Winter Fruit and Cabbage Side Salad

I haven't been big on salad lately, but I need to get back into it if I expect to keep my diet low-carb. 

I like salads because they are simple and fresh.  All it takes to make a salad is the energy to cut up some veggies and throw them in a bowl.  No complicated preparation; no long cooking times.  Even in winter, it's possible to have a fresh, simple salad.

1 cup of kale, chopped
1/2 cup of green cabbage, chopped
2 dried figs, diced
1 small apple, cored and cut

Throw them in a bowl!

I found that this nutrient-dense salad didn't require any dressing.  As long as I have something sufficiently sweet, or different in texture from lettuce, I often find that my salads are just fine without any dressing at all.

With my low-carb diet, I'm limited to one serving of fruit per day.  This was a great way to use that one fruit!  The apple was small, as were the figs, so I counted the two together as one serving of fruit. 

Incidentally, I found the figs at Trader Joe's and they are decidedly not local (imported from Turkey).  I do eat non-local produce, but I try to limit it to food that a) does not grow near my house in any season and b) is dry or dried so that I'm not incurring environmental costs just to move water from one place to another.

That said, I'm a huge hypocrite because I drink bottled water.  Bottled water is the epitome of moving water from one place to another, not to mention a huge use of plastic, and I know that. 

I have a hyper-local source of water (a well in my front yard), but the truth is that the water from it is disgusting.  We invested more than $4,000 in a filtration system and the water is still slightly discolored and sulfuric/metallic tasting (though it no longer ruins loads of white laundry with rust stains or stinks up the house when a faucet runs).  We do use our well water for washing food, cooking food, and making beverages like coffee and tea (because the water is perfectly potable), but it just doesn't taste good enough to drink it straight.  Ever since I started this local eating adventure, I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out a way to solve my local water problem.  And I haven't yet.

So, in the meantime, I'm eating dried figs, happy that I haven't imported from Turkey a product that is mostly water, even as I wash them down with a tall bottle of non-local water.  We can only do our best.

And, back to the salad, I think I'll be coming up with more winter greens plus dried-fruit combos!