Rainbow Salad With Roasted Blueberry Vinaigrette

There are just so many reasons why you should be making and eating a rainbow salad.

It's pretty.

It's cool.

It's healthy.

You are hungry.

It's St. Patrick's Day.

You want something to make you smile.

You are watching the The Wizard Of Oz.

On the other hand, there is absolutely no reason not to make and eat a rainbow salad.

I went with the "Roy G Biv" rainbow colors. Well, as close as I could get....

Feel free to sub in any of your favorite colored veggies. 

I made a blueberry vinaigrette as I didn't have and blue in my salad. I suppose I could have added the blueberries directly to the salad too! 

You know what? Go nuts. Change it up however you like! (FYI - the blueberry vinaigrette is really, really tasty though!)

Rainbow Salad With Roasted Blueberry Vinaigrette

Ingredients

Vinaigrette

1 cup blueberries

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

scant 1/4 tsp garlic, minced 

pinch salt

Salad

cherry tomatoes, quartered

orange pepper, diced

yellow pepper, diced

lettuce, chopped

spinach, chopped

beets, cooked and diced

purple cabbage, shredded

Directions

To make vinaigrette - Preheat oven to 375. 

Place blueberries in a shallow baking dish. Cook at 375 until berries start to burst - about 15 minutes or so. 

Remove from oven and let cool.

When berries are cool, place in a blender with the oil, maple syrup, vinegar, garlic, and salt. Process until smooth. Set aside.

To make salad - on a serving plate, layer your ingredients in the Roy G Biv order to resemble a rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet). 

Conversely, you can also place in a bowl or container in no particular order and it's still pretty...

Drizzle with some of the Roasted Blueberry Vinaigrette and serve. 

You can use your favorite veggies to make this salad. Here are some suggestions:

Instead of tomatoes you could use red peppers or radishes or kidney beans. 

Instead of orange peppers you could use orange slices or carrots or pumpkin. 

Instead of yellow peppers you could use corn or yellow tomatoes or yellow squash. 

Instead of lettuce and spinach you could use cucumbers or peas or broccoli. 

Instead of blueberry vinaigrette you could use blueberries. 

Instead of purple cabbage and beets you could use purple onion or grapes or purple carrots. 

Definitely a colorful dish that will make eating veggies a little easier. 

 

Looking for some fun and tasty ideas? Visit Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons and My Turn (for us).