Paleo Detox Salad
This Paleo Detox Salad packs a huge nutritional punch with beets, kale, cabbage, and other detoxifying agents like lemon, ginger, and cilantro, all joined together by an incredible sunbutter dressing!
Today is a great day. Today is a great day because you are alive, well, and found it in your heart to read about a Paleo detox salad. It’s a great day because I can finally stop worrying about how to soak up every last minute of October’s awesomeness. AND, it’s a great day because I get to start my very 1st 21-Day Sugar Detox! Woo!
This detox comes just in time. My body needs some attentive healing after the massive number of Homemade Paleo Almond Joys I had to “taste test” …while I was “recipe developing” …you know, because I wanted to make sure the recipe was perfect n’all.
I’m seriously excited about this detox.
What on earth is this gosh darn 21-Day Sugar Detox you keep hearing about everywhere??! OR, if this is the first time you’ve heard of it, I welcome your less frustrated confusion too. You’re all welcome here. {I imagine a larger than life friendly cowboy waving people in for a dinner …I’m in a weird mood}.
WELL, you can learn ALL about it when I launch my brand new nutrition challenge series “21-DSD.” It will go live tomorrow! I’m going to give you a quick introduction to the new book 21-Day Sugar Detox by Diane Sanfilippo {author of Practical Paleo}, document how I’m feeling and what I’m eating each of the 21 days, and provide an honest recap at the end. SO, keep your eyes peeled for that.
To kickstart my detox, I made a massive Paleo detox salad. Yous guys, this salad is delicious. Even better, it’s a great way to help clean and heal your gut. It’s raw, vegan, easy, and super delicious.
Why worry about a detox salad?
Well, you know that feeling you get after an indulgent night/week/year? Your belly feels swollen, you have more of a giggle than you’re used to, and you can’t shake a headache? Maybe BMs have been irregular or you keep breaking out. The reasons to start a detox can be many, but the solution is so simple.
First, make sure you’re drinking enough water. THEN, eat lots of colorful vegetables, reduce or eliminate all grains/dairy/legumes, significantly reduce sugar intake, chew, enjoy your now healthier food, and {as if by magic} you’ll start feeling better.
Sound easy? That’s because it is! Silly bunz. You can learn more about how in the 21-Day Sugar Detox book and by following my 21-DSD log.
In the meantime, I’ve prepared a gorgeous, tasty Paleo detox salad packed FULL of amazing nutrients.
Enough talk. I’m ready for Paleo detox salad!
I like big BEETS and I cannot lie.
BEETS! What an incredible food. Beets are great roasted or raw. They’re known for being anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogen, and liver cleansing. They’ve been used to treat anemia, promote menstruation, and alleviate constipation.
Peel the raw beets and then either chop them into pieces that will fit in your food processor’s shredding shoot {not sure of real name} OR just break out your greater and start shredding by hand.
Bam! That’s a lot of healing goodness right there.
Next, cabbage! Whoa. Talk about powerful foods. Cabbage is known for having the highest concentration of the most effective anticancer properties of all vegetables. Them big words. All members of the cabbage family have a huge amount of Vitamin C {even more than an orange}, B6, and biotin {metabolism booster}.
I chose green cabbage for this salad for the color difference. Savoy or purple cabbage would work great as well. Chop and shred as finely as you can.
Are you tired of hearing about how great kale is? I feel your pain, so bare with me. KALE is actually a cruciferous vegetable just like cabbage! It’s extremely rich in carotenes {antioxidant that enhances immune function}, Vitamin C, B6, and manganese {important for blood sugar control, energy metabolism, and thyroid function}.
Unless you have a thing for chewing on twigs, I recommend you remove the kale stems. What’s the easiest way? Grab the stem and run your fingers up the spine. The leaves will peel right off.
Chop ‘em up real fine.
Cilantro! I friggin love cilantro. If you’re a cilantro hater because you fall into the group of people who have a genetic distaste for the stuff {meaning, it’s not your fault}, feel free to use parsley. Cilantro has been known to help with anxiety and aid in the conversion of cholesterol to bile in the liver. In other words, it’s good for ya.
Chop up as much as you like {I used about 1/2 cup}.
Now lets move onto the amazingly creamy detox dressing.
My dressing starts with lemons! We’re going to use two parts of the lemon: the juice and the outer peel. My goodness lemons are good for you. Lemon juice has a cooling effect on the body. It supports liver function, aids in mineral absorption, and has been used to treat high blood pressure. Lemons are known to aid in weight loss and help alleviate gas {which may be important considering all the raw cruciferous veggies in this Paleo detox salad}.
