Easy Garden Salad
I make this Easy Garden Salad every 3 to 4 days. It makes enough for 6 to 8 large salads so it saves a lot of time in salad prep. It’s also highly nutritious and checks off several of Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen boxes.
We used to make our salads individually, but we found that life often got in the way and we didn’t have time to make them. That’s when I came up with the idea to make a giant salad when I did have time, and store the ingredients in the fridge so they were ready when we wanted to eat them.
Save the scraps in a sealable container that you can keep in the freezer to make your Easy Vegetable Broth from Scraps. We have found that making our own veggie broth not only tastes better than store bought, it doesn’t contain oil or other preservatives, saves the packaging and makes great use of the scraps we were throwing away. We were using at least one veggie broth container per week so it saves us about $20/month.
Until recently, I put the greens and the toppings in the same container, but I found that all the tasty parts migrated to the bottom of the container making it difficult to dish out. To fix that issue, I now store the greens in a separate container from the colorful toppings.
When we’re ready to eat this delicious garden salad, we put a bunch of greens (spinach, kale, swiss chard, mustard greens, arugula, mixed greens, lettuce, etc.) in a large bowl and then scoop out a cup of the rainbow and put that on top of the greens.
Our rainbow usually consists of carrots, cucumber, peppers, corn, beets, red cabbage, artichoke hearts (in water), hearts of palm, garbanzo beans, red onion and tomatoes. We also like Golden Berries (Uvillas or Peruvian Ground Cherries) that we get here in Ecuador. They’re a little yellow cherry tomato sized fruit with a citrus flavor.
Then we top the salad with nuts, seeds, olives and/or avocado for some healthy fats to help us get at all those fat soluble nutrients in the salad. You can also top your salad with some Tahini Salad Dressing or other nut or avocado based homemade salad dressings, but it’s best to avoid oil-based salad dressings because oil isn’t a whole food; it’s a processed refined fat.
We usually eat our salads with lime juice and some form of vinegar (rice wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, white balsamic vinegar). Sometimes we use soy sauce, tamari or Bragg’s Liquid Aminos.
Then we sprinkle our Easy Garden Salad with a generous amount of oregano and sometimes red pepper flakes and/or fennel seeds to get even more antioxidants.
Try different dark leafy greens, veggies and dressings in your salad to keep things interesting. According to Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. Greger, Dr. Barnard, Dr. Kahn, Dr. Fuhrman and other plant-based doctors, we should all eat at least one large dark leafy green salad — every — single — day. So find things you like and try new things, too.
This recipe pairs well with any of our soups or sandwiches.
Easy Garden Salad Cooking Video on Vegans Abroad
If you make this recipe, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And please share with your friends to help spread the word about healthy plant based eating.
- 1 bunch spinach
- 1 bunch swiss chard any color
- 1 bunch kale any color
- 1 medium carrot sliced
- 2 medium bell peppers diced
- 2 medium tomatoes diced
- 1 medium beet raw or cooked, sliced or chopped
- 2 small red chili peppers diced (optional)
- 1 small cucumber sliced
- 1 small red onion diced or sliced and split apart
- 1 cup red cabbage chopped
- 1 cup corn cooked
- 1 can hearts of palm or artichoke hearts in water, drained
- 1/2 can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
- 4 tbsp sunflower seeds or your favorite nuts, seeds, olives or avocado
- 2 tbsp dried oregano
- Wash the greens and allow them to slightly dry or pat dry. You can also use 3 bags of greens instead of bunches. We recommend at least some kale and spinach. Fill in the rest with your favorite greens.
- Cut the stems off of the greens and tear them up into small bite-sized pieces. Store in a sealable container. Save the stems for your veggie broth.
- Assemble your favorite ingredients for your salad toppings. Be creative, try new things and mix it up so you don't get bored. Save the scraps for your veggie broth.
- Chop/cut/slice everything and mix it up in a large bowl or sealable container.
- Store in a sealable container in the fridge up to 5 days.
- Dish out at least 2 packed cups of greens into a large bowl.
- Add 1 cup of the rainbow garden salad toppings.
- Add 1/2 tbsp sunflower seeds or your favorite nuts, seeds, olives or avocado. It's important to eat some whole plant source of fat to make the nutrients in the salad more bioavailable. Don't use oil.
- Top with your favorite oil-free dressing. We often just use lime juice and vinegar. Then sprinkle a generous amount of oregano over the salad and enjoy with a sandwich or bowl of soup.
Serving size is about 2 packed cups of greens and 1 cup of the rainbow plus your favorite salad dressing, nuts, seeds, olives and/or avocado.
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