Superfood Salad with Lemon-Balsamic Vinaigrette – Cookbook Review
July 24, 2018 by Ginger Hultin MS RDN
Meal prepping is a hot nutrition (lifestyle?) trend because: it literally makes your life easier and eating healthier more automated. Enter sturdy salads you can chop up and prep ahead of time that will actually keep you full. A superfood to me is any fruit, veggie, bean/legume, or whole grain that you eat which contributes vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber that support your health. Really you can use any combination of these foods that you most enjoy but I’ll tell you, a light lemon vinaigrette like this one used in the Superfood Salad with Lemon-Balsamic Vinaigrette I’ve got for you makes eating these healthy foods even more delicious.
After the success of her book, The Healthy Meal Prep Cookbook, my friend and dietitian colleague Toby Amidor has done it again with Smart Meal Prep for Beginners by Rockridge Press coming out 7/31 (make sure and pre-order your copy on Amazon!). I’m a grab and go person, running from work to gym to event, event, event every day and night. I do much better when I make breakfast the night before, pack leftovers for lunch and make a shopping list for the week, so recipes like this Superfood Salad with Lemon-Balsamic Vinaigrette totally save me.
Living a busy lifestyle can sometimes equal living a more unhealthy one but it doesn’t have to if you prepare ahead. One of my nutrition mentors told me long ago when I was a student that nutrition is both a science and an art. Well, so is meal prepping. This Superfood Salad with Lemon-Balsamic Vinaigrette recipe combines some of my favorite ingredients. Baby spinach is the base here but you could easily use kale or any type of lettuce you enjoy. Blueberries and sunflower seeds add flavor and texture you’ll look forward to at lunch but feel free to use any other type of berry you like – strawberries, blackberries, raspberries – and any other type of nut or seeds. Pistachios, slivered almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds – whatever you enjoy. When you toss these ingredients all in a mason jar, they’re study enough to last a couple days so you could even keep these on hand at work so you don’t even have to think about packing a new lunch daily.
Cheers to Toby for writing another awesome cookbook that will help us all be a little better prepared for our crazy weeks ahead.
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons Lemon-Balsamic Vinaigrette (recipe below)
- 1 cucumber (cut into ½-inch coins, then quartered)
- 1 carrot (peeled and cut into ½-inch coins, then quartered)
- ¼ small red onion (thinly sliced)
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 2 cups ½baby spinach
- cup ¼roasted unsalted sunflower seeds
For the Lemon-Balsamic Vinaigrette
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon gluten-free Dijon mustard
- teaspoon ½salt
- teaspoon ¼freshly ground black pepper
- cup ⅔extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- To make the vinaigrette: In a small bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper. Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mixture, whisking to incorporate.
- Hard-boil the eggs by placing them in a medium pot and covering them with water. Over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Cook the eggs for 3 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let stand for 15 minutes. Drain the water and place the eggs in a bowl of ice water until completely cool, about 10 minutes. Peel the eggs and slice lengthwise.
- Into each of 2 widemouthed glass mason jars, layer in the following order: 2 tablespoons of Lemon-Balsamic Vinaigrette at the bottom followed by half of the cucumber, carrot, eggs, red onion, blueberries, and baby spinach, and 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds. If you don’t have mason jars, you can use widemouthed glass or plastic containers, in which case add the ingredients in any order that you like but store the dressing separately.
Ginger Hultin,MS, RD, CSO
Thanks for visiting! If you're struggling with a cancer diagnosis, autoimmune condition, gut health problems, or even a medical mystery, nutrition can make a HUGE difference in your day-to-day life. I run a virtual, concierge private practice where I partner with my clients over time to help them improve their health through nutrition. Be sure to visit the blog for easy, plant-based, anti-inflammatory recipes and our "Resources" page for a variety of self-paced programs, books, e-books, and nutrition podcast episodes.