The essential oils found in the lemon peel are useful for combating anxiety, digestive problems, high blood pressure, and a sore throat. Zest the lemons before you cut and juice – just a suggestion. We’ll add the zest at the very end as a finishing touch.
Sunbutter! Have you heard of this stuff? It’s seriously tasty. I make mine at home. I just take about ½ cup of sunflower seeds, throw them in the food processor for about 5 minutes, and poof! Sunbutter is born!
Sunflower seeds are a great source of protein, unsaturated fat, calcium, iron, and vitamin E. They’ve been known to aid in dental health, treat constipation, and reduce inflammation.
The all-mighty ginger root. I’m sure you’re no stranger to the fact that ginger is really, ridiculously good for you. Let’s briefly discuss the specifics. It is known to relieve gas, have a direct impact on inhibiting inflammatory compounds, and stimulates digestion. It has a powerful anti-nausea effect and has been used to relieve arthritis pain.
Peel about 1” of fresh ginger and then grate with a microplane {making about 1 Tbl}.
The last ingredient in our creamy detox dressing is apple cider vinegar. Bragg’s Raw Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar is the way to go, folks. Vinegar has its own tremendously effective detoxifying properties; it aids in digestions, has warming characteristics, and supports liver function.
In a food processor, combine 1/3 cup sunbutter, juice of two large lemons {about 4 Tbl}, 1 Tbl of grated fresh finger, and 4 Tbl apple cider vinegar.
Note: if you prefer a more heavily-dressed salad, feel free to double the dressing recipe! I like my salads lightly dressed, so that’s what this recipe calls for.
Blend for 1-2 minutes. When it’s done, it’ll have this smooth, creamy, frothy consistency.
In a large mixing bowl, add 2-3 cups raw shredded beets, 2 cups of shredded green cabbage, 2 packed cups of chopped kale, and 1/2 cup chopped cilantro.
Pour the dressing over the raw mixture.
Got it in there?
Mix it all together with some tongs and plate up!
Finish the Paleo detox salad with a generous sprinkling of your lemon zest.
Bam! Doesn’t that look tasty? I love this salad. My tummy feels better just writing all this.
PrintPaleo Detox Salad
- Yield: 6 cups
Ingredients
Detox Salad:
- 3 large beets, peeled and shredded {makes 2-3 cups}
- 1/2 head green cabbage, finely chopped {makes about 2 cups}
- 1 bunch dinosaur kale, de-stemmed and shredded {makes about 2 cups}
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
- zest of 1 lemon {~1 Tbl}
Detox Salad Dressing:
{double recipe for heavier dressing}:
- 2 lemons, juiced {~4 Tbl}
- 1/3 cup sunbutter {directions below}
- 1 Tbl fresh ginger, grated
- 4 Tbl raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar
Instructions
Detox Salad
Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Detox Salad Dressing
Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend for 1-2 minutes, or until smooth and creamy.
Note: to make sunbutter, place ½ cup sunflower seeds in a food processor for ~5 minutes, or until “buttered.”
Plate
Toss the salad ingredients with the dressing. Plate and top off with a generous sprinkling of the fresh lemon zest.
Notes
Sources:
Murray, M. (2005). The Encyclopedia of Healing Food. New York, NY: Atria Books.
Wood, R. (2010). The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia. New York, NY: Penguine Group (USA)
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Howdy and thank you so much for being here! My name is Cassy Joy Garcia. I'm on a mission to empower healthy lifestyle transformations through clear nutrition science, delicious recipes, and healthy mindset tips. You can find over 500 of my healthy gluten-free and Paleo recipes on this website, my healthy living podcast "Fed+Fit" in iTunes, and my signature food + fitness monthly program "The Project" via the link to my left. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter (red box below) so you don't miss anything new!
Looks delicious! I’m going to make this recipe. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Woo! Thanks, Barbara! It’s my pleasure. Hope you love it.
It looks licious and luscios Cass, I will have to try it.
Thanks, Rosal! I’d love to know what you think of the flavors 🙂
I’m not sure about beets. Never really ate them so I stay away…maybe one day!
Oh you should give ’em a try! They’re mighty tasty 🙂
Are fresh better than canned? I always thought they smelled like dirt.
Fresh are way better! I can’t stand canned.
This sounds and looks so tasty. I have had a moment of falling off my gluten sensitivity diet. Needless to say, I’ve been paying for it. I also have fibromyalgia and chronic arthritis, so my joints and whole body have been in pain. I can’t wait to try this salad!
