The Big Vegan Rainbow Bowl with Maple Almond Butter Dressing by Fooduzzi
You can’t go wrong with a salad like this. A big colorful delightful surprise. If you’re starting out to live a healthier you, but don’t like salads, this is the perfect start. And even better, if you have a sweet tooth, you’re gonna love this salad. How do I know? Well, I’m a bit of a sweet tooth myself, but I’m also trying to eat healthier and eat more plants, so I totally vouch for this salad.
Plus, I really like almond butter and I love maple syrup, so when you put those together, it was like en eye-opening experience and the start to endless possibilities. In fact, the dressing was so unbelievably delicious that I started putting this on my flaxseed pancakes and sweet potato breakfast bowl. I am positive there are a million other excuses to drizzle this delicious dressing on. Somebody please try this with brownies and get back to me, I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be heaven. Kevin and I made homemade blueberry nice cream and drizzled some of the maple almond butter dressing, and it was weirdly satisfying, yet we wouldn’t try that again type thing. I might try it with vanilla nice cream to keep it as simple as possible. I think if you go overboard with the flavors, your taste buds will feel an overwhelming power of flavor. Less is more, in my opinion.
The first time I had this was a week ago. My husband, Keisuke a.k.a. Kevin, made it. He used red leaf instead of romaine lettuce and added sweet potato with the Yukon potato. I’m sure you can mix and match some of your favorite veggies with the ingredients in this recipe, but if you’re not too adventurous, stick with what has already been done and loved.
I made this salad by myself yesterday. Yes, all by myself. A little digression to talk about my cooking background. I never cooked anything in my life, besides shake ‘n bake chicken until I started living with Kevin, but even then, I didn’t really start experimenting with food and cooking real food until I started modeling with an agency, which was back in 2014, about 4 years ago. So I got some pretty weak knife skills, unlike my hubby the cook. My family also laugh at me in disbelief when I actually do make something and usually they’re just salads that are easy to put together with little effort in cutting vegetables. That being said, my overall cooking level is below average. I wouldn’t even call myself an amateur. Another thing, in case you’re just tuning in on my blog, I live in chronic pain and unfortunately I’ve noticed my pain increases when I look down for long periods of time, especially combined with the action of cutting consistently for more than 5 minutes. I usually ask Kevin to pre-cut the harder vegetables that I have trouble with, but for the sake of being more independent, I did it on my own. So, for someone living in chronic pain, making this salad is not as easy as it looks. My pain increased in multiple levels just by cutting the carrots and radishes in thin slices.
Then I looked up and in that perfect moment I thought, Oh wait, I have a food processor! I am so grateful my aunt bought that for us for our wedding shower, it’s times like this that it comes in handy.
Much better. & it looks pretty. Why did I put myself through torture for those 5 minutes? If you don’t have a food processor and you live in chronic pain, take it slow, be patient, and perhaps start cutting the veggies the night before so half the work is already completed by the time you want to make it. Or Invest! Owning a food processor saves wonders on time, energy, and pain! Sure you’ll have to clean more, but hey isn’t saving yourself from added pain worth it?
Bottom line, this was a Pinterest Success! I thoroughly enjoyed creating & eating my very own veggie bowl of goodness. It was refreshing, energizing, crunchy, sweet, and a bundle of flavor. Definitely a must try for the books!
Mix and Match with your favorite veggies, add some grains like farro, quinoa, or brown rice to make it more filling, or even add some cubed chicken if you’re not a vegan/vegetarian and want some added protein. YUM!
happy eating, rebeccanne
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