Celeriac, or celery root, is not the most attractive root vegetable, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. It is similar to a turnip, with a brown, rough exterior and creamy white interior. Because it has a starchy consistency, it can be an excellent substitute for potatoes. That’s why it works so great in soups, stews, or mashes! The mild, celery-like flavor of the root also pairs beautifully with the earthy flavors of hearty soups.

Celeriac is low in calories and high in vitamin C. One cup of cooked celeriac only contains about 55 calories, which is why people prefer it to regular Idaho potatoes. It packs two times the vitamin C content of celery ribs! Plus, it’s high in fiber, vitamin B6, potassium, and magnesium. Some research found that the anti-inflammatory properties may inhibit the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are proteins that play a role in the body’s immune response. More research is necessary to fully understand the anti-inflammatory nature of celeriac.

Now, in regards to the soup, it has a luxurious texture and depth of flavor. There is a slightly nutty flavor that makes this the perfect warming winter soup. It’s very easy to make, containing many members of the allium family, including leeks, onion, and garlic. And make sure that you choose the low-sodium vegetable stock because you don’t need excess sodium in your life.

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If you are familiar with the content we post, then you know we laugh at the idea of a salad being a simple side dish. We direct the spotlight on the salad, allowing it to take center stage as the main course. You just need to pack it with plenty of cruciferous and colorful vegetables, heart-healthy nuts, savory beans, avocados, berries, and, most importantly, an incredible dressing. 

Make It Colorful

In order to make the perfect salad, you want to include as many nutrient-dense, filling ingredients as possible. If you can make it as colorful as possible, that is a bonus. The reason you want to include colorful foods, such as blueberries, purple cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, or bell peppers, is to diversify your antioxidant intake. This relates back to the concept of “eating the rainbow.” Eating this way not only ensures that you eat a wide range of fruits and vegetables, but also that you eat as many vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients as possible. Continue reading to learn about other tips to make a great post-holiday detox salad. 

Start With The Greens

Greens will form the base of your salad, but you don’t have to be traditional with your choice of leaves. Some people enjoy crispy romaine, while others prefer the diversity of spring mixed greens. Kale makes for an excellent salad base, so long as you remove the thick stems and chop it finely. Arugula is a great choice if you water a peppery base, and shredded Brussels sprouts or cabbage work well as bases for slaws. The point is that green vegetables are some of the healthiest foods on the planet! Some people abide by the phrase, “The more you eat green, the more you get lean.”

Don’t Be Afraid Of Onions

Onions, garlic, and other members of the allium family, exhibit unique flavor profiles. They have a strong bite, but a lot of health benefits come with that intensity. For example, onions exhibit impressive anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties because of their sulfide compounds. The same compounds that make your eyes tear up benefit your health! If you need to tame the intensity of onions, soak them in a little sea salt and lemon/lime juice. You can also crush up fresh garlic to incorporate into your salad dressing. Fun fact: crushing the garlic actually releases the health properties!

Bring Legumes To The Party

Legumes are naturally rich in fiber and protein, two things that help fill you up. When you add them to salads, they add a starchy creaminess that is very hard to replicate. In fact, you keep aiming for black beans, kidney beans, or garbanzo beans bite after bite! Most beans are naturally rich in soluble and insoluble fiber, in addition to resistant starch. Plus, several studies found that they exhibit anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory properties. 

Dress For Success

Before you dig into your big bowl of greens, colorful vegetables and fruits, onions, and legumes, you need a proper dressing. You can go with a simple vinaigrette using olive oil, your favorite vinegar, and sea salt and pepper, or you can blend several ingredients into a dressing. If you prefer creamy dressings, consider blending avocado, cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, cumin, and salt and pepper. Once your dressing is ready to go, drizzle it over your salad, toss to coat all the ingredients, and serve. When ready to eat, you can top with some almonds, walnuts, cashews, or other nuts and seeds of your choice. 

We regularly publish salad recipes on our website. If you need inspiration, you can click here to view all of our salad recipes. It’s a useful resource that can help you if you’re ever in a pinch.

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It looks like you’re about to update your summer side dish game. That’s right, folks, get ready to liven up your palate with a creamy cucumber salad that has a vibrant, herbaceous flavor. It’s also a very hydrating dish that has a rich allium flavor from the crisp scallions. Don’t worry about intense onion breath, though, because the creamy cashew dressing is luscious and cleansing to the palate.

One of the primary reasons that you will not experience an intense onion flavor is because this recipe requires you to soak the onion. Red onion has an assertive bite, but soaking thinly sliced onion in water is the best way to mellow the intensity. Whether you enjoy this salad or another salad with onions, soaking them is excellent for raw consumption.

