I know how salads can be boring, but that’s why it’s important to have a delicious salad dressing to it which makes the difference! Also know how to build your salad into becoming nutritious and interesting! Start off with a base, it can be rucola, iceberg salad, spinach, kale. Then add your veggies like shredded/cut beetroot, carrots, cucumber. Next up, mix together either oven baked sweet potato or whole-wheat/gluten-free pasta for healthy carbs. Let’s not forget the protein, I added soybean based chicken as a plantbased meat alternative. Lastly perfect it with the tahini salad dressing!
Ingredients
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 1 tbsp maple sirup / honey works too
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• If too thick and you want it more runny, add olive oil. Taste with salt and pepper and squeeze some lemon in the end over your salad!
Enjoy a healthy, nutritious, balanced plantbased salad!
You immediately start feeling good when you treat yourself with care and serve yourself a nutritious meal. It also affects you positively when seeing a colorful salad with all the colors of a rainbow. It’s so easy to make it and you only need lots of vibrant colored veggies, plus a good salad dressing that does the trick. Remember, the more colors of vegetables, the better the variety of nutrients you’ll get:)
Ingredients
• Kale
• Rucola
• Red cabbage
• Carrots
• Paprika
• Avocado
• Zucchini
• Sweet potatoes
• Sprouts
• Oil, lemon, salt and pepper to taste
The salad dressing
• 1 tbs dijon mustard sauce
• 1 tbs honey
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
1. Put the oven on 220 degrees and bake your chopped sweet potatoes and cut slices of zucchini for about 20-30 minutes. Before putting them on a baking tray with parchment paper, mix them with a bit of oil and they are ready when soften and golden brown.
2. Make the salad dressing and “massage” it with the kale & rucola by hand. That way the flavor enhances and the kale is more softer to eat.
3. Chop your other vegetables like red cabbage, carrots, paprika and avocado.
4. When all is done, put everything together in a bowl and plate it up. Top the salad with sprouts and enjoy a tasty, colorful rainbow salad!
I love a colorful and messy salad when mixed with so many yummy flavors! It’s really simple to make, you only need to be good on planning and being effective. How you wonder, well I’ll help you with that. Cause in the morning you will prepare your cesar inspired dressing by putting the cashews in a bowl of water. Then at lunch time or before your dinner, your cashews have been soaked and are ready to become a creamy dressing. Also, you can do this process while you have your veggies in the oven and clean your kitchen or do other duties in the meantime. Time efficiency and preparation right? Then here is the first step on doing this and making yourself a rainbow salad, the recipe!
Ingredients
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Beetroot
• Red onion
• Carrots
• Avocado
• Spinach salad
• Helios glutenfree pasta
• Helios lemon pepper
For the dressing. 80 g cashews, 1 garlic glove, juice from half a lemon, 1 tbs capers or you can skip the ingredient. Depending on your preference of consistency, add 4 tbs of water or olive oil if you like it thinner, though i recommend having it thick and creamy!
Instructions
1. Warm up your oven on 220 degrees and bake your chopped veggies; broccoli, cauliflower, beetroot, red onion and carrots for about 20-25 minutes. Before you put them on a baking tray with parchment paper, sprinkle some oil, pepper and salt.
2. In a pot with boiling water, cook your pasta for about 8-11 minutes.
3. To make the dairy free cesar dressing, have all the ingredients in a food processor. Since you have soaked your cashews for at least 4 hours, (that’s how you’ll achieve the creaminess as they have softened) leave out the water they have been in and rinse.
4. Now, mix all together in a bowl your spinach salad, baked veggies, cooked pasta and fold in the dressing! Have some cut avocado for healthy fat and the helios Leon pepper will be the perfect finishing touch!
I hope you enjoy the rainbow colored salad as much as I do. Being glutenfree and dairyfree it will help you to lower your inflammation, and with lots of good fiber and healthy fats in it it will help out your digestive system.
Here are the products from Helios I used, click on the links below!
I love the concept behind “Lett Oslo”. It’s a food chain in Norway which serves easy, healthy and sustainable food to you. They are aware of health, environment and wholesome foods. With a nurturing meal, good vibes and promising values mentioned above, there is no doubt that this is the way to eat and live. So I definitely recommend you to go and eat here while in Oslo or for my fellow Norwegians, eat here and you’ll invest in your well being!
I chose a salad bowl called “grønnkålpesto”, which is kale, pomegranate, avocado, hummus, cabbage and sweet potato with pesto sauce. Simple, yet tasty and satisfying, leaving you full and energized for what’s ahead of you next.
The other salad bowl my lovely childhood friend chose, was the seasonal salad with burrata! The cheese is made from Lillestrøm, a city outside Oslo. That means that the food is sustainable and short traveled since there is no need of importing it from Italy! It’s locally produced and this is awesome. Absolutely love it. I also like that “Lett Oslo” offers both vegan, vegetarian and dishes with chicken or fish.
I ate at their café located at Frogner, but there are 5 more to go to around Oslo:) More about them you’ll find here:
This salad is super easy to make and is so yummy, win win. Just toss some rinsed rucola in a bowl and mix it with oven baked sweet potatoes, lentils for protein, sun dried tomatoes and pine nuts for crunch. It’s a perfect meal for lunch or a light dinner. Enjoy x
Ingredients
• 2 packets of rucola
• 1 box of lentils
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 red onion
• 35g or one handful of pine nuts
• 1 handful of sun dried tomatoes
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Lemon juice of half a lemon
Instructions
1. Cut the sweet potatoes into small cubes. Put it on a tray with baking paper so you save yourself a clean up. Have the oven on 220 degrees and have them baked for around 30-45 minutes until soft. If you like, add some salt, pepper and chili flakes and don’t forget to drizzle some olive oil on top.
2. In a bowl, toss the rinsed rucola and lentils. Mix in the sun dried tomados and chop thinly slices of the red onion.
3. Once the sweet potatoes are finished baking, let them rest for some minutes before adding it to the bowl. Have some toasted pine nuts, simply heat a pan and toast them till they get golden brown.
4. And for dressing, juice of half a lemon, some olive oil and balsamic vinegar to your liking.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do,
With love and care, Melanie x
If you like you can also roast some carrots in the oven with the sweet potatoes as garnish. Bon appetit!
I really believe that we are what we eat. Therefore I dare you to think twice next time you are going to have a meal. Look after yourself by caring about what you put in your body, you will feel different, I guarantee you will feel amazing! I made myself a colorful “rainbow” salad and damn I felt satisfied and happy afterwards! Happy stomach = happy mind!
Bloom with food 