If you can get your hands on green and or purple cauliflower, you must make this purple cauliflower salad recipe. This is the salad that will keep you from snacking on junk food and feed your body well.

I made this same exact salad here with plain white cauliflower and while it was oh so good, nothing looks as good as color.

How does cauliflower get green or purple you ask.

Green cauliflower is a hybrid of cauliflower and broccoli. Purple cauliflower gets its color naturally and it’s origin is placed in Italy or South Africa. Purple cauliflower’s color is due to the presence of the antioxidant anthocyanin, which can also be found in red cabbage and red wine. Purple cauliflower also goes by the variety names Sicilian Violet, Violet Queen and Grafitti cauliflower.

This Green and Purple Cauliflower Salad Recipe is perfect for a large outdoor gathering.

I put the two colors together for a recent Easter dinner at the farm. The color alone made me happy. You can play around with various vinaigrettes, but just be sure to add more vinegar than you usually would. Like this kale salad, cauliflower stays firm and needs a very acidic dressing. Otherwise it will be bland and boring. You should also make this ahead of time because the longer it marinates several hours (up to overnight) the better it will taste. Just add your nuts in at the last minute.

In this purple cauliflower salad recipe, I used sunflower seeds. Almost any nut will work. Make sure to toast them first.

This is a fantastic choice for a potluck, a shower, a party, as it is best eaten at room temperature and stays delicious for hours.

When I think about purple cauliflower, I think about parties, because it’s so festive. Take this to your next party. People will thank you.

You can see more on this salad here, where I made it with white cauliflower, pistachios and a champagne vinaigrette.

Here is the video of the original white cauliflower salad, which will help give you an idea as to how to cut it. I used walnut oil in this one to change up the flavors.

Walnut Vinaigrette adds something special this Purple Cauliflower Salad Recipe

Twenty More Amazing Cauliflower Recipes from Spinach Tiger

More Salad Recipes Here

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Purple Cauliflower Salad Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 head purple cauliflower
• 1 head green cauliflower
• 1 cup chopped sunflower seeds or chopped toasted walnuts
• 2/3 cup golden raisins can use dried cranberries
• 4 bunches of scallions
• 1 cup walnut vinaigrette see recipe below
• sea salt
• pepper
• red pepper flakes as needed
• !Walnut Vinaigrette or Champagne Vinaigrette found here
• 2 clove garlic minced
• 2 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 6 tablespoons walnut vinegar can use white vinegar or champagne vinegar
• 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 6 tablespoons walnut oil
• 2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Instructions

• Cut out the bottom core of cauliflower. Discard
• Slice cauliflower as thin as you can. Mandolin is best, but you can slice with good sharp knife.
• Toss with vinaigrette.You will want the vinegar to be pronounced. I found that the cauliflower doesn't hold the vinegar taste.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Add in chile flakes.
• Add golden raisins, chopped scallions, nuts, (reserve some nuts for garnish).
• !Vinaigrette Instructions
• Infuse olive oil with chopped garlic for 20 minutes.
• Put mustard in a jar and mix well with vinegar.
• Slowly add olive oil. Mix well.
• Add red pepper flakes.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Add nuts right before serving.

Notes

This is a recipe using two heads of cauliflower, making a lot of salad for a party.
You can cut this recipe in half. You can see what that looks like at this recipe.

The post Purple Cauliflower Salad Recipe with Walnut Vinaigrette appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

In the old days, this was simply a healthy salad.  Now, when I write about it, I think what are the limitations to this super healthy salad with saved brussels sprouts, red beet pesto, and red quinoa and what are the real benefits?

Whether you’re vegan, paleo, primal, or gluten free, this salad is for you with a caveat. The quinoa addition is the gluten free option, but not the paleo option, unless you’re going primal (following the Primal Blue Print as I do, and even then, it could be questionnable).  The parmigianno reggiano cheese is an option that can be removed for any vegan or strict paleo, but okay for primals.

