Yeah yeah yeah, vegans eat salad all day and all night, don’t they?

Surely you can tell by now from this blog the above statement just isn’t true, because I love vegan junk.  Every once in a while though you need to get some greens into you.  And some purples.  And oranges.  And quinoa.

This salad is great for a protein and iron hit (quinoa, edamame, spinach and pumpkin seeds are all so damn good for you) and perfect when the weather is hot and sticky.  If you’re not a fan of purple cabbage you can get the same colour effect with some shredded beetroot instead.  Just make sure you add your beets at the very end or you’ll end up with a completely pink salad.

I dunno, some people might like that though 🙂

You want some KEENWAH with them beets, brah?

Ingredients

Salad

1/2 cup cooked quinoa, cooled (preferably made the night before).  Tricolour quinoa looks ace in this recipe, but standard quinoa is also good.

1/2 cup edamame beans, fresh or defrosted from frozen

2 small carrots, grated

2 lightly packed cups of spinach, roughly chopped

1/2 large purple cabbage, grated (or two peeled and grated beets if you prefer)

handful of pepitas/pumpkin seeds (or sub for sunflower seeds if you prefer)

Dressing

3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp lime juice (or lemon – doesn’t make a huge amount of difference but I prefer lime)

2 Tbsp agave nectar

1 tsp dijon mustard

sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

Method

Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl/ramekin and whisk to combine.

Combine the salad ingredients in a large bowl and mix carefully to combine, so as to not rip the spinach.

Drizzle the whisked dressing over the salad and mix carefully.  Serve immediately.

Time to make: 10 minutes prep, 5 minutes assembling = 15 minutes

On a scale of easy (1) to pull your hair out difficult (5) =  1.5, one of the easiest, healthiest salads you can make!

#nowplaying DZ Deathrays – Reflective Skull