Hi Angelic! I can’t wait for you to try it too! I know exactly what you mean about falling off a gluten sensitivity diet and paying for it. I hope you find some direction and feel much better very soon.
That salad looks amazing!!! I will be making that very soon. Good luck on your 21DSD! I have completed about 4 of them, and I love them every single time! lol I received a review copy of the 21DSD book and have been meaning to write up a review, but just haven’t had the time. I look forward to following your detox and can’t wait to see what you think of some of the book’s recipes 🙂 If you need ANY motivation half-way through look over my last detox review… it is well worth staying strong and finishing it out!
Take Care!
http://thepaleoprize.com/?p=1654
Hi Jennifer! Thanks so much for your comment. Your 21 DSD review from your 3rd time was fabulous! Well written and definitely inspiring. ALSO, you can use your kitchen aid mixer to make freshly shredded chicken 🙂 I hope you love the salad. Keep up the great work!
Cassandra, using my KitchenAid to shred chicken is a great idea! Are you referring to a specific attachment or what? I only have the whisk and paddle attachments for now. Details, please! 🙂
The paddle attachment is all you need! Take freshly boiled chicken breasts, pop ’em in the bowl, and turn it on! Check out my recipe for Stuffed Avocados for details 🙂
Made this tonight and really liked it! We had quite a bit of leftovers, does this keep well for a leftover????
Hi Allyson! I’m so glad you liked the salad! Mine kept for about 2-3 days. Hope that helps!
I love this and need it. One thing that really made me smile was the ‘1TBS of grated fresh finger’! Honestly made my day! I will be getting the ingredients for this and ordering your book! I NEED this!
Oh actually it is ‘1 TBS of fresh grated finger’ lol. Still love it!
This was incredible. The flavors came together so well. The combo of the beets and kale along with the ginger and lemon provided an almost anise flavor. I loved it! And I say “loved” instead of “love” because I ate it all in a matter of 24 hours!!! Yum.
Have been searching for 21dsd recipes since I started the detox on Monday and I can’t wait to add this to my meal planning. Loving the recipes in the book but it’s always nice to find more great recipes to chose from.
I made this last night and it was delicious, only change I made was adding some garlic to the dressing and using tahini instead of sunbutter. So yummy!
Tahini is a great idea for a substitute! So glad you liked it.
Hi Cassandra!
Thank you so much for sharing your recipes and my boyfriend wanted me to thank you for this detox salad (he is not to sure about paleo but he liked your salad and we think Gus is adorable, he used to have a golden also).
Happy early Thanksgiving!
Hi Carmen!! It’s all my pleasure. Happy (very belated) Holidays!
Awesome salad! I am eating it as I type and am so glad I have LOTS for leftovers! Thanks
Can this be made ahead or should it be “dressed” right before serving? I have all the veggies ready to go!
It will definitely taste the most fresh right when you dress it but the salad holds up really well for a few days after the fact too. Truly, whatever is easier for you! Hope you love it.
Sounds delish, the fresh grated finger made me laugh so hard I almost wet myself. Of course I was reading the recipe at 2:00 in the morning so everything is much funnier at the time, lol. Can’t wait to try this… Minus the finger. Thanks for the great detox. Been meaning to go paleo for a while but the sugar and carb addiction is a hard one to kick.
Haha thanks, Melyb! Welcome to Paleo 🙂 I hope you love the salad.
I have been looking forward to making this for awhile! Finally got my act together tonight and made it! I didn’t have enough sunbutter left so I added some olive oil as well and extra ginger. It took a couple of bites, but I love stuff!!! Thanks for the recipe!!!
Awesome! I’m so glad you liked it 🙂
I made this salad for a potluck, where it was a big winner despite its penetential name! I added roasted chickpeas and craisins because, Im not detoxing and 2, I am THAT girl. Thank you. Was very delicious!
I have just discovered your site and so glad I did. You recipes are so easy to follow, your visuals are big bright and colourful and I can’t wait to get started. Thank you for such yummy whole foods our bodies need.
When I saw this salad I really wanted to make it right away. I didn’t have the beets, so I used a carrot. Loved the freshness of this and the flavors. Thanks!
I made this last night and liked it…I didn’t love the dressing though. It was a little too tart for me. Any suggestions on a substitution?
Totally! I recommend using half the amount of vinegar and lemon juice and substituting with water. If that doesn’t cut it, you could also add 1 Tbl of maple syrup to counter the tart. Hope that helps!
