The Joys of a Spiral Slicer

How about making a little go a long way? Trying to lose weight? Fill your plate with colorful, tasty, high water content foods. A little goes a long way when you use the Spiral Slicer, a novel gadget that lets you defy that old admonition "don't play with your food".
I think using the slicer is such fun!

Imagine filling a bowl using one zucchini, two red radishes and a two inch piece of daikon radish. Adding a bit of zip is a diced green onion. Dressing it? Why not try a very slight drizzle of sesame oil, a few drops of Umeboshi vinegar and a generous sprinkle of black sesame seeds. But there are so many options! Use your imagination and slice up a bowl soon!

The total effect is pleasing to the eye, takes but moments to prepare, and provides a satisfying, low calorie, high fiber lunch.

The radishes remind me of ribbon candy...

Citrus Inspired Salad

With juicy ruby red grapefruit plentiful at the market, I was inspired to make a luncheon salad based on an appetizer I'd seen in The Conscious Cook. Tal Ronnen gives instructions along with a handsome image for shiso bites.


Despite no shiso leaves, the components held a lot of appeal and when I came home with a 5 pound bag of grapefruit my lunch became a salad adapted from my memory of Ronnen's appetizer.

Thinly sliced green cabbage or Napa cabbage

Sliced red radishes

Julienned fresh daikon

Red grapefruit segments

Grapefruit juice

Sea Salt

Cayenne Pepper

Sesame Seeds

To serve one, as pictured, I used approximately 1 cup of sliced cabbage, half a dozen red radishes, about a 3 inch piece of daikon, segments from a whole grapefruit with half the juice, a dash of salt and a pinch of cayenne, then sprinkled the top with white sesame seeds. Increase the amount of each item for more servings.

The citrus juice will soften the cabbage a bit if you toss it by itself first and let it rest while you prepare the rest of the salad. Or not, the crunch from the cabbage, radishes and daikon makes a nice change from salads made with soft greens.