this Main Dish Salad into a Nourish bowl? The simple answer is YES! In the TakeTEN Program, we added ½ cup of cooked quinoa to each salad portion when this salad. Quinoa is an ancient grain and was considered the gold of the Incas. The warriors were given this grain to give them sustained strength in battle. Quinoa is a whole grain and is a great source of plant protein and whole carbs, naturally loaded with the fibers that build healthy gut flora and turn on healing for the body. Adding ½ cup of cooked quinoa gets you halfway (50%) to your daily goal of 1 cup of whole grains daily. You can also use ½ cup of wild rice for a delicious twist to this sweet and delicious Nourish bowl.

09

What is a Nourish Bowl? I call a recipe a Nourish Bowl if it contains the food combo and the portion sizes that make up The Plate meal plan. Everything that is needed for the perfect meal to crush hunger, burn fat, and heal the body are all in one delicious Nourish Bowl.

10

What is the difference between a Main Dish Salad and a Nourish Bowl? A Main Dish Salad contains the food combo and portion sizes of The Small Plate meal plan. It has everything that is needed for a perfect small plate meal and still crushes hunger, burns fat, and heals the body all in one delicious meal, but it does not include the daily goal of whole grains. I recommend at least 1 cup of whole grains daily, and the Nourish Bowl adds healthy whole grains to the meal.