This looks fantastic. On a side note, the kale and slaw can be done in the processor as well, with the slicing blade, and the ginger can go into a blender with the lemon juice and vinegar, sliced across the grain thinly (so you don’t get strings) and doesn’t actually need to be peeled – in fact, the peel has loads of flavor and nutrients. This makes it go much faster.
PS, the word you meant to use was “effect” and “effective” unless vegetables cause you to become very emotional…which is possible…
Thank you, Jeannie! I changed everything to “effect” 🙂
AMAZING! I did it without a food processor so it took me a while to chop everything up. However, all the hard work was well worth it. It is so delicious! I will defiantly be making this again. Thanks
Are the sunflower seeds raw??
I LOVE this detox salad! I had it all to myself and ate it for days. Delicious!! Thanks for the creation!
Love having leftovers for quick meals during the week! Glad you liked it, thanks for trying it Brooke!
Thank you for creating this! I’ve made it 3 times already. I used Meyer lemons recently and it’s came out amazing.
Using Meyer lemons sounds delicious, thanks for trying it Sara!
As an organic vegetable farmer I am looking for new ways of using up my harvest that I don’t sell at market. This salad looks great! How important is the sun butter? My husband is allergic to seeds! Can I leave it out or substitute it?
What a cool job! You could try almond butter or another nut butter if your husband can have nuts.
I made this last night and it was amazing! I actually put too much ginger in so I added more apple cider vinegar and a clove of garlic. I recommend the garlic- great twist! Thanks for recipe!
Garlic is a great addition! Thanks for trying the recipe and your kind words 🙂
I’ve made this recipe twice. It’s very refreshing. Like any typical cook, I cannot follow a recipe to a T and have to make my own personal tweaks. I like things tangy and spicy.
The latest rendition (made 08/17/2017) follows as such:
DRESSING: Reduced the sunflower butter; upped the lemon and vinegar; added jalapeno; more cilantro; use more ginger than required; and added Himalayan salt (eyeballed and to taste).
SALAD: Swapped lacinato “dinosaur” kale for collard greens. Collards are sturdy like the kale and stand up nice as far as texture and flavor. The salad was massaged and ingredients tossed ingredients by hand. *
Recipe breakdown:
16 oz(s), Cabbage Green
13.02 ounce, Beet
5.90 ounce, Collard greens
1.60 ounce, Cilantro
0.60 oz(s),Jalapeno pepper
38 grams (2tbsp), Sunflower Seed Butter
1.24 ounce, Ginger Root, Raw
4.5 tbsp, Fresh Squeezed
4.5 tablespoon, Apple Cider Vinegar
This recipe was logged into an online tool to come up with the nutrition. According to it (accuracy is questionable but probably not too far off) the proportions of the recipe above come out to 615kcals: 88 grams carbohydrate/21 grams fat/25 grams protein.
Essentially, you could sit and eat the entire bowl and have a really great well rounded meal. It filled an extra large stainless steel mixing bowl (If I could add a picture here I would). I am not sure my stomach could handle that volume, but perhaps over the course of 3 hours! If you can do this, go for it! Vegetable-eating contest anyone?
How many people can this feed? Depends on serving size, but by just eyeballing the bowl approx 8 – 12 as happy-single servings. My first batch fed me approx 8 servings, about 5 meals because I have a healthy appetite for such vegetable filled dishes.
How it ended up being eaten:
1) On it’s own.
2) Mixed with tuna, salmon, or chicken. I used both fresh and canned fishes and fresh poached chicken. On top of a bed of arugula.**
3) On top of burgers (with and with out cheese)
4) Mixed with chickpeas
5) Accompanying eggs
6) Mixed in eggs
7) Stuffed in sweet potato
8) Sharing… a bite.
* On collards: Of the more bitter greens, I adore collards and personally find them to be sweeter than kale. Especially when cooked or when cellulose structure is broken down (such as the massaging process).
** As I did some version of protein + recipe several times, tweaks happened. I have drizzled coconut aminos, maple syrup, and added a few sweet dried fruits for balance. I have also added pumpkin seeds (sprouted), hemp seeds, other nut or seed for crunch. More jalapeno.
Enjoy!
Yum! That sounds great and love the ideas for how to use it up!
Wow. This salad is heavenly! When I came across this recipe I think it looked “meh” but I went with it because of all the healthy goodness. But seriously, if all raw, vegan meals are as delicious as this salad, I’m going to become a raw vegan….and that is coming from someone who LOVES meat!
Delish! I live it!! I was out of sunflower seeds so I used my homemade almond feta (almonds & lemon juice). Can’t wait to try it with the Sunflower Butter.
★★★★★