Our harvest roasted root vegetable salad is visually stunning as well as fresh and healthy. The salad greens are made up of baby arugula and baby spinach, and has a beautiful fresh apple dressing with a hint of rosemary, a perfect oil free Whole Food Plant Based salad.
Hi! Ameera here!
This salad is so beautiful and easy to make. It consists of left-overs from our Oven Roasted Rosemary Root Vegetables. Mom and I wanted to make a salad that was hearty, but we wanted a complimentary light salad dressing in contrast. The fresh apple salad dressing turned out fabulous, and we hope you love it as much as we do.
Tips and Tricks
The crunchy maple-glazed pecans are super tasty and work really well with our Oven Roasted Rosemary Root Vegetables. Cut up the left-over roasted veggies into chunks, heat them up, and let them cool slightly. I suggest that you don’t place the root vegetables in the salad hot as they will wilt your salad greens. Once slightly cooled, scatter the warm oven roasted rosemary root vegetables across the salad.
To add a fancy touch, thinly slice an apple and fan the pieces in separate sections. Finally place some brightly colored radish slices and glazed pecans around the salad as a nice accent. Taaaa daaahhh! Beautiful Salad Perfection!
We eat with our eyes first; this salad is visually stunning. It makes an excellent Fall/Winter salad for dinner parties, holidays, or simply as a beautiful accent for family dinners.
Oil free salad dressings – the struggle is real!
We all know how challenging it can be to create a salad dressing without oil. I’m happy to say, we have out done ourselves on this salad dressing. A perfect no-oil salad dressing that tastes fresh and wholesome with no oil, no refined sugar, and no processed ingredients.
Dad’s reaction
While my mom and I were scarfing down the delicious salad in the dining room and high-fiving each other on a job well done, my dad yells from the kitchen “Can I have some salad?” We said “Sure, help yourself!”
A little while later, we went back into the kitchen to clean up only to find him seated at the kitchen table hovering over this large empty bowl that previously held a rather generous amount of salad, mopping up the dressing with a slice of bread.
The bowl was so clean, it looked like he had washed it. He said “I hope you didn’t want anymore because I ate it all. It was delicious! I didn’t eat lunch today!” As you can see in the picture, this was no small bowl of salad. He had scarfed down a seriously large portion of salad! LOL
Robin here!
Monkey is a food artist. I love how she pulled this beautiful salad together. Every element of the salad was visual artistry and super tasty. This salad is brimming with flavor and freshness, and if you already have the left-overs from the Oven Roasted Rosemary Root Vegetables, then the rest is a breeze to pull together.
I must say, TP was quite hilarious hovering over this huge salad bowl, making sure he got every last drop of salad dressing goodness with his hunk of bread. He can really pack it away. The bowl we used was a huge oblong shaped dish. He looked like he was eating from a trough. HAH!
Products used:
- Food processor or Juicer.
Harvest Salad
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 Servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: American
Description
This harvest roasted root vegetable salad is visually stunning as well as fresh and healthy. The salad greens are made up of baby arugula and baby spinach and has a beautiful fresh apple dressing with a hint of rosemary, a perfect oil free Whole Food Plant Based salad.
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients:
- Leftovers from Oven Roasted Rosemary Vegetables *
- Oil-Free Fresh Apple Salad Dressing *
- 4 cups baby arugula
- 4 cups baby spinach
- 4 radishes, thinly sliced
- 1 crisp apple, cored, thinly sliced with skin on
- 1 cup Maple Glazed Pecans *
- 2 green onions, chopped
Oil-Free Fresh Apple Salad Dressing Ingredients:
- 1 apple – juiced (1/3 cup fresh apple juice) *
- 3 celery ribs – juiced (2 Tablespoons fresh celery juice) *
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon dried ground mustard powder
- Pinch of crushed rosemary
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- Scant 1 teaspoon sea salt *
Maple Glazed Pecans Ingredients:
- 1 cup pecans halves
- 2 teaspoons organic maple syrup (+/- as needed)
Instructions
Salad Instructions
- Prepare the Oil-Free Fresh Apple Salad Dressing (see recipe below*), set aside.
- Prepare 1 cup of Maple Glazed Pecans (see recipe below*), set aside.
- Chop any leftovers from the Oven Roasted Rosemary Vegetables (reference recipe*) into bitesize pieces, then heat in the microwave until warmed, but not piping hot as you do not want your greens to wilt.
- In a large bowl, mix the baby arugula and baby spinach together, then drizzle some of the Oil-Free Fresh Apple Salad Dressing over the greens. Mix well.
- Next, lay down the greens (dressed baby spinach and baby arugula) onto a large platter.
- Next layer the warmed Oven Roasted Rosemary Vegetable pieces on top of the greens.
- Next, core and thinly slice the apple into half-moon slices. Then layer the sliced apple pieces on top of the salad.
- Clean the radishes, then thinly slice. Then layer the sliced radishes on top of the salad.
- Scatter the Maple Glazed Pecans over top.
- Thinly slice the green onions, then toss the chopped green onions on top.
- Lastly, drizzle more of the salad dressing over top of the entire salad. (Retain some of the dressing for individual servings, if needed)
- Enjoy!!!
Oil-Free Fresh Apple Salad Dressing Instructions
- Juice 1 apple and 3 celery stalks in a juicer.
- OR place the apple and celery stalks into a high-speed blender, food processor, or mini-chop with 4 Tablespoons water. Blend on high, then strain the mixture through a very fine sieve over a small bowl. Continue pushing the pulp through the sieve to obtain the juice until all the juice is squeezed out. Discard the pulp. Skim off the foam (if any). The goal is to obtain at least 1/3 cup of juice.
- In a small bowl, add all the ingredients, whisk to combine. Allow to sit for 4 minutes, then whisk again.
- Serve over your favorite greens.
Maple Glazed Pecans Instructions
- Place the pecan halves into a dry large skillet and gently toast them over medium heat for 5 minutes. Gently stir occasionally to prevent them from burning.
- Once the pecans are lightly toasted, then drizzle 2 teaspoons of pure organic maple syrup to “candy” coat them. Stir them very gently around the skillet for another 2 minutes. The maple syrup will bubble up and thicken.
- Cover a plate with plastic wrap. This will help prevent the walnuts from sticking to the plate.
- Once the pecan halves are thoroughly coated, gently remove the pecans from the skillet and place onto the plastic covered plate to cool.
- Enjoy over your favorite salad greens (or as a topping on sweet potatoes, roasted Brussel sprouts, or other oven roasted vegetables or fruits).
Notes
Oil-Free Fresh Apple Salad Dressing
*Note: If opting to use a high-speed blender, food processor or mini-chop rather than a juicer, core and peel the apple, then cut into small chunks. For the celery, chop off the ends, peel off any tough rib strings with a vegetable peeler; then cut the celery into small chunks and place into the blender with the cut-up apples and 4 Tablespoons of water. Blend at high speed until the apple and celery are pulverized. Strain through a very fine sieve. Continue to press the pulp through the sieve with a spoon into the bowl to obtain as much juice as possible. Discard the pulp.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
Storage: Store any left overs in the refrigerator. If dressed, eat within a day or the salad greens wilt.