A detox can be as much a challenge of the imagination as a diet, especially if you’re new to cleansing. What do you include? What do you avoid?
Having a plan always makes the detox process easier, and working out a grocery list, meal plans, and snacks will help you navigate towards a successful and rewarding detoxification. If you’re looking for some inspiration, take a peek at these recipes and incorporate them into your two-week detox process! Your body (specifically, your taste buds) will thank you!
4 Beginner Meals
Breakfast: Julie Daniluk's Flax Apple Breakfast Pudding
Sometimes breakfast can be tough to swallow, especially if you’re running a bit late. It’s the most important meal of the day, and when you’re starting a new cleanse, you’re going to want to eat breakfast.
This Flax Apple Breakfast Pudding recipe is a fiber-rich, protein-packed, delectably smooth way to start your day. When starting your first cleanse, having versatile meals that you can garnish to your tastes is a must. You can add nuts, seeds, your choice of dairy alternatives – even shaved coconut and exotic-sounding toppings like elm bark powder.
It’s also perfect because it’s easy to prepare ahead of time and have on hand. Now you’ll have no excuse for “accidentally” forgetting your cleanse!
Ingredients
- 3 medium, unpeeled apples, cored and diced
- ½ cup water
- 2 tbsp. flax protein powder or finely ground flax seeds
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
Optional Toppings
- 1 tsp. slippery elm bark powder with 2 tbsp. (30 ml) filtered water
- 1 tbsp. chopped almonds
- 1 tbsp. shredded coconut
- Unsweetened almond milk (to taste)
Directions:
- Bring apples and water to a boil in a medium saucepan, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer for ten minutes until the apples are soft and mushy. If you're adding slippery elm bark powder, add the 2 tbsp. of water before cooking the apples.
- Remove from heat; mix in the flax protein powder or flax seeds, vanilla, and cinnamon until smooth.
- Portion into a breakfast bowl or two. Top with your optional ingredients if desired.
Lunch: Jesse Lane's Falafel Hummus Collard Wraps
These wraps are portable, delicious, and really prove that a cleanse doesn’t have to be without flavour or… well, food! It gets the mind thinking about how you can use seemingly disparate ingredients to make a very filling meal.
That, and it’s simply packed with nutritious ingredients. Collard green leaves are full of antioxidants and vitamins A, C, and E. The falafel hummus is perfect for getting much needed fiber in a grain-free way, and it'll satisfy your craving for something savory.
Feeling well-fed and satisfied is an important part of any detox. Don’t let a light lunch make you wish you were gorging on stale office donuts.
Ingredients
Falafel
Rest
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8 large collard green leaves
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4 carrots, julienne
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4 celery stocks, julienne
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16 cherry tomatoes, diced
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8 pickles, thinly sliced
Directions:
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Wash the collard green leaves and lie them flat on a cutting board spine side up. Carefully run your knife or a peeler over the spine and shave off as much as possible. This will make your collard wraps much easier to roll.
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To make the falafel hummus, place the garlic in a food processor and process until chopped. Add the chickpeas, lemon juice, parsley, tahini, olive oil, miso, cumin, cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt and blend until smooth.
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Gently fold the tomatoes and pickles into the hummus.
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To assemble the falafel hummus collard wraps, lay the collard wraps on a flat surface. Place the carrots and celery in the center of the wrap and top each collard wrap with ¼ cup of falafel hummus. Roll up the collard wraps starting at the base of the collard green and secure with kitchen twine.
Dinner: Goodness Me!'s Detox Salad with Creamy Avocado
Eating clean can have a fairly lousy reputation, even among those who love eating clean. Ugh, salads, they think, as they shovel forkful after forkful of lettuce into their mouths, more for sustenance than pleasure, more for how they’ll feel later than how they’re feeling at meal time.
Don’t do salads wrong, especially because many detox-friendly foods are best taken in this form. Salads can be a great meal, especially when they’re rich, creamy, and full of healthy fats – i.e., this salad! You’ll be getting the detoxifying power of carrots, cabbage, garlic, lemon, cilantro, and olive oil, all garnished with an incredible avocado dressing.
