This veggie salad is packed with color, nutrients, crunch, and flavor! It’s naturally sweet, savory, and goes perfectly with any meal or can be a meal by itself. It’s also great for picnics, BBQ’s, and any special gathering! Paleo, Whole30, and vegan friendly.
I’ve been meaning to make a homemade version of a particular salad that my mom gets from a local deli for about a year now.
I would say BEST SALAD EVER, except I know I say that about a lot of recipes. But really though, there is just something about this salad that renders me helpless, in a good way of course.
I don’t exactly know WHAT it is about the salad that I find so insanely addicting, but I think it’s just the combination of so many ingredients that I love separately – altogether making salad magic happen in a big way!
So here it is – and I’m not surprised to say that I ate the entire thing by myself in two days (eek, maybe less!) because it came out exactly as I had envisioned it!
Let’s get to the details of course! The green (and I guess purple) base for the salad is raw kale, shredded brussels sprouts, and shredded red cabbage.
The thing I love about having “sturdy” greens as the base of a salad is that it means you can dress the salad in advance and it just winds up tasting BETTER! No sogginess – this salad is perfect for picnics and is definitely portable.
Next we have perfectly roasted sweet potatoes. I LOVE combining some cooked veggies (like sweet potatoes or butternut) with raw ones in a salad.
Toasted cashews are next. The original salad had cashews in it and I think they provide the best sweet/salty combo and I just love how the texture works with the crunchier veggies.
You can also swap out the nuts for almonds or something else you prefer, but seriously, give those cashews a try!
Lastly we have dried cherries for some extra sweetness. I can’t remember if the original salad had dried fruit in it, BUT I always feel like a great veggie salad is so much better with a little fruit in it.
The dried tart cherries (unsweetened) are the perfect sweet/tart addition, although cranberries would be great as well.
And don’t worry – I didn’t forget about a great dressing! I love using an immersion blender to make vinaigrettes nice and smooth and avoid that annoying separation that can happen.
The ingredients are clean and simple – olive or avocado oil (I recommend a light tasting one), lemon juice, stone ground mustard, sweetener of choice (date paste works very well for a Whole30 option), plus sea salt and black pepper to taste.
Once you toss it all together, I promise you’ll be overwhelmed with veggie salad love! Go grab your ingredients because it’s time to make this homemade salad magic happen – let’s go!
Rainbow Veggie Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette {Paleo, Whole30, Vegan}
Rainbow Veggie Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Salad:
- 2 cups sweet potatoes diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus sea salt for potatoes
- 3 cups kale chopped
- 1 Tbsp olive oil, plus sea salt for kale
- 2 cups brussels sprouts shredded
- 2 cups red cabbage shredded
- 3/4 cups cashews
- 1/3 cup dried tart cherries no sugar added
Dressing:
- 2 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice about one lemon
- 1 tsp stone ground mustard
- 1/8-1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp date paste honey, or maple syrup
- 1/3 cup light flavored olive oil or avocado oil
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 425 degrees to roast the potatoes. Toss in the olive oil and salt and spread in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Roast about 25 minutes, until browning and soft.
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Place cashews on a separate baking sheet and roast for the last 6-7 minutes with the potatoes, or until toasty, sprinkle with sea salt if desired.
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Massage the kale in olive oil and salt for about a minute until desired texture is achieved. Toss with the shredded brussels sprouts, cabbage, roasted cashews, cherries, and sweet potatoes.
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For the dressing, place all ingredients in a tall container and blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Alternatively, you can whisk ingredients together in a bowl, streaming the oil in slowly while whisking.
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Toss the salad with the dressing and serve right away or refrigerate until ready to serve. This salad can be prepared and dressed a day ahead of time without a problem. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Shop Products and Ingredients:
Want More Whole30 Salad Recipes? Try One of These!
Crispy Chicken Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing
Shrimp Cobb Salad with Lemon Garlic Vinaigrette
Kale Salad with Chicken, Caramelized Onions, and Hot Bacon Dressing
BLT Chicken Salad with Peppercorn Ranch
Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Bacon and Lime Vinaigrette
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This salad looks and sounds beautiful! Question, do you typically peel your sweet potatoes before roasting? I’ve done both ways and sometimes find the skin to be bitter. Just curious!
