Rainbow Salad

This salad is super fun and super crunchy (both literally and figuratively). It is super pretty and super yummy. It is super healthy and super raw. It is, in a word, super. (In case you missed that.)

Also, it makes a rainbow. Well, sort of. I mean as much as any salad could make a rainbow. There are the dark red cherries or cranberries, the orange-ish red apples, the yellow sunflower seeds, the green edamame, the blue kale (yes, it is missing in this picture--I ate all my kale and had to sub in some lettuce), and of course the purple cabbage. Some of those colors may be a wee bit of a stretch, I admit, but still--throw them all into a bowl and I'll be darned if it doesn't feel like you're eating a rainbow.

Also, even though this salad is super healthy, it doesn't feel at all spartan; it feels indulgent. I love that in a salad.

And price? The bulk of this salad is made up of super cheap foods--cabbage, apples, kale. These pretties can all usually be found for under $1/pound. I'd never bought edamame before and was surprised that it wasn't a bank-breaker either (you can find it in the frozen foods section--my package was $1). And the more expensive cranberries and sunflower seeds--those you just need a bit of.

This salad recipe came with its own dressing, which was delicious. It will be posted below. However, I found myself using the Treehouse dressing (which is dumb easy) on it as well and I think most simple/sweetish dressings would rock it.

Rainbow Salad
adapted from The Spicy RD
Makes a whole bunch (I did not make this whole recipe--I halved it; it probably makes 12-14 servings)
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $7.00 (or about $.50/serving)
cabbage: 2.00, kale: 1.00, berries: .75, edamame: .50, sunflower seeds: .50, apples: 1.00, olive oil: .75, other stuff: .50

Dressing:

3/4 C olive oil
1/4 C balsamic or apple cider vinegar (I used apple cider)
1 Tbsp maple syrup (the real stuff)
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp salt

Combine in tight-lidded jar or mini-blender. Blend/mix until emulsified (oil and vinegar combined). Let it sit for flavors to meld if you've got the time. Otherwise, you're still good.

Salad:

Note: I give these as a guideline only. I noticed after making this a few times that I liked my salad a little cabbage heavy, and that I could easily just throw in a little of this and a little of that and it was awesome.

2-3 C chopped kale
3 C chopped purple cabbage
3/4 C dried berries (I used cranberries that are tart)
1/2 C shelled edamame, thawed
1/2 C raw sunflower seeds (roasted work too, but I love raw seeds)
2 C apples (a tart one is nice; I used pink lady; Granny Smith would be good too)

Toss ingredients together. Add salad dressing.

PRINTABLE RECIPE