Arugula Salad with Walnut Croutons

If you don't know what to serve for dinner tonight ...

Top this quick and tasty salad with walnut croutons and enjoy a rich concentration of health-promoting omega-3 fatty acids from your green salad!

Arugula Salad with Walnut Croutons

Prep and Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
  
• 1 cup hot water
  
• 2 TBS light vinegar
  
• 1 bunch arugula 

Dressing:

• 2 medium cloves garlic, pressed
  
• 2 TBS chopped fresh parsley
  
• 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
  
• 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
  
• Sea salt and black pepper to taste
  
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
  
• 2 oz gorgonzola cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Press garlic and let sit for 5 minutes.
   
2. Slice onion thin and soak in hot water and vinegar while preparing rest of salad.
   
3. Whisk together the dressing ingredients, adding olive oil at the end, a little at a time.
   
4. Wash and dry arugula. Squeeze out excess liquid from onions. Combine onions and arugula and toss with dressing. Sprinkle salad with walnuts just before serving. Top with cheese (optional).

Serves 2

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In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Arugula Salad with Walnut Croutons

Healthy Food Tip

If I add sesame seeds to a bread recipe, will their nutrients stay intact even though the seeds will be heated?

The nutrients in sesame seeds do stay largely intact when you add those seeds to a bread recipe. Databases like the U.S. Department of Agriculture's SR19 foods database (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/) often provide profiles of foods in various forms. For example, this database provides a profile of dried sesame seeds (non-roasted) as well as roasted/toasted sesame seeds. You'll find these two profiles to be essentially the same in terms of all nutrient categories (vitamins, minerals, fats, etc.).

Unlike plant seed oils (like sesame oil) that are no longer protected by their whole food structure, seeds themselves (including sesame seeds) are fairly stable to relatively low heats. I would not hesitate to add high-quality, preferably organically grown, sesame seeds to your bread recipe. It is important, of course, to chew your bread and seeds well because non-chewed, intact sesame seeds can often be excreted without undergoing further digestion or absorption and therefore not delivering most of their health benefits.

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