Rainbow Microgreens Salad

My hubby has acquired a green thumb during this pandemic-induced quarantine. He has been growing spinach, chard, arugula, herbs, peppers and tomatoes in our yard. Nothing beats the taste of fresh plucked produce that you’ve grown yourself. But nothing excited me more than the microgreens he grew and plucked fresh right before I made this salad.

Microgreens are young vegetable greens that are grown and harvested when they are approximately 1–3 inches tall. They pack a ton of flavor even in small quantities, and contain vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and have a higher nutritional content than mature plants. Some other benefits of growing microgreens are:

1. They grow incredibly fast. We harvested ours in a week after planting.
2. They take up very little space. We planted them in tiny lunch box sized containers.
3. They require very little TLC. All you need to do is keep them in an area that receives direct sunlight and water minimally.
4. They are perfect for urban living, and can be grown by folks who don’t have a garden or yard.
5. You save a ton of money by growing them yourself, because microgreens are very expensive.

I have only had microgreens a handful of times before – at a few fancy restaurants I’d been to, and the couple times that I purchased from Trader Joe’s at an exorbitant price. So you can imagine how giddy with excitement I was when hubby started growing them. I knew I had to put together an amazing and nutritious salad with the microgreens, and I’m happy to say that the recipe did not disappoint.

I named this salad a Rainbow salad because it has a lot of colorful ingredients, and including plants of all colors in our diet ensure that we get enough fiber, vitamins, minerals and a variety of antioxidants. You can create your own plant rainbow by including more colors in the salad too. If you make any variations of this salad, I’d love to know what they are. Do let me know in the comments section.

Rainbow Microgreens Salad

Recipe by theplantpaletteblogCourse: SaladsDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

5

minutes

Ingredients

• Salad

• 2 cups microgreens

• 2 radishes, thinly sliced

• 12 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

• 1/4 cup blueberries

• 5 strawberries, sliced

• 1 orange bell pepper, cut into juliennes

• 1 persian cucumber, sliced

• 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds

• 2 tablespoons raw pumpkin or sunflower seeds

• Dressing

• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 1 tsp dijon mustard

• 1 tsp coconut aminos or tamari sauce

• 1/2 tsp pure maple syrup

• 1/8 tsp salt

• 1/8 tsp ground pepper

Directions

• Add all the salad ingredients to a large mixing bowl.
• Whisk all the dressing ingredients together until well combined.
• Pour the dressing on the salad, toss well to coat and serve.