Recipe: Spring Arugula Salad with Fennel Dressing

Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises. —Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Arugula—what a great spring green!  

Heavier winter foods encourage acidity in the body and help us feel grounded during the vata (air and space) season.  With spring on the way, we enter into the kapha (earth and water) time of year. A time when the prominence of rain and melting snow can give way to dampness, bloating, lethargy, and sluggish digestion.  

It is also not unusual for some of us to report feelings of depression or just a general sense of malaise for which we can’t quite figure out the cause.

Now, we welcome arugula’s bitter taste and pungent quality to encourage and maintain balance. Arugula is a bitter green and so, great for promoting alkalinity in the body, at a time when we are eager to leave the acidity of winter foods behind us.  

Bitter foods are typically cooling in nature but interestingly, while arugula has a bitter taste, it is pungent in nature.  

Another spring vegetable, the radish, is bitter and pungent too. Arugula and radish are detoxifiers and cholagogues. Radish is diuretic and diaphoretic too.

You may find that even though these vegetables are served raw, they still promote warmth and lightness in the body;  allowing for the common complaints of spring time to be assuaged with such a salubrious salad. 

And if that’s not enough, the dressing that accompanies this salad is finessed with fennel, a digestive diva!  

Eat, enjoy, and enliven! 

RECIPE: Spring Arugula Salad with Fennel Dressing

Serves 2 as a meal or 4 as a side salad.

Salad Ingredients
1  large bunch arugula
3  radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped broccoli 
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

Toss all ingredients together in a bowl.

Fennel Dressing
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs. raw apple cider vinegar
2 tbs. minced fresh fennel
¼ c. water

Combine all ingredients in a bottle and shake vigorously. Pour over salad.