The red beets would never work for something strictly low-carb, but don’t count them out entirely. The only thing I can never promise you is a low-fat option, because I never ever count my fat.  I love my extra virgin olive oil, and I’m never giving it up. I also vow never to use the word evoo!

If I just drove you crazy with these options and exceptions, imagine how we food bloggers feel. We want to please everyone, especially those committed to good health, but I cannot compromise the taste or joy of good food, with mostly false information about fat. I’m the ultimate super food lover, but I will not be seen with salad dressing on the side.

Whichever way you choose to make this, one bite of the shaved raw Brussels Sprouts mixed with this most delicious red beet pesto,  and you will want more. The nuttiness and earthiness of the beet pesto has an umami effect, and the crunchiness of the raw shaved Brussels sprouts satisfies that need we all have to crunch down on something. The red quinoa can be optional, but it adds the chewy texture and the protein, so this could be a complete meal. It’s stir fried after it’s cooked, which changes the texture a bit for the better.

Why this Healthy Salad with Shaved Brussels Sprouts and Red Beet Pesto is Good for You!

Brussels sprouts, a member of the cruciferous, is the hipster vegetable of the moment, showing up in every kind of casual to fine dining restaurant because, like beets, they are available in the winter, and we’re all environmentally less guilty about that right?

If you need a reminder on why beets on good for you, I listed ten benefits here. Not the coolest or hippest seed as of late, often left back in the 1980’s, Sunflower seeds, are a super healthy antioxidant seed, full of Vitamin E , and a good source of selenium, calcium, manganese, and zinc. Extra virgin olive oil promotes cardiovascular health, good cholesterol, antioxidant protection for our blood vessels, is an anti-inflammatory, promotes bone health, brain health, lowers certain cancers, and seriously makes food taste better! Garlic is another food with super powers, promoting heart and brain health and protection from certain cancers, and much more. We like it for flavor.

So we have the health requests, the vegans, the vegetarians, the gluten free folks, the environmentalists and the paleo people covered, sort of. You’ll know what adjustments you need to make, but whatever you do, take the beet pesto idea and run with it. It made this salad a dream, and one I would put on any restaurant menu,  especially the hipster ones, but put it in your own kitchen, or do what I did. Deem it good enough to take to the Nashville food blogger’s pot luck.

I’m known for bringing this kale salad, to our blogger events,  and there was one couple who was disappointed that I didn’t bring it, but, hopefully, I’ve opened up some eyes about beets and Brussels sprouts. One new blogger that joined us hated beets before she tasted the salad. She still hates beets. Just kidding. She liked it. Does this makes me a vegetable evangelist!

The red quinoa is cooked, toasted a bit in the frying pan,  then tossed with freshly grated pecorino cheese.  The Brussels salads are shaved and raw, tossed with a bit of olive oil and lemon, salted and thrown into the frying pan with the red quinoa for just a snap and then tossed heartily with the beet pesto. The beet pesto brings this salad to it’s best self. I’ve made a different version of same salad here, delicious enough, but this is a case of more is more. It’s hard to get healthier than shaved Brussels Sprouts and Red Beet pesto.

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Super Healthy Salad- Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Beet Pesto

A super antioxidant powerhouse salad of raw Brussels sprouts, raw beet pesto, and red quinoa with olive oil, lemon and pecorino cheese.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 pound Brussels Sprouts
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ½ teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon juice from fresh orange
• ¾ cup grated Pecorino Romano
• 1 cup uncooked red quinoa optional
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• red beet pesto

