Its springtime…time to dig into a Plant Power Salad!

Trying to eat a more plant-based diet for better health?

Tap into Mother Nature’s exquisite rainbow-colored cornucopia of fruits and vegetables — truly the class of foods that keeps our arteries healthy and clean. Head for your green grocer and harness the phenomenal medicinal power of natural plant compounds.

Buy them fresh, buy them often, and fill your body with a spectrum of healthy colors, nature’s medicine chest.

Dig into this delicious salad made with an array of medicinal plant compounds: arugula (an anti-cancer cruciferous green); radicchio and tomatoes (plant antioxidant powerhouses); basil and garlic (herbs that are virtual phytochemical factories); extra virgin olive oil (packed with powerful plant antioxidants called “polyphenols,” known to soothe inflammation); lemon juice (adding vitamin C and potassium—a mineral superstar when it comes to helping you attain a healthy blood pressure reading).

Arugula Salad with Garlic Tomato Vinaigrette

If you like Italian, then you’ll love this simple yet elegant salad!

Food weight: 1.5

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: ¼ salad recipe plus ~ ¼ cup dressing)

Dressing

• Two fresh basil leaves, shredded
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• Juice from a fresh lemon
• ¼ teaspoons salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 3 plum tomatoes, chopped into small pieces

For the dressing: In a bowl, combine all dressing ingredients (except tomatoes) and whisk until blended. Add tomatoes and blend with vinaigrette. Chill dressing until serving salad.

Salad

Yield: 4 servings

• 3 cups arugula
• 1 small head of radicchio, chopped into bite size pieces
• 1 Belgian endive, end cut off and leaves separated

For the salad: Place greens in salad bowl and toss. Add desired amount of salad dressing and serve.

Nutritional Information

(¼ of the salad greens with ~ ¼ cup dressing):

• Food weight: 1.5
• Calories: 145
• Fat: 10 g
• Cholesterol: 0 mg
• Sodium: 149 mg
• Carbohydrate: 11 g
• Dietary Fiber: 4 g
• Sugars: 4 g
• Protein: 2 g

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Recipe Source: An excerpt from the book Cholesterol Down by Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D., LDN; Published by Three Rivers Press; December 2006;$13.95US/$17.95CAN; 978-0-307-33911-9 Copyright © 2006 Janet Brill, Ph.D.

To learn more about this book please visit CholesterolDownBook.com.