‘Get the rainbow on your plate’ – This is something I frequently tell my clients. Eating a variety of vegetables is one of the ways to ensure nutrient density in your diet. In addition to having various minerals and vitamins, colored vegetables also have phytonutrients in them and these phytonutrients function as antioxidants slowing the damage done by free radicals. A colorful diet is thus a fast way to get a lot of nutrients into your body without much effort.
Plus a colorful plate is really a ‘thing of beauty’ right? It is a good way to get your kids to eat more vegetables. This simple salad that I have been making every week for the last few weeks was born out of that desire – to create something pretty and to get my daughter to really ‘like’ salads! The other thing that motivated me was my new vegetable ‘spiralizer‘! I recently bought a new one and I love it! Check it out guys.! It is also very reasonably priced and available on amazon!
Depending upon the width of your vegetable, you may need to try out different blades to see which one works best. So I ended up using different blades and that’s why my veggies are not all of the same size. Hey but that’s ok right? 🙂
For this salad, try to get as many colorful vegetables as you can! I had a bunch of colorful carrots so I used those plus zucchini and yellow squash. Purple cabbage is also great in this salad. I was out of that this week when I decided to photograph but I usually add that as well. I like to mix the dressing with the salad around 10 mins before serving it. that way the veggies get a thorough soak in the dressing which has loads of ginger! This dressing is fabulous with the flavors of coconut aminos, maple and ginger and the acidity by the Apple cider vinegar helps to soften the vegetables and make them more flavorful!
This salad is a great accompaniment with some warm grilled chicken or grilled fish. Since this has only hard veggies, it stays fresh for pretty long even when not refrigerated.
Some AIP reintro options:
- I like to add walnuts (AIP reintro) to the salad for the crunch now that I have successfully reintroduced walnuts.
- Sometimes I also like to add a tinge of toasted sesame oil (AIP reintro) to the dressing and that takes it over the top!
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger juice or finely grated fresh ginger (see notes for tips)
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp maple syrup (use monk fruit sweetener or stevia for keto)
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp sesame oil (Omit for AIP)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium sweet potato peeled and spiralized
- I medium size organic zucchini, spiralized
- 1 green apple, spiralized
- 1 purple cabbage, spiralized or shredded
- 1 carrot, spiralized (or peeled into long thin pieces)
- Walnuts (optional; OMIT for AIP)
- Add all the dressing ingredients in a glass jar and close the lid. Shake vigorously for 30 secs.
- Place the spiralized sweet potato in a cooking pot and place on heat. Lower heat to low and cover the pot. Let it cook for 2 mins. Then turn heat off. Keep aside to cool.
- Place all the other spiralized veggies in a large mixing / salad bowl. Add the sweet potato spirals into the salad bowl too.
- Pour the dressing over all the vegetables in the salad bowl about 10 mins before serving the salad. that allows the veggies to be marinated well in the dressing. Sprinkle walnuts over top if adding.
For getting fresh ginger juice, I peel the fresh ginger root and place it in a garlic peeler and squeeze to get the juice out. You could also grate it using a fine zester.
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