Salad Ingredients
- ½ large head organic red cabbage, chopped
- 6 organic carrots, grated
- ½ cup organic cilantro, chopped
Dressing Ingredients
- 2 medium organic avocados
- 1 lemon, juiced
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ cup water
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp. honey
- 2 tsp. parsley (I used dried, but could use fresh)
- Salt & pepper, to taste
- Cayenne, to taste
Directions:
Mix the cabbage, carrots, and cilantro together. Add all dressing ingredients into a food processor, except the olive oil and water, and process. While the food processor is running, drizzle in oil and water and mix well (if you don't have a food processor, mash the avocadoes first and use a blender to mix all dressing ingredients together). Cover salad in dressing to taste (the more dressing, the creamier the consistency). Enjoy!
Snack: Sophie Bourdon's Red Velvet Hot Chocolate
Raw cacao powder is a delicious superfood, full of minerals and antioxidants. Put this cleanse-friendly treat to good use with an evening hot chocolate!
The beets are a great food for your liver, and it’s detoxifying effects make this rich dessert a worthy detox option, and it gives the hot chocolate a delectable Red Velvet-esque colour. Don’t let your detox prevent you from indulging now and again!
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2 cups plant-based milk (almond, cashew, coconut, etc. - I used homemade cashew milk)
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½ medium beet, cooked and grated (about ¼ cup packed)
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3 tbsp. raw cacao powder
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3-6 soft dates (depending on their size and desired sweetness), pitted and roughly chopped
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½ tsp. vanilla extract
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¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
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Small pinch fine grain sea salt
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk, refrigerated at least 3 hours and up to 1 day (Thai Kitchen works best for this)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- A touch of maple syrup if desired (optional)
- Shaved dark chocolate
- Place the milk, grated beet, cacao powder, dates, vanilla, and cinnamon in a high-speed blender and blend until completely smooth. Taste for sweetness and add more dates if needed. If beets are not completely processed, strain through a fine-mesh sieve.
- Transfer to a small saucepan and gently warm over low-medium heat, whisking frequently.
- Once warm, remove from heat and pour into 2 cups. Top with a spoonful of coconut cream and chocolate shavings.
Without shaking it, remove the can of coconut milk from the refrigerator. Open it, scrape the thick cream layer at the top and place it into a bowl. Keep the coconut water for another use (I use it in smoothies). Add vanilla and maple syrup to the coconut cream and whip with a hand mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Taste for sweetness, adding more maple syrup if desired.
4 Intermediate Meals
Breakfast: Julie Daniluk's Avocado Breakfast Smoothie Bowl
Smoothie bowls can be the perfect detox breakfast: there are a lot of dairy replacements, and their flavour can be covered up by delicious ingredients if you aren’t particularly taken in with coconut, soy, or almond replacements.
You can also garnish to your heart’s desire! Coconut shavings, hemp hearts, detox-friendly fruits, and other can make it special to you.
It’s also super easy to make, even when you’ve hit the snooze button a few too many times.
Ingredients
- 1 large avocado
- 1 tsp. spirulina
- 1 cup coconut beverage
- 1 tbsp. sunflower lecithin
- 4 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 tbsp. inositol powder (use more stevia if you don't have this)
- 10 drops stevia liquid or 1 tbsp. of raw honey
Optional Ingredients
- 1 banana
- 2 tbsp. hemp hearts
- 1 tbsp. gelatin
- 1-2 tbsp. coconut butter
Directions:
- Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until well mixed.
- Pour into a bowl and garnish with berries and hemp hearts. Makes 4 servings.
A simple, easy, perfect springtime salad, this Detox Salad mixes fresh ingredients and tops it off with an incredible dressing. Shaking up lemon juice, dried basil, and olive oil with off-the-wall detoxifying ingredients like kelp flakes, flavoured fish oil, and Herbamare.
Your liver will be kicked into overdrive, and you’ll feel energized, helping you power through the day. It’ll be like the opposite of a siesta.
Ingredients:
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1 cup coarsely chopped organic red peppers
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½ cup organic cherry tomatoes, cut in half
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1 cup organic English cucumber, finely sliced and cut in half
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½ organic red onion, sliced very finely
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1 organic avocado, chopped
Dressing
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½ cup extra-virgin organic olive oil
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1 clove chopped organic garlic
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Juice of 1 organic lemon
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1 tsp. dried basil
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2 Tbsp. lemon flavoured fish oil
Directions:
Mix together dressing ingredients in a jar, pour over vegetables.
