Access to all articles, new health classes, discounts in our store, and more!
Sharon’s Mushroom Salad
[“Allyn’s Kichen”]
Dr. Allyn Cano Alwa ‘s food experimentation history began early as she watched and assisted her Cajun grandmother prepare the daily meals from a wide array of ingredients uncommon in most households. Her parents opened and operated one of the first full service Mexican restaurants in the United States, and went on to create a well-known national chain, El Torito. Dr. Alwa apprenticed by assisting her mother research and develop recipes, menus, and artistic food presentations for El Torito.
When she married into a south Indian family, she continued her tradition of watching and assisting in the kitchen, and began to appreciate the intricacies and delicacies of southern Indian cooking.
Dr. Alwa developed a love and fascination with natural and ethnic foods – a fascination which persists to this day. She professes a common essential ingredient to all fine cuisine – love. Dr. Alwa believes the discerning factor for an exquisite dish and a superior preparer is the love and awareness put into the selection and preparation of the ingredients, as well as the emotional and healing gift it is to those for whom it was prepared.
Sharon’s mushroom salad
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Balsamic, rice, wine, or apple cider vinegar — to taste
- 1 bunch parsley
- 1 small block feta cheese
- 2 to 4 cups fresh cleaned button mushrooms
- Sea salt — to taste
- Cayenne pepper — to taste Directions
Clean and snip parsley (including stems) and set aside.
Clean and cutoff bottoms of stems of mushrooms, set aside.
Slice off bottoms of stems; don’t cut off whole stem where it connects to cap.
Drain off fluid and cut feta cheese into cubes, set aside.
In a large bowl, mix approximately 1/4 cup olive oil, a dash or three of vinegar, sea salt and cayenne pepper to taste. Whip ingredients with a fork or wire whisk until well blended – taste it.
Add more vinegar, sea salt or cayenne as desired.
Due to saltiness of feta cheese, be careful not to add too much sea salt.
Under-salt until feta cheese has been blended in, then add more sea salt if desired.
When dressing is to your liking, add whole mushrooms, feta cheese, and parsley and toss gently.
Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for an hour or so, allow to marinate. Keep covered and store in refrigerator.
This recipe is enzyme-rich due to the predominance of raw and unprocessed ingredients. Parsley is chlorophyll intensive, making it a great blood cleanser, rich in vitamins A and C, and calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and sulfur. It is an oxygen stimulant for cellular respiration and regeneration and is useful in many blood, hormone, and organ disorders.
Mushrooms are a good source of protein and “good” fats. Some oriental mushrooms, such as reishi and shiitake, are used for their immune-enhancing abilities and may be substituted or added to other mushrooms. Feta, like many other natural cheeses, is high in calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin A, as well as being enzyme and protein rich
Olive oil has a multitude of reported health benefits. It is probably the king of healthy fat, high in E, K and the beta-carotenes. Be sure whatever oil you choose is “cold or expeller pressed.” Oil rendered by heat — most common oils like vegetable, corn, etc. — are rancid. The more “virgin” the olive oil, the less filtered; the more “light,” the more filtered.
Vinegars are enzyme active. Distilled white vinegar is the “white sugar” (no, no, bad thing!) of the vinegar world. Opt for more natural, ethnic vinegars or make your own. Sea salt is naturally sun-dried salt from the ocean where iodine is naturally found from the preponderance of kelp in the ocean. It is purer and healthier than mined, bleached land salts.
Cayenne is a non-toxic form of pepper. Cayenne and other chilies hold the record for the highest amounts of vitamin C. It is among the best herbs to enhance circulation and overall health of the heart. Frequently people believe it burns their stomach when in fact it is used to heal internal ulcerations.
Published in the Price-Pottenger Journal of Health and Healing
Spring 1999 | Volume 23, Number 1
Copyright © 1999 Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Inc.®
All Rights Reserved Worldwide