Best Healthy Homemade Salad and Salad Dressing

06/22/2015

I used to think that eating salad was something I had to do. When going out for dinner in the past I would force myself to order a boring tasteless green salad instead of fries – the horror. And almost every meal at home would contain a salad – lettuce, cucumber, carrots – and boring old store-bought dressing. There had to be a better way.

I’ve been experimenting with different salads in the past year – kale, greek, coleslaws, spinach & beet – and making homemade dressings.

One fabulous salad and dressing has become my favourite. It’s healthy and easy to make, keeps well and tastes amazing. Even my husband and 3-year-old gobble it up. The other amazing thing is it’s vegan, nut-free and gluten-free so if you’re heading to a barbecue or potluck – this is a great way to guarantee that pretty much everyone can eat it. Even my sister who is lactose intolerant and a celiac can eat it!

Crunchy Colour Salad

white cabbage, chopped

purple cabbage, chopped

carrots, grated

cucumbers, sliced

red and green pepper, sliced

pumpkin seeds

*Nice additions are kale and avocado

Combine above in whatever portion suits you. I tend to make a lot because the salad keeps well – no wilty lettuce here. I feel pretty great eating this salad with all the beautiful colours. It’s actually quite filling too!

The inspiration for this salad and the dressing recipe came from a visit to a girlfriend’s house out of town to see her baby. She whipped up a salad similar to what I posted and had a batch of the dressing already made. One taste and I was hooked.

Glory Bowl Dressing

1 cup olive oil

2 tbsp tahini

1/2 cup nutritional yeast*

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

1/3 cup water

2 cloves of garlic

I just blend all ingredients and store in the fridge in a mason jar. The dressing should last up to a week – but I doubt it’ll take that long to use it. Definitely use a blender otherwise you’ll get oil separation in the fridge.

Here’s the original recipe from Canadian Living.

*Don’t ask me what nutritional yeast is. I sort of don’t want to know. But it can be found pretty much anywhere. I had to ask for help finding it when I purchased it. If you have all ingredients but nutritional yeast, the dressing will be still be tasty.

~chelsey