Roasted Squash and Asparagus Salad

As of tomorrow I start my 12-day detox diet. The diet is called the Wild Rose D-tox and was developed by Dr. Terry Willard of the Wild Rose College of Healing in Calgary, Alberta. Dr. Willard is recognized as one of North America's leading clinical herbalists and has spent over 30 years studying the medicinal properties of plants.

Throughout the next twelve days I will eliminate dairy, flour, sugar, shellfish, tropical fruits, alcohol and yeast from my diet.

The diet also comes with four herbal formulas that are to be consumed with breakfast and dinner, the names of which are too graphic to repeat here and not appropriate for a food blog. If you want to see what they are, click here.

During the twelve days, I can eat as much as I want, as long as my diet consists of 80% alkaline-forming foods and less than 20% acid-forming foods. When digested, foods either leave an acidic or alkaline residue (or ash) in our bodies.

It is said that too much acidity is not good for us and alkalinity helps our bodies fight certain diseases. I've actually been trying to adhere to this concept for the past 6 months. I've been structuring my diet so that, to borrow from Michael Pollen's mantra, "I eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants". I've also permanently cut all all foods that contain ingredients I don't understand like "acesulfame potassium" or "calcium stearoyl lactylate".

So over the next fortnight, I'm only going to be featuring new and old recipes that align with my detox diet. Don't be deterred. The meals are nutritious and delicious.  I wouldn't have it any other way!

This brings us to detox recipe number one -- roasted squash salad with a garlic, basil and lemon dressing. Normally I'd eat this salad with some feta cheese crumbled on top -- but not today!

Roasted Squash Salad Recipe
(Serves 4)

Medium squash, cut into large chunks
1 large bunch of asparagus
15 cherry tomatoes
1 ripe avocado, sliced
Olive oil for drizzling
Sea salt & black pepper

Dressing

3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4-5 basil leaves, finely chopped
1/8 cup of extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 3/4 to 1 lemon
1/8 tsp of sea salt

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F (180C). Place the squash in a baking dish and drizzling with olive oil. Season with a little salt and pepper. Roast until tender -- about 35-40 minutes.
2. Once cooked, remove squash from oven and cool. Once cooled, cut into small cubes, making sure you slice off and discard the skin.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the dressing. Combine the garlic, basil and olive oil together in a small bowl. Add the lemon juice and salt and whisk with a fork until mixture emulsifies (thickens and combines). Taste and add a little more salt if necessary. Set aside.
4. Steam the asparagus until tender but crisp -- about 3-4 minutes. Test a spear before removing it from the steamer to see if it's ready. Remove spears from steamer and place on serving plates.
5. Assemble salad by arranging asparagus spears on a plate with squash, sliced cherry tomatoes and slices of avocado. Drizzle on dressing. Serve.

Comments

[Manggy]

I fall the food is this good, then I have no complaints about detox! :) But what's with the prejudice against tropical fruits? Ha ha ha :)

[VeggieGirl]

STUNNING salad!!

Good luck with your detox!!

[kate]

I'm finishing Wild Rose tomorrow!
Would have loved to have recipes to help me through it... I'll save them for next time!

[pam]

What a beautiful salad!

[taste memory girl]

yay for more alkaline ~ congrats on the new start! avocado slices look perfect....I must have at least ONE avo daily! ;-)

[Ivy]

This Wild Rose diet sounds so interesting.
I can't wait to see all your diet recipes.
How exciting! :)

[Micha]

This salad looks very refreshing and delicious.
I have to say, I'm just like you when it comes to ingredients I can't pronounce. Once I started down that road I quickly realized that the only stuff I could eat came from my own kitchen.
Kudos to you for sticking to such a strict diet too! I've done something similar in the past and it is amazing how many foods we eat daily are acidic or throw off our yeast balance!

[Syrie]

Hey Mark, I know it stinks about the tropical fruit. It means I can't have banana on my oats. Boo. It's because they're too high in sugar for this diet.

Thank you VeggieGirl!!

Hey Kate, glad you made it and yes, if you do it again next year please don't forget me! I'll have lots of detox recipes by then. Cheers.

Thanks so much Pam!

Taste Mem girl, one avocado a day! Good on you. I love them.

Hey Ivy, not as delish as your chicken dish but it's not too bad for a detox diet. Thanks for visiting!

Thanks Micha! It is just so scary when I actually read what's in food these days or when I find out how stuff is processed. No thanks!

[How to detox]

What a delicious looking salad - my mouth's watering just looking at it! It's good to hear your stories about the alkaline/acid balance. I've been trying to change the ratio of foods in my diet to a more alkaline bias - was a bit tough to start with, but with a little for thought and planning it's got a lot easier, and health wise I feel a lot better in myself. I used to get a lot of indigestion but that's a thing of the past now, so if nothing else it's good for your digestion too.
Julianne

[Jennifer]

i really like this kind of site because it helps us to know the right food to eat and maintain our weight to become fit.
diet blog

[My favorite recipes for detox diets.]

Yummy and healthy recipes and really tasty. I like it because it very lite and after eating eating we don't get heavy feeling in our stomach.
Suzzane Waltz
Some detox diets just aren't the same as others. Some of my favorites are very simple, like the master cleanse

[Flo]

thanks this is fantastic. great to hear from somebody who is actually cooking the recipes along the way. im currently looking into detox plans - think im going to copy your 12 days!