These unorthodox burgers will make a filling, complex, delicious meal that will appeal to even the most ardent carnivores among us. A savoury patty made of, ironically, sweet potato, the avocado and spicy slaw toppings deliver not just great detoxifying ingredients, but also some serious taste.
Handmade patties formed with fresh ingredients takes care of a problem you might run into with frozen, boxed, or even restaurant veggie burgers: you don’t know what’s in them! Often times they’ll be formed with additives that will ruin your detox. If you’re struggling to find something that fills your more omnivorous cravings, don’t give up or give in. There’s a lot out there, even on an intermediate detox!
Slaw Ingredients
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1 head green cabbage (shredded)
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3 carrots (shredded)
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½ cup purple cabbage (shredded)
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1 squeeze of lemon juice
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3 tbsp. olive oil
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1 tsp. sriracha (or to taste)
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Pinch of salt and pepper
Veggie Burger Ingredients
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2 sweet potatoes (peeled)
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2 cups brown rice
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1 yellow onion (chopped)
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3 clove garlic (chopped)
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1 can or 2 cups green lentils (drained and rinsed)
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½ cup sunflower seeds
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1 tsp. cumin
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1 tbsp. Montreal steak spice
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Few dashes hot sauce
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1 tbsp. olive oil
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¼ tsp. salt (or to taste)
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1 tsp. pepper
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1 head purple cabbage (for serving)
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1 avocado (sliced for serving)
Directions:
For slaw:
In a large bowl whisk vinegar, honey, sriracha, lemon, salt and pepper until combined. Then slowly add olive oil. Stir in cabbage and place in the fridge until you serve.
For Burgers:
1. Start by getting your rice cooking according to the directions on the bag.
2. While rice is cooking, begin peeling your sweet potatoes and steaming or boiling until you can easily pierce them with a fork.
3. Begin sautéing onions in the 1 tbsp olive oil until tender. Add chopped garlic. Stir for 2 minutes and then put aside.
4. Cook lentils according to directions or drain and rinse from a can. Please wash very well!
5. Once everything is cooked, mash the sweet potato in a bowl until smooth. Let the mixture cool.
6. Add lentils, sunflower seeds, onion/garlic mixture, and rice. Slowly add flour until you reach desired consistency. It should not be overly mushy and should hold together as a burger. Add more or less as needed. **The burger will still not be too stiff!
7. Then add the steak spice, cumin, salt, pepper and hot sauce.
8. If the mixture is still hot, it will not form well into patties. You can put it in the fridge to cool down for an hour.
9. Remove mixture and form into patties. You can put them in the fridge or freezer to use at a later date.
10. Coat a skillet or pan with olive oil on medium heat. Cook burgers for 5 minutes on each side to form a crust. (You can skip this step if you want as everything in the burger is cooked, but the crusty outside gives a delicious flavour!)
11. Peel the purple cabbage apart very carefully to keep their cup form. Place burgers inside the cabbage cup and top with slices of avocado and sweet n’ spicy slaw! Serve with some kale chips! Bon appetite!
Snacks: Dr. Sara Celik's Kale Chips
These kale chips are a healthy alternative that contains all the crunch and saltiness of potato chips, but you won’t feel gross after snacking. Organic kale is a great detox food, and besides making a delicious chip, you’ll get an incredible amount of iron.
They are also super simple to make. It’s almost like you have no excuse to make these. Grab some lemon water, settle in front of a movie (a nature documentary, because you can detox your mind, too) and dig into kale chips – it’ll make your detox night in complete!
Ingredients
Directions:
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Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and lay out aluminum foil.
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Tear kale into bite-sized pieces and ensure the kale is dry from washing.
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Place kale onto aluminum foil and spread the pieces apart.
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Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt.
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As soon as you put the kale in the oven, turn the oven off. Let it sit in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes or until the edges are brown.
Four Advanced Meals
Breakfast: Goodness Me!'s Detox Juice with Cucumber, Kale & Ginger
It’s your first day of hardcore detoxing. Your geared up and ready to go, but instinctively pick up a box of Pop Tarts. Put it down! Don’t worry, you’ll feel much better, and delicious detox drinks make it much easier to stay on track.
