A blast of colourful raw vegetables and a simple salad dressing, come together in this tasty and nourishing vegetable salad bowl. Gluten free and vegan, this salad will make a great side to any meal but I devour this beautiful rainbow for a full meal.
Since there is no cooking involved, it takes just about 10 minutes to chop all the salad vegetables and put it together. The vegan salad dressing is the easiest – just shake everything together in a jar or whisk in a bowl.
This colourful salad is like eating a rainbow. The different salad vegetables not only bring in colours but also a lot of different types of vitamins and minerals. Plus there is lots of water and healthy fibre content. The greens are great detoxifying vegetables, the purples are rich in anti-oxidants, the reds promote blood circulation, the orange fights cancer and the whites promote heart health.
There is no hard and fast rule to what vegetables you should add in a veg salad recipe. Just add plenty of your favourite ones that can be eaten raw and bring in different textures to the salad. Most often our lunch is salad, so I always come up with different combinations of raw and cooked ingredients for a variety of salad recipes. My usual raw vegetable salad formula is to include:
- lots of salad greens +
one high water content vegetable (like cucumber or bottle gourd) +
1-2 crunchy vegetables (like carrots, cabbage, bell peppers etc) +
some nuts and seeds +
1 juicy fruit (like orange, grape or pomegranate).
A light salad seasoning with lemon, salt and pepper is usually enough. For more flavour, this time I made a salad dressing with olive oil and maple syrup. Fruits especially Pomegranate seeds add a shot of juicy surprise in the bite.
Raw Vegetable Salad Bowl
Ingredients (1cup = 240ml; 1tbsp = 15ml; 1tsp = 5ml)
- 2 cups mixed lettuce green and purple
- 1 cup arugula leaves
- 1 cup purple cabbage shredded
- 6 cherry tomatoes halved
- ½ cup cucumbers sliced
- ½ cup carrots sliced
- 2 tbsp almonds sliced
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 2 tbsp pomegranate seeds
For the dressing
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- In a big bowl, mix together lettuce and arugula leaves
- loosely spread around the purple cabbage, cucumber and the cherry tomatoes (with their seed side facing up for a beautiful look!).
- Sprinkle the almond slices, pomegranate seeds and chia seeds
- To make the salad dressing, add all the ingredients in a jar and shake-shake-shake. Just like that!
- Drizzle over the salad.
- Take a step back and admire the beautiful colours! (and those lovely vitamins and minerals)
- Serve in bowls.
Notes
Raw food has plenty of digestive enzymes (which cooked food lacks) that aid the digestive system. On top of that it is easily broken down. We try that at least 40% of our meal is raw food including both fruits and vegetables. For both of us, it has worked wonders for our digestive systems and overall health.
Last week when we got back from Austria, there were quite a few indulgences as is expected on a holiday. This raw salad was the perfect detox meal that our bodies were craving for.
Eat a little raw, your body will say “Thank you!”
Make a rainbow vegetable salad with different salad vegetables and send me a picture, leave a comment or connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. Would love to start a conversation, share recipes, cooking experiences and food stories from India and around the world.
Am going to try this raw salad
I am glad. Let me know if you need any suggestions for vegetable combinations 🙂
Ohhhh this was so great ed healthy.
But is it okay if I add some salt please?
Thanks.
yes, of course! The dressing has salt in it but you can always sprinkle some more on top of that to suit your taste.