Summer Salads with Nutritionist Jodi Greebel

Divya Gugnani: Hi, I am Divya Gugnani and it’s bathing suit season. So I am here at Jodi Greebel’s apartment to get some summer salad inspiration. So let’s go behind the burner and meet the nutritionist. Hi, I am here with Jodi Greebel. Jodi, I see lots of beautiful colors, fruit. Are we having salad? Jodi Greebel: We’re going to have chopped vegetable salad with a lemon vinaigrette, and a summer fruit salad with mints. They’re both from the book, and there are tons of other salad recipes in there as well. We just saw these recipes really light and refreshable for today. Divya Gugnani: And you know, what’s great about the book is, the recipes are, you know, simple easy, they are for one, right? Jodi Greebel: They are. See, you don’t have to be a chef in order to do these, and you know, when I watched the, you know, cooking shows, I see them cutting these things beautifully and I know when I do things, it never looks like that. We’re really focusing on a lot of different colors in our salads, and a lot of people can really hung up on green vegetables, like only the green vegetables are healthy. And the really important thing is that every fruit and vegetable is healthy, and the more colors you have, the more vitamins, minerals, antioxidants you’re going to get. Divya Gugnani: That’s for later. Jodi Greebel: So we’re going to start with the lemon. And one thing that I learned is that to get the juices from the lemon or any other fruit exactly, you got to roll it. Divya Gugnani: You got to roll it. Jodi Greebel: Exactly. Divya Gugnani: So it always going to release the juices and it’s going to heat up the lemon a little bit. Jodi Greebel: And we’re going to use two teaspoons of lemon juice, the great thing about this recipe is that if you don’t do it exactly perfectly, it still going to taste great so, that’s my kind of recipe, where it doesn’t have to be perfect so. And then we’re going to add two teaspoons of olive oil, it’s really good for your overall health, and it’s great for your skin. And then we’re going to just add salt and pepper to taste however much you like. And you only have to whisk it for 10 seconds and that’s it. Divya Gugnani: Already I just heated up the bowl without the salad but I want to wait for the salad. Jodi Greebel: Great thing about this English cucumber, you don’t have to kill it, you don’t have to take the seeds out, it taste delicious as it is, something like 4 or 5 slices whatever again, I mean, you need to put some slices in there, and you can also throw some in our water. Divya Gugnani: I like that. Jodi Greebel: Really refreshing, and cucumber actually is really high in silica, which is great for your skin, this is really a refreshing drink to have with your salad. Next we go onto our tomato. Tomato has that deep red color so it’s really high in antioxidant lycopene, which has become really popular for protecting germs of variety of types of cancers. You can just cut that into some wedges, and we’re going to throw that in the salad as well. So we’re going to use about a half of a yellow pepper. Pepper is actually of more vitamin c than a lot of the citrus fruits. Divya Gugnani: I cut those up and put them in omelets all the time, and you get that great vitamin C. Instead of having orange juice with my omelet, I can just cut a pepper in it and I get as much vitamin C. Jodi Greebel: Absolutely perfect. The next thing we’re going to add is a tablespoon of the onions, it’s high in an antioxidant called Allistatin, a lot of people think onions don’t really have any nutritional value but they are – besides the flavor, they give -- they are really, really nutritious. Next thing, we’re going to add is a handful of kalamata olives and again – Divya Gugnani: I love olives. Jodi Greebel: Me too. And again they are the healthy fat so you can feel good about eating these. And then we’re going to add a tablespoon of crumbles feta, it has a lot of flavor within a small amount. And the last thing we’re going to add is two teaspoons of oregano. And the great thing about herbs and spices is that they add a ton of flavor without adding a lot of calories and fat. And because if this green color, it actually has a nutritional benefits like spinach, we can just, you know mix it together. Divya Gugnani: Yeah. Jodi Greebel: I like to add the salt just in before I plate it just to get it all mixed into the salad. Divya Gugnani: All those beautiful lemon flavor, that will get using with our great ingredients. So, Jodi, it smells delicious, by now I need to see if it taste delicious. That crunch from the pepper and the lemony dressing, it’s about -- Jodi Greebel: It’s perfect for the summer. So now we’re going to make our summer fruit salad with mints. The recipe actually calls for a nectarine. The nectarines I don’t think looks good, so I just added, I was going to have a plum instead. When you’re cutting one of these in order to get this -- the pit out, you’re going to cut right down the middle like that and then cut straight through till it hit the pit, and the you actually twist the sections apart. Divya Gugnani: But you know the recipe says go with nectarine, u see plums, it look good to you, you use plums. Jodi Greebel: Besides being high in fiber it also has a deep color so it’s really high in antioxidants. And I am sure we all know, dried plums, which used to be known as prunes, now called dried plums because it sounds much better, really high in fiber and really help prevent constipations. The next thing we’re going to do is add some strawberries. Strawberry is also really high in vitamin C, so again, you’re thinking about your breakfast or your food. Divya Gugnani: Put some of these in the refrigerator, and it, like sacks out all the amazing flavor. You’re going to use them and you put them in the fridge, take them out, leave them out for a half an hour, let them get back to room temperature, and then use them and then they just smell great, they taste great. Jodi Greebel: This is about a quarter of a banana. Bananas are also really high in fiber, so they’re great for the fiber, but they’re also really high in potassium. And Potassium is thought to help lower blood pressure. Now mango is one of those fruits for I think people get intimidated, so you want to look for one with a smooth skin and the way that you’re going to cut this is, actually you’re just going to cut the top and the bottom off, you can actually buy a mango cutter, which helps cut the mangoes like what they used to cut apples. Divya Gugnani: Yeah. Jodi Greebel: But you’re actually -- the way you cut it is you just want to hold on and sort of shave the skin. Divya Gugnani: And then peel it off the sides. Jodi Greebel: Exactly. Divya Gugnani: Okay. Jodi Greebel: So we put the mango in here, mango is also really nutritious, really high in baby carrots in which most people think of a carrot so it’s really good for your eyes and it’s good for immune system, your bones, your brain. So it’s another way to get some of those great baby carrots in. So we’re going to put the juice from about a quarter of a lime into the fruit salads. Divya Gugnani: So you’re just going to squeeze that in here. It smells so fresh and makes me think of milky dough. Jodi Greebel: Oh that’s really good. Divya Gugnani: We’re eating fruit salad, but I am going to milky dough, I am very bad. Jodi Greebel: That’s delicious. And then we’re just going to add about a half a teaspoon of mints, there is basically nothing to do, except fruits and lime juice and some mints, and you have this great fruit salad, it’s nice and color full. Now we can add a little mint on top and the nutrient that you are going to get from these is unbelievable, I mean you have beyond the days worth of vitamins, minerals, everything else you need in the salad. So a great way to start off the summer, get ready for our bathing suit season. Divya Gugnani: Thanks so much Jodi.