Looking for a bright and refreshing salad? Here is the one for you. My inspiration for this Rainbow bright salad came mainly from my garden, but also from my new kitchen gadget I just bought – The Inspiralized Pro. I love gardening, however I live in an apartment so it’s a bit hard to say the least! Surprisingly, I think I’m doing ok for a pot garden so far.
On my tiny balcony you will find hot peppers, basil, rosemary, parsley, mint, kale, arugula, cherry tomatoes, aloe, lettuce, sage, thyme, oregano and some micro greens. Pretty good for a small space. Here is a picture to show you what I mean, kind of looks like a little jungle.
Ok, so let’s get back to this recipe and my inspiration. I actually had so many herbs and things going on in “my little jungle” that I had to figure out something to do with it all; especially the parsley, hot peppers and basil. That’s when I developed the green goodness dressing, I posted the recipe a few weeks ago, check it out here if you missed it.
I really loved this dip/sauce/dressing and knew I had to do something else with it. I wanted something light and flavorful, and since I am always telling everyone to eat the rainbow I came up with this simple, colorful salad. The best part was that I could use my new kitchen toy – the insprialized pro. I love this little thing for zucchini noodles – zoodles and potato curls. However, since I always make those, I wanted something new and different.
This Rainbow bright salad is definitely that. First of all its quick and easy and can be made in advance, as well as kept in the fridge for a few days. Its colorful, crunchy, refreshing and has a kick to it. There is not much in the salad but it sure does have a boom of flavor. If you don’t have a spiralizer, don’t worry you can either buy the veggies spiralized at many supermarkets or you can grate them, however it will be a little mushy. I say jet get a spiralizer and you will see how much you use it and love it.
The main point of this Rainbow bright salad is the rainbow colored veggies. It’s important to use as many colors as you can to get the vibrant colors, and to get the added nutrients. The reason they say to eat a rainbow everyday is because of the nutrients and vitamins each color had. For example purple veggies may help brain health, and memory, while orange and yellow veggies may help the immune system. Therefore the more colorful food you eat the better it is. It’s your natural multi vitamin through food.
Another little cheat I did to save time was to buy the roasted chickpeas ready made. I know I can easily make them, however when you find ready made snacks like these that taste so great and are made with clean and healthy ingredients, why not? I used these delicious roasted chickpeas.
This salad is a favorite at every party and event I take it to. Its super impressive and suits all diets, especially vegan and plant based ones. Hope you love it as much as I do, and be sure to comment below. Happy Cooking!
Ingredients
1-2 large carrots
1 raw beet (you can substitute with a purple carrot if you don’t like beets)
1/2 a daikon radish
1 handful of fresh basil
1 large zucchini
1/2 cup of roasted chickpeas
juice of 1/2 a lemon
Directions
Wash, peel and dry veggies.
Using a spiralizer cut up all the veggies into nice long noodles and place into bowl.
Take basil and roll it up to chop into strips – chiffonade. They should come out like ribbons. Sprinkle them onto salad.
Sprinkle the roasted chickpeas on to salad and give everything a big stir to combine well. If veggie noodles are too long and unmanageable you can take a pair of kitchen scissors and chop them up a bit. You want to be able to spoon the salad out easily.
Sprinkle salad with green goodness sauce. I always have it in the fridge ready to eat as I love it and it’s my go to dressing. If you don’t, don’t worry it takes 3 minutes to make. just click on link and check it out.
