Vegan Berry Winter Salad
Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog! This vegan berry salad is perfect if you were looking for a yummy winter salad!
When eating vegan or plant-based, we often find ourselves having to create difficult recipes or eating sad salads. They can be extremely boring and tasteless.
You can’t put a bunch of leaves and some carrots in a bowl and call it a salad, you must add some spice to that! Also, what better way to spice up a salad than add some sweet berries?
Sauté – Boil – Simmer – Serve!
Sometimes I find myself really craving a salad like this one, so rich in flavor and yummy, almost like comfort food. I just want to grab everything that I have in the kitchen and pour it into a bowl, to make it the yummiest salad ever. I truly tried doing that with this recipe.
This salad has a lot of my favorite things: avocado, dried cranberries, a kickass homemade dressing and some good vegan protein source, like chickpeas.
I really wanted to pack it full of nutrients and yummy ingredients.
This time around, I really played around with flavor, especially for the dressing, which is made of balsamic vinegar, an ingredient that is commonly used here in Italy in salads. To that basic, yet super tasty dressing, I added stuff like: Medjool dates, soy sauce, dijon mustard and so on (you can find everything in the recipe card below!).
This salad dressing will pull together all the flavors in the salad and will make you forget you are eating a salad, really!
Add some croutons and nuts for the crunch and you have the perfect winter salad, that will satisfy all of you cravings!
What you will need to make this Vegan Berry Winter Salad:
Ingredients Required:
Red onion
Chickpeas/garbanzo beans
Spinach
Arugula
Strawberries
Blackberries
Avocado
Walnuts
Dried cranberries
Balsamic vinegar
Dates
Soy sauce
Dijon Mustard
Nutritional yeast
Onion powder
Garlic
Check out these other amazing Holiday Inspired Vegan Dishes!
The Perfect Vegan Cornbread
Vegan Scalloped Potatoes
Nourishing Vegan Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Benefits of…
Blackberries
- Like all berries, blackberries are packed with vitamins and fiber. They help with your immune system and they are also good for brain health and a good antioxidant!
Cranberries
- Many people consider cranberries to be a superfood due to their high nutrient and antioxidant content. In fact, research has linked the nutrients in cranberries to a lower risk of urinary tract infection (UTI), the prevention of certain types of cancer, improved immune function, and decreased blood pressure.
Walnuts
- Walnuts have a wealth of the good kind of fats — polyunsaturated fats, which are better for you than saturated fats. They also have a high amount of omega-3 fatty acids. Studies have shown that eating walnuts can help lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol in particular, but also lower your cholesterol overall.
Vegan Berry Winter Salad
Ingredients
- ½ red onion sliced thin
- 1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans rinsed and drained
- 4 cups spinach
- 2 cups arugula
- 1/2 cup strawberries sliced thin
- 1/2 cup blackberries
- 1 avocado diced small
- 1/2 cup walnuts crushed
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
Dressing
- 1 cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 Medjool Dates
- 3 tbsp Soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 clove garlic minced
To serve
- 1 loaf sourdough bread – left out to harden
- 1 tsp vegan butter
Instructions
- Start with the dressing: Cover the pitted dates with 2 cups of boiling water for 15 minutes if they are not already soft. Prep the salad while those soften up.
- Chop the sourdough bread into small cubes and toss into a skillet with a tsp of butter. Toss until crispy!
- Simply rinse and drain the chickpeas and prep the fruit and veggies.
- Add all of the salad ingredients to a large bowl and lightly toss.
- The dates should be ready! Scoop out ¼ cup (60 ml) of the boiling water and drain the rest. Add the ¼ cup water, dates and all dressing ingredients to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. This will last for a week in the fridge. Taste test and adjust as needed.
- Drizzle a good amount all over the salad. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Looking to lower your waste while prepping? Check these out!
Compostable & Unbleached Parchment Paper
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Find more healthy vegan recipes like this Vegan Berry Winter Salad when you join The WonderMamas Meal Plan Membership!
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