Healthy Salads

Detox Rainbow Salad (The Best Salad You Will Ever Have)

Detox Rainbow Salad (The Best Salad You Will Ever Have)- The ultimate cleansing salad, filled with detoxifying broccoli, red cabbage, red onion and avocado, as well as a tart sauce made from EVOO and lemon juice. If I could eat only ONE salad for the rest of my life, this would be it.


I don’t know about you, but ever since spring bloomed in force my body switched naturally on detox mode and salads are the mains on my table. When seasons change, our body cells vibrate on the same frequency and all the pulsing energy from outside is translated with this need to restore and revive. Nature has all the means to help us doing this, and it’s not a surprise that fresh greens are plentiful at the farmers’ market stalls. We have to take advantage of everything fresh and load our cells with energy and nutrients to sustain the natural detox function of our bodies.

I try to load my salad with all the fresh ingredients I can find, but especially the ones rich in antioxidants, because I know my body craves for fresh food to restore after a long winter diet based mainly on cooked, warming food. When it comes to nutrients, there’s no other family more generous when nourishing our body cells, like the Cruciferous one. I’m talking about the most popular family of vegetables, the one which includes broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, the mighty kale and other popular relatives. All these veggies are a real blessing for our body health – they contain amazing antioxidants, especially ones associated with anti-cancer effects, vitamins, minerals and fiber. All of them have detox properties, providing fresh nutrients to sustain the liver activity and fiber to help our system flush out the toxins from our cells.

detox foods

To make this salad I used two of the most popular cruciferous relatives – broccoli and cabbage. I always recommend eating these raw or lightly cooked (steaming is the best cooking method to preserve most of their fantastic nutrients), so having them together in a salad sounds like the best treat for my body.

cleansing salad

Broccoli has some very interesting effects on our health, and the most special one is the fact that it contains the perfect proportion between vitamin K and vitamin A, necessary to keep the necessary of vitamin D in balance. After a long winter, when we were deprived of the sunlight we need for metabolizing the vitamin D, I can’t think of something more miraculous than this special property of broccoli. It is also loaded with some phytonutrients called glucosinolates, which support all the steps of our body natural detox.
Red cabbage contain a high concentration of antioxidants, with protective and therapeutic effects on our body health.

My salad contains both of these amazing cruciferous relatives, and also avocado, which adds a creamy texture along with minerals and healthy fats, necessary for a better absorption of the nutrients.

Print
Detox Rainbow Salad (The Best Salad You Will Ever Have)- The ultimate cleansing salad, filled with detoxifying broccoli, red cabbage, red onion and avocado, as well as a tart sauce made from EVOO and lemon juice. If I could eat only ONE salad for the rest of my life, this would be it.

Detox Rainbow Salad

  • Author: Ana-Maria
Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 small broccoli head, cut in small florets
  • ¼ small red cabbage head, finely diced
  • 1 small red onion, finely diced
  • 1 avocado, peeled and cut in cubes
  • To garnish: toasted almonds and chia seeds
  • For the sauce
  • 2 tbsp low fat yogurt
  • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ lemon, juice only
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Place all the salad ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine.
  2. Place the sauce ingredients in a blender and pulse to obtain a smooth liquid.
  3. Pour the sauce over the salad and mix to combine.
  4. Distribute evenly onto serving plates, top with toasted almonds and chia seeds and serve.

Print Recipe

 

  1. Assuming it’s the dairy part of yogurt that makes it unacceptable in your fast, try vegan yogurt. There are variations based on pretty much all of the nut and plant “milks” that you can make yourself if your local stores don’t carry vegan yogurt on a regular basis.

  2. I love your recipes, pictures and food descriptions and purposes for out body.
    I also enjoy the perspective you come from: naturopath nutrition!

  3. I just made this, but instead of yogurt, I used plain kefir. Also, I added fresh, raw ginger, a small amount of Dijon mustard & minced garlic to the dressing before blending. I like your idea, Paula, about blending the avocado with the dressing as a variation, great idea! So yummy!

    • thanks, Courtney for suggestions – used ginger,garlic and cumin to the dressing along with 1/4 avocado -perfect!

  4. This is a wonderful start… You MUST also add “REAL FOOD” supplementation. The “food/veggies/fruit” we eat are all lacking in the nutrients they used to have (ONE peach from 1950, to get the same nutrients today you would need over 50 !!)

  5. I would LOVE to make this salad, but I’m afraid it would throw my thyroid into a fit. Anyone else know if this is too much cruciferous food at one time?

  6. Anyone else have the dilemma of not being able to eat as they get older? I like broccoli and ate lots of it in my 20s and early 30s. Now when I try to eat it, it messes my gi tract up bad for several days. Digestive enzymes only help slightly. 🙁

    • I steamed broccoli (& cauliflower) very briefly, less than 3 minutes-then cold water bath, drained and refrigerated for about 10 min…voila! Delicious salad!

Ask a Question/Comment

Recipe rating

Facebook icon Twitter icon Instagram icon Pinterest icon Google+ icon YouTube icon LinkedIn icon Contact icon