Instructions

• Rinse Brussels Sprouts thoroughly. Remove some of the large outer leaves to roast.
• Using a mandolin, shred Brussels sprouts or using a chef’s knife, slice thinly.
• Mix together olive oil, lemon zest.
• Mix Brussels sprouts with olive oil dressing just until sprouts are wet. Set aside. You will reserve the rest of the dressing for later.
• The quinoa is optional and a great addition for added protein and heft.
• Cook quinoa. Rinse quinoa thoroughly in mesh strainer under running water for two minutes. Place in pot with two cups water and 2 teaspoons salt.
• Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover, cook for 15 more minutes. Place remaining olive oil in saute pan with 1 clove minced garlic. Lightly saute
• Add in one tablespoon butter and smoked almonds. Add quinoa.
• Stir for about two minutes to toast.
• Add in ½ cup Pecorino Romano cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
• Pour toasted quinoa over the raw Brussels sprouts.
• Add in orange juice. Stir.
• Toss with 1/2 to 1 cup of red beet pesto.
• Serve at room temperature.

The post Super Antioxidant Salad: Shaved Raw Brussels Sprouts with Raw Red Beet Pesto appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Red beets or beet root? However, you describe this deep purple red root vegetable, there is intensity. People love or hate this earthy vegetable. But, I believe there are only two kinds of people regarding the beet. Those who love them, and those who are yet to be converted. I know this because I converted the biggest beat hater, my husband, years ago. Yesterday I converted a food blogger who ate this pesto, trusting me that it would be a good experience, even though she has always hated beets.

I made a trip to Denver this summer for an opportunity that never worked out, and because I’m such an optimist, I dug deeply to find something positive about the experience. The food was fantastic, no matter where I ate, especially my experiences at Root Down.

It all comes back to food, doesn’t it? Root Down has a restaurant at the airport and on my way home, I sampled a beet pesto and nearly jumped up and down. When an old food is prepared in a new way and I learn something, taste something new, I get excited. It’s my life’s study to appreciate food, especially vegetables.

They gave me the recipe; I changed it a tiny bit, using raw beets instead of pickled beets because I have a Vitamix that handles raw beets well, proven with this red beet smoothie. I think it’s better my way, but if you don’t have a super duper blender that will crush the beets, you can cook them first. I did add in a touch of balsamic vinegar in addition to orange and lemon, so there is plenty of acid, olive oil, garlic, and surprisingly, sunflower seeds.

The beet pesto saved the day because I tried to make this red quinoa brussels sprouts salad and the quinoa didn’t cook right. It didn’t have it’s usual bite. I always use Whole Foods red quinoa from their bin, but this time I had used a different brand. Time was short, and I decided I didn’t want to stop and bring a wedge of cheese to the party. So, I made this beet pesto, added it to the salad, and it was delicious and made all the difference. The sunflower seed flavor came through as well as the earthiness of the beets, but it was all subtle and well balanced.

Until I had this beet pesto at Root Down, served with a skirt steak, I’d thought I had done every kind of thing possible with beets including smacking them upside the head in my Vitamix.

The beet pesto is exquisitely nuanced with handfuls of sunflower seeds and basil, and good enough to just eat with a spoon, spread on toast, dollop on other vegetables, but I have to tell you, it’s a wonderful match for this shaved Brussels sprouts salad.

Whatever you choose to do with the red beet pesto, made with basil and sunflower seeds, you will choose to eat it all up. You’ll be amazed if you are a beet lover and never had beets this way, and amazed if you were a beet hater, because this will convert you.

More Pesto Recipes

More Red Beet Recipes from Spinach Tiger

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Beet Pesto with Sun Flower Seeds

Course Appetizer

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup blended olive oil
• 2/4 cup basil
• juice of half lemon
• 1 cups raw beets peeled, chopped (see note)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cloves chopped garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon wine vinegar balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar

Instructions

• If you have a Vitamix: Place everything in the vitamix and blend until you have a thick pesto-type consistency.
• If you don't have a Vitamix, soften the beets by boiling for 30 minutes. Cool completely.
• Put everything except the vinegar into the food processor and process until you have the consistency of pesto. Add vinegar a little at a time. It should not be the predominant taste. Season with salt and pepper. Serve cold, room temperature or hot.

The post Raw Beet Pesto with Basil and Sun Flower Seeds appeared first on Spinach Tiger.