With Spring not far away, most of us will probably start feeling the effects of perhaps a little over-indulgence during the cooler months. But let’s face it, soul-soothing winter comfort food is a definite winner!
One of my favorite things about that kind of food is the abundance of one-pot-cooking recipes, but the beauty of salads is that they are much the same – prep your ingredients and throw them together, and you don’t even have to wait for anything to cook! Ok, so in this green salad recipe you do have to cook the quinoa, but that’s quick and easy and can be done while you’re slicing and dicing the rest.
Revitalizing raw ingredients will almost always be your best go-to for a detox type of meal, and this salad has some of the best ones to get you back on track. Although you have cooked quinoa added, this little powerhouse is full of amazing detox nutrients. From fiber to all the essential amino acids to a load of vitamins and minerals, you can’t go wrong.
Avocado transports harmful toxins right out of your body, blocks carcinogens and keeps your digestion flowing, and superfoods like matcha powder and hemp seeds add to your body’s ability to detoxify and fight off damaging free radicals, relieve inflammation and purify your blood. Each of the other individual ingredients have their own detoxification and general good health benefits, as well as adding to the overall flavor of this delicious meal.
Adding detox ingredients to your daily diet helps to get rid of all the negative effects on your body from the environment – industrial chemicals, pesticides, additives in your food, secondary smoke, pollutants, heavy metals and more.
Some of the benefits include fighting pain (headaches, back ache, and so on), improving your memory, helping your body defend itself against allergic reactions, and ultimately, flushing dangerous chemicals from your system.
Creating healthy eating habits over time, and exercising when you can, is really beneficial towards also managing daily stress levels and improving your natural energy to keep you on the go. So, what are you waiting for? Get cracking on this salad already!
Quinoa Salad for Spring Detox
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 avocado peeled, pitted and diced
- 1 bunch fresh parsley
- 1 bunch fresh mint leaves
- 1 cup fresh spinach leaves
- 1/2 cup broccoli florets finely diced
- 1 cucumber finely diced
- 2 green onion springs diced
- 1/2 inch ginger knob grated
- 1 tbsp hemp seeds
- 1 tbsp lightly toasted mixed seeds and nuts sesame seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews
- 1 tsp matcha powder
- 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup coconut flakes
- Pinch sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients into a large bowl, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, toss to combine and serve.
Notes
Total time 5 mins? Takes a bit longer than that to cook quinoa.
If everything is ready (the recipe calls for cooked quinoa), you only need 5 mins to throw everything into a bowl and give it a good toss. As simple as that 🙂