Rainbow Slaw
Want a salad that’s a crunchy and colourful mix of broccoli, apples, grapes, radishes, red cabbage, carrot and bell peppers? In a honey mustard vinaigrette? Well then try this recipe…
Another abitmoreveg recipe for a simple, sweet, crunchy salad. I don’t make it all that often because I don’t eat as much veg from the cabbage family as I used to but I do like to have this kind of salad every now and then.
This sweet crunchy salad is as nutritious as it is colourful. In fact it’s so full of vitamins and minerals that I’m just going to point out that it’s full of stuff that is good for your eyesight and contains lots of antioxidants which may have anti-inflammatory effects. That second point does sound a bit weak but it’s definitely good for your eyes. Also, even forgetting about nutrition, crunching on raw vegetables is very good your teeth.
I’ve mentioned before that I am looking for ways to include broccoli in more dishes and this salad original started out as just adding broccoli to a purple coleslaw. Then after finding out that radishes are actually really really good for you I decided I wanted to try any add these to dishes also. In particular they are very good at helping the liver and gallbladder function well. This salad only contains a few radishes but it’s a start. Then I noticed I nearly had the colours of a rainbow, so I just added in yellow pepper to make it as close to the full spectrum of colours as possible – eat the rainbow…
It’s important to note that purple cabbage, broccoli and radishes are all from the cabbage family of vegetables and consuming high quantities of cabbage might cause hypothyroidism. So while these vegetables are very very good for you, it might be a good idea to limiting your consumption of a cabbage dish to once every second day, or something like that. Everything in moderation. Also cabbage, in particular purple (red) cabbage, contains high levels of vitamin K. Vitamin K helps your blood to clot, a good thing, except if you are on blood thinning medication, as it may interfere with your medication.
Because this salad is so crunchy and has just a little dressing it makes a great accompaniment to stodgy but satisfying meals like Shepherd’s Pie or Potato & Leek Pie. It’s also a good open sandwich topping for sandwiches with hummus or mayonnaise.
Ingredients
- 1/4 head of purple cabbage
- 100g broccoli
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 5 - 7 radishes
- 1 large carrot
- handful of sweet seedless grapes (either red or green)
- 1 sweet apple (either red or green)
- honey mustard vinaigrette
- For Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
- 1/2 teaspoon of English mustard flour
- good pinch of salt and coarsely ground black pepper
- 3 dessertspoons white wine vinegar
- 9 dessertspoons sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon runny honey (or brown sugar to make it vegan)
- 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
Instructions
- To make the dressing: Put the ingredients into a jar, screw the top on and shake the jar until the dressing is all blended.
- Remove tough outer leaves on the cabbage. Completely cut out any white core and stem and discard. Slice the cabbage as thinly as possible and add to salad bowl.
- Chop up the broccoli thinly and add to the bowl.
- Remove the stem, core and seeds from the pepper and slice the flesh thinly. Add to the bowl.
- Top and tail and the radishes and slice as thinly as possible. Add to the bowl.
- Top and tail the carrot, peel and grate. Add to the bowl.
- Halve the grapes and add them to bowl.
- Cut the core out of the apple and slice the apple and add to the bowl. A quick way of doing this is to use the cheese slicer side of your grater, just be careful of your fingers!
- Pour as much or as little of the dressing over and mix around and it's ready to serve. Any dressing left over will keep in the fridge until you need to use it again.
