My favourite colourful winter salad

I had promised myself to make it a weekly feature. Words written on the sand: my last recipe of the Healthy every week project belongs to the beginning of December. This is just one of my biggest shortcomings: I tend to forget these commitments related to healthy, light food… Thank goodness there is someone who occasionally reminds me of this project… who? my scale and the slightly-too-tight jeans after the glorious Christmas celebrations and the Belgium trip. But now we’re back to normal rhythms, and it is time to blow the dust off this good habit, the Healthy every week recipes.

The recipe I’m sharing today has quickly become my favourite winter salad, I can never get tired of it: it might be for the warm and crisp seeds which are a nice contrast to the cold cabbage and carrots, or maybe for the yogurt and tahini dressing that – despite being light and healthy – gives me that thrill of exoticism and self-indulgence.

Sometimes instead of tahini I’d use a tablespoon of a pretty pungent mustard: the choice is yours, either you’re inspired by the nutty and Middle Eastern notes of  tahini or by the Northern vivid accent of mustard. If you feel like enjoying a more Italian and Mediterranean experience, whip up a rapid citronette by beating your best extra virgin olive oil with a few tablespoons of lemon or orange juice.

Healthy every week: red cabbage and carrots salad with yoghurt and tahini dressing

Everyone will tell you that’s important to eat fruit and vegetables with different colours throughout the day. Well, all the purple fruits and vegetables are rich in anthocyanins, which protect against cardiovascular disease, improves mental clarity, neutralize oxidative stress and even help prevent cancer.

Here’s a salad to face yet another busy working week, dotted with overlapping deadlines which I am pretty sure I won’t be able to keep to schedule even with all the effort of this world. This salad is a pleasure for your tastebuds and for your eyes, it’s made of seasonal vegetables with complementary colours which transform this vegetarian dish in a colourful palette.

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If you have bought a ball of red cabbage and now you’re wondering how else to eat, if not in the salad, here are some ideas. These are all good ideas to keep, and a good inspiration also for me, as since I discovered this salad the red cabbage has quickly become one of my favourite vegetables of the season.

• Jamie Oliver creates a tasteful dish, red cabbage braised with apple, bacon & balsamic vinegar,  in his own words the classic combo of braised red cabbage and smoky bacon with juicy apple is an absolute winner,
• follow Felicity Cloake’s advice on The Guardian to make the perfect braised red cabbage,
• Heidi Swanson from 101 Cookbooks, makes an unusual Tassajara Warm Red Cabbage Salad, where the red cabbage might also be substituted with radicchio.

Related posts:

Tuscan kale and chicory malfatti Cosy winter soup: spelt and roveja with thyme When the books moved in and a recipe for stuffed carrots Russian salad, Olivier salad. Call it as you please, but make it!