Just made this salad for dinner, Delicious!!!!
Do you think this recipe would work to freeze? Wanting to get some freezer meals made for the busy summer! Things I can grab & stick in the oven to have ready for my family…?
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Has the dressing recipe been changed? I swear the first time I made it I used softened dates and this time the recipe calls for “date paste”. I’m not exactly sure how I did it with the dates last time and now my dressing is kind of chunky.
Ok I just made this and it’s delicious.
Confession. I subbed the Brussel Sprouts with butter leaf and added grilled chicken. ( I know. Sorry)
But it’s soooo good. Thank you!
Fantastic salad and dressing recipe! Just made this for my lunch for the week. Thanks.
This salad was so good! I loved the sweet potatoes and cherries together. The rest of the greens are on the bitter side, but with the dressing, it balances out really well. I really appreciate all of your vegan recipes!
This is new favorite salad! I’ve made it at least 5 times in the past month! My family is getting tired of it, but I don’t care! I just take it for lunch or crack an egg on top and eat it for breakfast!
I made this today and am so glad I did! It looks good and tastes even better!
I really thought this salad was going to be gross but it is YUMMY! I am the kind of person who would prefer eating pizza all day everyday. I am trying to increase my veggies and thought what the heck I’ll give this recipe a try. I don’t know how Brussel sprouts actually taste good, but they do in this salad! I used dried cranberries (because I couldn’t find cherries) and maple syrup in the dressing. My husband and I had it twice the first day and finished the whole thing in 2 days. The leftovers saved and were just as yummy as eating it fresh. I will be making this again. Thank you!
I absolutely love this salad! I’ve even started making the dressing in a large batch to use anytime. One thing though is I cannot find dried tart cherries with no sugar added. Even the ones you have linked contain added sugar. I use dried black mission figs instead and it is wonderful.
Had been dying to make this salad for a couple of weeks. Finally made it last night for dinner. I now understand why Michele says she ate the entire recipe herself in just two days! It’s salty, sweet, with amazing crunch in every bite! Absolutely delicious! Only change I made was to add an extra teaspoon of date paste. Will definitely be making it again. And like her, I will probably be eating the entire recipe myself in just two days!
The cherries linked have a ton of sugar, do you have a suggestion for another brand for paleo or whole30?
This salad is incredible! Very filling. Took it to a potluck and everyone loved it. Thanks so much!
I’ve been eating this every day for a month! Absolutely love it! How to use dried cranberries instead of cherries just for the sake of my grocery budget. Still so delicious!
Made this last night for a cookout. I was able to throw some of the BBQ on top of my serving and have a great paleo friendly plate. Everyone RAVED about it. The only changes I made were to omit the fruit (they didn’t have unsweetened cherries) and I subbed pine nuts for the cashews. Highly recommend! I happened to have some on hand that I needed to use up and they were the perfect tiny crunch for this dish. I have enough ingredients to make another batch so I’ll probably have this for lunch all week.
This salad is delicious. I bought a bag of shredded brussel sprouts to reduce prep time (and I hate shredding brussel sprouts for some reason), and everything else was really easy to throw together. I only had two cups of kale in my fridge so I chopped up a cup of arugula as well. Stone ground mustard was a surprising game-changer for me – I normally make a similar dressing but with dijon instead, and I think I like stoneground better now after trying this! I may add some garlic and champagne vin to the dressing next time.
Holy smokes! Did not expect this to be so delicious. Even my husband (who NEVER eats salad) had two bowls. Will be eating this on the regular. Did use dried cranberries instead of cherries because that’s what I could find and added chicken for more protein.
I am eating this right now and I had to pause (although it was hard!) to say I love it so much I’m already thinking about doubling or tripling it next time. My immersion blender is a little wonky so I tried to mix the dressing in my Blendtec (had just used it to make date paste anyway) but there is not enough! Follow her suggestion. If I triple it I bet there will be enough to use the blender though. Can’t wait to share this with my vegan friends! So yum!!!
Just made it for a gathering…. BEST and healthiest salad ever. It doesn’t get any better than this! I could not find unsweetened dried cherries at the time so substituted with dried chopped dates. Delicious!! This is another of your recipes that I will make over and over! Thank you so much for helping us to eat better!!!
Do you have a link for no sugar added dried cherries?