Plan B

I hadn't made Umeboshi Radish Pickles (from The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone) in a while, and I've missed the digestive enzymes so, when I found these gorgeous radishes at Walmart today I snapped them up. Alicia is right -- just a few of these little pickles calm any kind of uneasy tummy. I used my mini-mandoline to make quick work of the radishes, and, in my head, formulated a dream salad that would begin with the spiny radish leaves and a few little slices of the radishes themselves. I also had a handful of watercress in the crisper. Spicy/bitter greens+ smooth buttery avocado=LOVE so that was the plan. I began preparing everything.

Here's a funky little secret about me: I love eating stuff like this. Those wormy, hairy little radish roots are very appealing to me. Into the salad mix they went.

Concurrent with the salad prep, I did finish this pretty little jarful of ume pickles. They will sit on the counter for at least three days with the cheesecloth on top, and then I will put the lid on and keep them in the fridge.

Here is why you vegans should never, ever buy only one avocado:

The outside of the fruit was perfectly lovely. Isn't this sad?  So much for my peppery/buttery combo. I worked very hard to produce three tiny clean cubes of avocado, and that was not going to do the trick for my salad, so on to plan B: some other smooth-ish/fatty-ish texture. Hummus, in this case storebought spinach/avocado with a little bit of pepper relish on top.

I finished the salad prep with a little drizzle of oilve oil around the edge and dug in. The salad was healthy and sustaining, but would have been better with avocado. Heed my cautionary tale and remember to buy more than you think you will need!