Chop-Chop: A Winter’s Tale

This salad will have you wondering, “why don’t I make more chopped salads?” !

Chopped Salad with Creamy Tangy Dressing

Taking ingredients from as many plants as you can possibly find in your kitchen is paramount. By including a variety of plants to get you to your 30 different plants a week is the ultimate goal and in doing so, you’ll capture the macros: protein, carbs & dietary fibre plus fats. Your body’s fuel sources. Plus, let’s take this salad and dissect it for its micronutrients:

Nutrition Facts

This salad provides you with 13g of protein per serving and 12 g of dietary fibre. Percentages over 15% indicate adequate servings, less than this are small amounts. These are also estimates.

So, this profile tells me we have a wonderful array of B vitamins (2):

• thiamine (B1 - for cell growth & function)

• riboflavin (B2 - helping to breakdown medications, and fats; converting nutrients into energy)

• niacin (B3 - for healthy skin, mental health, and digestive system)

• pyridoxine (B6 - aids in creating neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine; converting food into energy)

• folate (B9 - supports healthy brain function, red blood cell formation, helps form DNA & RNA and helps to regulate homocysteine in bloodstream)

• you can add in B12 via fortified nutritional yeast, by adding it to the dressing

What supercharges this salad are the sunflower seeds, spinach and broccoli. I add broccoli sprouts to this salad to elevate the nutrition properties of this salad, and increase the sulforaphane levels. Chop and chew to activate the anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits of this compound. (1)

Ingredients & directions

Salad ingredients

• 1 x 14 oz can Chickpeas

• 6 leaves Romaine lettuce (chopped)

• 1 cup Baby Spinach

• 2 stalks Celery (chopped)

• 1 Red Bell Pepper (diced)

• 1 cup Broccoli (finely chopped)

• 1/2 head Cauliflower (finely chopped)

For garnishing:

• 1/4 cup Dried Unsweetened Cranberries

• 2 stalks Green Onion (chopped)

• 3/4 Navel Orange

• 1/4 cup Sunflower Seeds

Dressing ingredients

• 1/4 Navel Orange (peel included)

• 1/4 cup Sunflower Seeds

• 3 tbsps Apple Cider Vinegar

• 1/4 tsp Sea Salt

Directions

1. Wash & chop all vegetables and arrange in bowl. Save the green onion, sliced orange, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds to garnish with and for the dressing.

2. In a blender, add 2-3 slices of the orange, apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds with salt (optional) and blend well. Add water as needed or desired.

3. In your salad bowl, add garnishes (slices of orange, cranberries, sunflower seeds, green onion) and dressing.

4. Toss & serve.
   
   
   

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Sources:

(1) (N.d.). Nih.gov. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6804255/

(2) Vitamin and mineral supplement fact sheets. (n.d.). Nih.gov. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/list-VitaminsMinerals/