Speaking of soaking, there’s an optional step to soak the cashews before blending them into your dressing. This step is completely optional, but it may be necessary if your blender is not high-speed. Once you make the dressing, pour it over your salad ingredients and toss to coat. It will be luscious, delectable, and refreshing on hot summer days. It’s the healthier version of a classically unhealthy dish. It’s rich in healthy fats, protein, antioxidants, phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals. We hope you love it!

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This is a beautiful, simple salad that comes together in a matter of minutes. The cucumbers help to hydrate the body, the avocados and hemp seeds supply omega-3s, and the onion offers allium. Oh, and the tomatoes give you lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that benefits heart health. And while you only throw a dash of cayenne into the mix, cayenne offers capsaicin, which helps accelerate fat metabolism. Ultimately, this salad is a delicious nutrient bomb that’ll liven up your life.

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The decisions you make in the grocery store will directly influence how your body functions. Most people are unaware of the fact that they regularly purchase and eat inflammatory foods that cause bloating, gas, poor digestion, and more. These are inflammatory reactions to invasive chemicals, microbes, or plant pollen. Experiencing these symptoms every once in a while is not life-threatening, but constant inflammation can cause serious problems. 

If you can rule out food poisoning or the flu and continue to experience acid reflux, cramping, or diarrhea, you could be experiencing chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is your enemy, because the body is no longer responding to neutralize a foreign invader. The Standard American Diet, also known as the common Western diet, messes with the gut microbiome, decreasing the amount of good bacteria and upsetting the stomach. This can lead to digestive issues, arthritis, diabetes, and life-threatening conditions like cancer, heart disease, and dementia. 

Foods That Cause Inflammation

Trying to decrease inflammation in the body? The most important foods to eliminate from your diet include sodas, sugary beverages, margarine, lard, shortening, refined carbohydrates (such as white bread, pastries, or processed snacks), fried foods, red meat, and processed meats. As you may be aware, these inflammatory foods are not surprisingly bad for your health. Most of these foods have been linked to type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and they are associated with excess inflammation. These foods also contribute to obesity, another condition that increases your risk of chronic inflammation. 

Foods That Fight Inflammation

Some foods cause inflammation, while others work to reduce inflammation. Most of the foods that have anti-inflammatory properties are plant-based and unprocessed. The minimal processing helps these foods retain their nutrients and anti-inflammatory properties. Protective plant compounds are in the following foods:

Root Vegetables

Root vegetables are hearty, comforting, and loaded with a diverse mix of antioxidants that support immune function. These veggies are also rich in fiber, complex carbohydrates, and vitamins A and C. Vitamin A helps to encourage tissue healing and reduce inflammation and vitamin C supports collagen production and toxin elimination. The best root vegetables to include in your diet are carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, beets, celery root, rutabaga, kohlrabi, turnips, ginger, turmeric, and horseradish. 

The Allium Family

We’re talking about the allium family, not The Adams Family. This family of vegetables includes garlic, onions, leeks, shallots, chives, and scallions. All of these are rich in flavonoids and organosulfur compounds, which have been known to inhibit tumor growth, according to laboratory studies. Allium vegetables also contain a lot of vitamin C and other compounds that naturally decrease inflammation in the body. 

Nuts And Seeds

According to several dietary studies, people who regularly incorporate nuts and seeds into their diet have lower inflammatory markers of C-reactive protein. It’s not healthy to snack on nuts all day, but experts say that swapping three servings of red meat with three small servings of nuts or seeds per week helps lower C-reactive protein. Nuts and seeds are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which help reduce other inflammatory markers. 

Herbs And Spices

If your seasoning game is on point, then you are two steps ahead of everyone else. We are talking about the use of herbs and spices, though, not pre-blended spice mixes with preservatives and flavorings. Various herbs and spices, including fennel, parsley, basil, dill, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, and more, have antioxidants and polyphenols that help reduce and prevent inflammation. 

Cruciferous And Leafy Green Vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables, which include cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts, all have detoxifying properties. They are low in calories and provide anti-inflammatory benefits that help to combat heart disease and other conditions caused by chronic inflammation. Leafy greens are also beneficial for clearing up inflammation. In fact, nutritionists say that consuming leafy greens can undo a lot of inflammatory damage that comes from eating a poor diet. 

Winter Squash

Winter squash may be some of the most comforting and delicious vegetables in existence. Acorn, butternut, spaghetti, kabocha, delicata, and pumpkin squash are some of the most nutritious squash varieties to consume. Many of these squash contain cucurbitacins, which work to stop the production of inflammatory enzymes. Winter squash are also rich in vitamin A and vitamin C. 

