Don’t you just love summer? I love the warm days and evenings and find myself drawn to lighter, yet really flavorful foods during the summer months.

Here is a raw, amazingly healthy salad that I make at least once a week as the sweet, sour combination is perfect for “cooling” summer lunches or dinners. It’s quick and easy to make and I double the recipe to have extra – the salad will last a good 3-4 days in the fridge. Leftovers make a yummy quick snack, and for an additional quick meal, just add spinach and/or romaine leaves.

Live Well Raw Mango Jicama Salad with Sunflower & Pumpkin Seeds
Serves 4-6

Jicama is a crispy, sweet, edible root that resembles a turnip in appearance, but tastes like a cross between an apple and a potato. Cultivated in South America for centuries, and popular in Mexican cuisine, jicama is great in salads, salsas and vegetable platters. It’s a great source of Vitamin C, is fat free, and contains lots of water and fiber – making it a wonderful on the go snack.

Jicama perfectly complements the juicy mango and smooth cucumber in this salad and the vitamin c in the jicama and mango help the absorption of iron from the sunflower and pumpkin seeds, which are great sources of plant protein. You have everything you need in this salad – low glycemic carbs, protein, Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) and fiber!

Ingredients:

* 1 medium jicama
* 1 mango
* 1 medium English cucumber
* 1 lime – juice and zest
* 1 tablespoon agave nectar
* 2 tablespoons USANA’s OptOmega Oil
* 1/3 cup raw sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Recipe:

1. Peel the mango, jicama, and cucumber. Cut into bite-size pieces and place them in a large bowl.
2. Squeeze lime over mixture, grate zest, add agave and USANA Optomega Oil*.
3. Sprinkle sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Add sea salt to taste. Toss to coat.

*I use USANA’s OptOmega Oil for any salad that calls for oil. USANA’s OptOmega Oil is the most comprehensive “Essential Fatty Acid” oil blend I’ve seen on the market, as it contains extra-virgin olive oil, vitamin E, turmeric, rosemary, flax, sunflower, pumpkin seed. And it tastes amazing in salads because of all of the above, with a slightly nutty flavor.

In addition, it provides the perfect ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 fatty acids (crucial for cardiovascular health, immune function, anti-oxidant protection, mental acuity and healthy skin). The EFA’s in the USANA OptOmega Oil are the GOOD fats that help you lose weight – counterintuitive, I know :-) Amazingly good for the body and tastes great – try it one time and you’ll never go back to just plain Olive Oil.

Note: USANA’s OptOmega Oil is an organic, cold, expeller pressed oil (great for vegetarians and vegans as well) – so you don’t want to heat or cook with it. Only use for salads, smoothies and cold recipes – cooking destroys the fragile oils.

To order USANA’s OptOmega Oil at wholesale prices, login to your USANA account or contact your local USANA Representative.

Be Happy… Be Vibrant…

Carmen xo