This Cucumber, Kale, and Ginger Detox Juice will help lighten your toxic load, assist your liver in processing toxins more effectively, and start your day off right! You might look at the ingredients and think to yourself, “Cilantro? Really??” But it's true, cilantro is an excellent cleanse ingredient! It can help remove heavy metals from your body and help your liver do its job. Just make sure you don’t have that gene that makes it taste like soap!
Ingredients
- 2 organic cucumbers
- 3 stalks organic celery
- 2 organic kale leaves
- 1 organic lemon (peeled)
- ½" knob organic ginger
- 1 cup organic cilantro
Directions:
Process all ingredients through a juicer and enjoy!
Lunch: Mandy King's Lemony Dill Detox Salad
No wheat or processed meats in your advanced diet means you’ve got to put away the ham sandwich and start getting creative for lunch. Luckily, it's not so hard - a wide array of salads will help you flush out your toxins!
This Lemony Dill Detox salad put to good use a key ingredient in cauliflower: indole-3-carbinol is a compound that really helps your liver work to detox your blood. It also substitutes a grain, making it much more cleanse-friendly.
Roasted Yam
- 1 yam, diced
- Sprinkle of salt, pepper & oil
Cauliflower Rice
Remaining Salad
- 5 oz arugula & spinach mix (or just one or the other)
- ½ cucumber, diced
- 3 stalks celery, diced
- 3 green onions, diced
- 1 large lemon juiced
- ½ avocado
- ½ cup of dill, finely chopped
- ¼ cup olive oil
- salt & pepper to taste (about 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper)
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425F
- Dice the yams and place on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper
- Sprinkle with salt, pepper and a touch of olive or grapeseed oil
- Roast for 25-30 minutes
- Heat a large frying pan over medium heat with 1 TBSP coconut oil
- Meanwhile, roughly dice ½ your cauliflower head so that it fits in the food processor
- You will have to do it in a few batches as it doesn't all fit
- Pulse the cauliflower until it's a rice like consistency, trying not to shred it too finely - it can have a few small chunks in there
- Place the cauliflower rice in the frying pan and season with garlic powder and onion powder
- Saute for 10-15 minutes until fully cooked through
- While that's happening, dice the cucumber, celery, greens, avocado, green onions and dill
- Mix everything together in a bowl, and season with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper
- If it needs more flavour, you can add a pinch of cayenne, or more salt, pepper, dill and lemon juice!
Dinner: Mandy King's Gluten Free Stir-Fry
An advanced detox is the perfect time to start experiencing and experimenting with different vegetables and health foods you might have overlooked previously. Bok choy, crimini mushrooms, tamari, and firm tofu are likely things many would overlook when browsing the grocery store. Why get tamari when soy sauce is right there?
Tamari can be a gluten-free option, and has much less salt than traditional soy. Cremini mushrooms are a great way to get the antioxidant selenium in your diet. And bok choy just tastes great. Give tofu a shot, too, as it’s a great way to get complete proteins during your cleanse. This detox will help grow your choices and your palate!
Instructions
- ½ head of broccoli, largely chopped
- 1 package of crimini mushrooms, largely chopped
- ½ block of firm tofu, cubed (organic, unflavoured)
- 1 hefty spoonful of coconut oil
- Juice of ½ lemon
- ⅙ cup of tamari (I know – it’s a weird measurement, but I did ½ of ⅓ cup)
- 1 inch ginger, minced
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- ½ tsp. basil (I didn’t have fresh, so used dried)
- Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Ideally marinate the tofu ahead of time, but it's not necessary
- Mix together lemon, tamari, ginger, garlic, basil and pepper in a bowl and place cubed tofu in to marinate for as long as possible (max 8 hours)
- Heat coconut oil over medium heat
- Once hot, place broccoli and mushrooms in pan and saute until mushrooms become soft (about 10 min)
- Add tofu and leftover marinade into the frying pan and continue to cook for another 10 minutes
- The tofu doesn’t need to cook, it only needs to be heated, so if your vegetables are ready, the last step can be shorter
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