An anti-inflammatory diet will vary for each individual. Something that has anti-inflammatory properties may actually cause inflammation in someone with a sensitive system. All you can do is experiment with the foods listed in this article and see if they help your situation. 

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They’re stinky and nutritious.
They’re all together delicious.
We promise this isn’t fictitious.
The allium family!

A cuisine without allium vegetables is non-existent. Onions, shallots, scallions, garlic, leeks, and chives are all members of the Allium genus and are often the base of so many dishes. Cooking without them would be criminal! They set up the foundational flavors, and we fail to recognize them as featured ingredients. Here at Dherbs, we consider them to be the lead roles because they pack a powerful, nutritional punch. 

About The Allium Family

It all started with Papa Garlic. Okay, not really, but the word allium is in fact the Latin word for garlic. If you’ve cooked with allium-rich vegetables, then you know about their potent aromas. For example, the sulfur compounds in onions and garlic make you cry, but studies found that these compounds exhibit anti-cancer, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antioxidant activity. One way to maximize these compounds is to let them sit for a few minutes after cutting them. Don’t throw them in the pan immediately because the resting time allows the enzymes to release, transforming into more beneficial forms. Step away from the chopped vegetables, though, unless you feel like tearing up. 

It’s very easy to incorporate allium-rich vegetables into your everyday meals. From breakfast to lunch to dinner, you can sneak these vegetables into almost any meal, except for sweet treats of course. Get excited about the allium family because we’re about to introduce you all the members and their health benefits. 

Leeks

We’re about to leak you some delicious information about leeks: they are some of the most underrated vegetables! On a serious note, leeks have been used in soups, stews, and stocks for centuries. They contain kaempferol, a flavonoid that may help protect damage to blood vessel lining. Leeks also work to benefit cardiovascular health by increasing nitric oxide production. This gas works to relax blood vessels, increasing vasodilation, a process that helps to decrease blood pressure. Another surprising fact about leeks is that they contain a lot of folate, an essential B-vitamin that supports cardiovascular health. 

Garlic

Garlic has a long history of remedying myriad health conditions. In fact, people used it as a healing agent during typhus, influenza, cholera, and dysentery epidemics. Garlic is rich in vitamins B6 & C, copper, potassium, thiamin, manganese, phosphorus, and calcium. Research on the organosulfur compounds in garlic suggests that they may improve immune function and decrease cancer risk by reducing inflammation and cell damage. Multiple studies revealed that the phytochemicals in garlic may also help to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. 

Chives

Chives are not simply garnishing herbs; rather, they are hardy allium-rich vegetables that exhibit promising health benefits. Several cancer research studies found that the sulfuric compounds in chives may prevent cancer cells from growing and spreading. The studies only tested these health properties on early stages of cancer. The choline and folate in chives also work to improve memory. Studies have shown that adults who eat more choline perform better on cognitive tests and have a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Onion

The almighty onion is a staple in so many cuisines, and the Ancient Egyptians used to worship them. They buried onions with pharaohs because they believed that the internal rings of the onion represented eternity. Onions are excellent sources of prebiotics, which are compounds that feed probiotics, the microorganisms in your gut. Several studies found that the prebiotic fiber in onions is more beneficial the the fiber found in certain fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Scallions

Known as green onions, spring onions, and scallions, these tall, green allium-rich veggies help to boost immune function and work to expel mucus from the body. The carotenoids in scallions help to improve your vision, while the sulfur compounds help to reduce blood sugar levels. Nutritionists recommend incorporating scallions into appetizers because they are rich in fiber and aid digestion. They are more nutritious in their raw form. 

Shallots

Last but certainly not least, we have shallots, which some people refer to as gourmet onions. They have a high concentration of antioxidants, which work to encourage heart health and proper circulation. The thiosulfinates in shallots prevent the formation of dangerous blood clots. Shallots also contain allicin, a beneficial compound that reduces stiffness of blood vessels by releasing nitric oxide. 

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Get ready to warm up while cooling down. Wait…that doesn’t make any sense. So why the name “fire and ice” in reference to this salad? Well, for starters, this salad has cooling, crunchy produce like tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers. You can thank the cayenne pepper for the “fire” portion of the salad. Don’t fear the heat, though, because it won’t cause you to sweat profusely or drink copious amounts of liquid. It’s just the right amount of heat to give you that little nudge of spice you need in life.

Think of this salad like a Greek salad without the feta cheese. The acidic vinaigrette mellows the allium in the onion, breaking it down so it’s not as intense when you take a bite. In fact, to minimize the intensity of the onion even further, you can let them soak in the dressing before you incorporate the rest of the salad ingredients. This is an optional step but it can work in your favor if you’re sensitive to oniony flavor.

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