If you want to eat seasonally fresh produce in the winter, this is the salad for you! This Cruciferous Crunch Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette is going to brighten up your day.
It's packed with crunchy winter produce, including kale, red cabbage, and brussels sprouts. Then topped with thickly shredded carrots and sliced almonds. Finish it off with a drizzle of honey mustard vinaigrette.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
This salad is seasonally fresh, nutritious and delicious! It's a vegetarian salad that could easily be made vegan. You will love how versatile this salad is. Serve it as a side dish, lunch, or light dinner.
It comes together in less than 15 minutes and is drizzled with a deliciously sweet and tangy Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. It's the perfect meal prep salad, just add the almonds and dressing just before serving.
Ingredients
Cruciferous Crunch Salad is made with a handful of cruciferous vegetables, plus carrots and almonds.
- Kale: Chopped kale with large stems removed.
- Red Cabbage: Shredded red cabbage.
- Brussels Sprouts: Thinly sliced or shredded brussels sprouts. You could either use the slicing blade in a food processor or a sharp knife. Watch this video for tips on how to shred brussels sprouts. No need to cook these, you can eat them raw!
- Shredded Carrots: You can shred these by hand, or just buy a bag of already shredded carrots from the grocery store.
- Sliced Almonds: Top with sliced almonds (optional). These give it some depth of flavor and some added crunch.
- Honey Mustard Vinaigrette: A mixture of extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, dijon (or yellow!) mustard, honey, salt and pepper.
*The full ingredient list with amounts is in the recipe card below.
Step-By-Step Instructions
- Make the dressing. In a jar or glass add the extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard, and honey. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste. Shake or whisk until combined. Set aside.
- Assemble the salad. In a large bowl, toss the kale with olive oil. Using your hands, massage the kale about 1 minute until tender. Add the red cabbage, brussels sprouts, carrots, and sliced almonds. Drizzle with honey mustard vinaigrette, and toss until combined.
- Serve. Serve as a meal or side dish and enjoy!
Cruciferous Salad Variations
Cruciferous Crunch Salad is great as is, however you can certainly change it up! Here are some recommendations to customize it to your liking.
Add a protein. Try topping it with chicken sausage, salmon, tofu, or steak.
Mix in other cruciferous vegetables. Raw vegetables like green cabbage and broccoli would be delicious in this salad.
Make it nut-free. Just leave out the almonds!
Make the vinaigrette creamy. Add a tablespoon of plain greek yogurt to the vinaigrette.
Add cheese. Shaved parmesan, crumbled goat cheese, or crumbled feta cheese are all great options.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
Popular cruciferous vegetables include kale, red cabbage, green cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower.
Vegetables that are in season during the winter are beets, brussels sprouts, cabbage, celery, kale, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, swiss chard, turnips, and winter squash.
More Recipes
If you like this Cruciferous Crunch Salad, then you'll love these other winter salad recipes.
- Steak and Avocado Salad
- Cara Cara Orange and Prosciutto Salad
- Chicken Cashew Salad with Creamy Sesame Dressing
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Cruciferous Crunch Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 2 large or 4 side salads 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Toss
- Cuisine: American
Description
If you want to eat seasonally fresh produce in the winter, this is the salad for you! This Cruciferous Crunch Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette is going to brighten your day. It's packed with crunchy winter produce, including kale, red cabbage, and brussels sprouts. Then topped with shredded carrots and sliced almonds. Finish it off with a drizzle of honey mustard vinaigrette.
Ingredients
For the Dressing
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard (or yellow mustard)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- sea salt and pepper, to taste
For the Salad
- 2 cups kale, chopped with large stems removed
- ½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup red cabbage, shredded
- 1 cup brussels sprouts, shredded or thinly sliced
- ½ cup carrots, shredded
- ¼ cup sliced almonds (optional)
Instructions
- Make the dressing. In a jar or glass add the extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard, and honey. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste. Shake or whisk until combined. Set aside.
- Assemble the salad. In a large bowl, toss the kale with olive oil. Using your hands, massage the kale about 1 minute until tender. Add the red cabbage, brussels sprouts, carrots, and sliced almonds. Drizzle with honey mustard vinaigrette, and toss until combined.
- Serve. Serve as a meal or side dish and enjoy!
Notes
You can substitute the honey for maple syrup to make this vegan.
You can either use the slicing blade in a food processor or a sharp knife to shred the brussels sprouts.
Nutritional values (per serving) are approximates only.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 side salad
- Calories: 176
- Sugar: 6.9 g
- Sodium: 271 mg
- Fat: 14.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 11.4 g
- Fiber: 2.8 g
- Protein: 2.8 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: salad, winter salad, cruciferous
This was really good! I followed the recipe as is, but tripled it (to share) added some boiled eggs and almond pieces. It had everything: crunch, delicious eggs and sweet tangy dressing, not to mention very healthy!
★★★★★