What is a rainbow salad? It’s a salad that combines plants that cover every hue of the rainbow. Not only is it delicious with its variety of juicy textures and colors, but you’ll feel the energetic boost from the various nutritious plants. We’re covering dark leafy greens, red and orange veggies for beta-carotene, seeds for magnesium, protein, and healthy fats, blueberries and cacao nibs for their high antioxidant values. The number of plant-fiber sources in this recipe adds up to 12-15 to count toward your weekly goal of 30 different plants. Talk about packing it in!
Getting a variety of plant sources in our diets is key to gut health and microbiome diversity. It can be challenging to get a wide enough variety of plants on a low-FODMAP plant-based diet, but this is a great example of how we can achieve this for a healthier gut. High-FODMAP ingredients can include kale, blueberries, and cacao nibs, but by keeping each at or below a safe serving size and then diluting them within loads of other ‘safe’ plants, this salad should be easily enjoyed by those watching FODMAPs.
Gut health and inflammation are directly correlated, so the benefits of this salad don’t stop with gut microbe diversity. Many of these ingredients are known anti-inflammatory ingredients and all together, as a part of a multi-faceted plant-based diet, Rainbow Salad may help reduce inflammation and lower risks to many chronic diseases.
This salad makes a great make-ahead meal for on-the-go days. Personally, I hate making salads. I don’t know why this is, it’s just my thing. So, when I can make a salad once during food prep and have it last several days, it’s a huge win in my book! I put all the salad ingredients together in a large covered bowl, or distribute it among 4 glass serving bowls with lids and then when I’m running out the door in the morning, I grab a serving of the salad and bring my dressing and avocado separately to add at lunchtime just before I dig in. And trust me, there will be no afternoon crash after this fiber-filled lunch!
If you’re not vegan, this would be a great base salad to add a few chopped sardines or pickled herring slices to, for the added Omega-3 fish oil boost.
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