Save Time, Shred Your Salad

Shake Things Up with a Shredded Salad

Do you eat the same salad, over and over again? Or, just between us, do you resolve to eat salads, buy bags of salad, then find them in your veggie drawer after they’ve gone past their prime? You are not alone.

When it’s cold outside, a bowl of leafy greens may not be what you are craving. May I suggest something heartier? My food processor makes it easy to turn some wintry cabbage and root veggies into a crunchy, riotously colorful salad that keeps for a week in the refrigerator. You can get all the benefits of eating raw veggies with your meals, and take a break from the same old mixed greens.

Shredded Salads are the Answer

I probably don’t need to sell you on the benefits of eating vegetables. But it pays to remind ourselves to keep at it. If you are trying lose weight, adding a salad course to all your meals is a great start. A bowl of raw vegetables is full of fiber and low in calories, and fills you up so you won’t eat too much of the main course. When you eat veggies raw, you will get more of the water-soluble vitamins, like vitamin C, which leach out into cooking water. Many of the potent antioxidants in vegetables are also broken down by cooking, so eating raw plants will give you the best antioxidant punch. You should still eat plenty of cooked vegetables, as well, since other vitamins are more available after cooking.

Beets play a starring role in this easy dish, and eating more of them will help keep your heart healthy, reduce inflammation, and more. I’ve written about the benefits of beets and posted some great recipes for beets here: Roasted Beet Sheet Pan Meal, Beets and Cukes in Miso Dressing and Walnut beet tacos.

In this quick salad, beets are going to tint everything, like a wash of color on a blank canvas. Sliced green cabbage and shredded apple soak up the brilliant red juices of the shredded beets. Flecks of parsley and sliced scallions add a green counterpoint, to make the whole thing pop.

Meal Prep with a Shredded Salad

This salad is an easy meal prep item, and you can throw it together on a Sunday afternoon to serve it all week. It doesn’t wilt, like green salads, and the marinating time actually softens the cabbage and gives it time for the flavors to marry. You’ll find your self tucking it into sandwiches, piling it next to pizza, or even putting it on a bed of mixed greens.