When I first made this winter salad Mr TS’s eyes lit up. While we love all the richness and heft of vegan Christmas food, we are big fans of a good, cleansing, textured salad to balance things out.
Christmas coleslaw packed with flavour and nutrients galore, is an excellent antidote to excess.
I could tell you about all the health benefits of this beautiful salad, how it is packed with antioxidants and Vitamin C and how it is an excellent aid to digestion.
I could waffle on about folic acid in beetroot and Vitamin A in carrots.
There is so much evidence available showing the importance of vegetables in our lives but I’m a recipe developer, not a nutritionist, so I’ll tell you about their flavour and texture instead!
All The Ingredients For A Tasty Beetroot Salad
I went for colour as well as flavour and texture when I was creating this Christmas coleslaw.
Cooked beetroot cubes, shredded red cabbage, sliced carrots, oranges and red onions are combined with pretty lamb’s lettuce and gleaming pomegranate seeds.
They all come together to make a treasure trove of salad delights. A feast for the eyes. A Christmas tree in a bowl.
A Winter Salad Dressing
Summer salad dressings, with their minimalist ingredients list and their devil may care ‘Oh it’s so hot darling, I just need a spritz of lemon’ attitude, don’t fit here.
You can use them, of course, but why not jazz it all up a bit?
Add a sprinkle of winter spice and a dash of Christmas glitz and your beetroot salad will stand proud in its festive finery!
The spices I used here are the essential flavours of Christmas, I used:
- cloves
- ginger
- cinnamon
- cardamom
- all spice
- star anise
Combined with red wine vinegar, orange juice, extra virgin olive oil and pomegranate molasses/maple syrup there is a hint of mulled wine, a suggestion of glühwein – this is the Christmas salad Santa will be eating after all those mince pies!
How To Make It Easy
You can make this beetroot salad as easy or as complicated as you like. You could grow all these vegetables at home over the summer and really impress your Christmas guests but that is probably too much pre prep!
I roasted my beetroot, cooled it, peeled it and chopped it into cubes but shop bought cooked beetroot will work just as well.
I sliced the carrots in seconds using my MagiMix food processor and its fantastic julienne slicing disc, but a chopping board and a good sharp knife will also do the job.
To make this easier teach any older children/people who eat food in your house some basic knife skills and set them to juilenning while you sip mulled wine and put together the dressing.
You can buy a pomegranate, halve it and remove the seeds but you can also buy them ready done. I usually go for the first option but I freeze any leftovers for later use!
A super tasty, totally simple Christmas salad can be on your table in one, two, three!
- Chop the fruit and vegetables
- Open a bag of lamb’s lettuce
- Whisk together the Christmas dressing
Variations On A Beetroot Salad Theme
If you don’t like beetroot (why are you even here?!), swap it out for bell pepper or some roasted parsnip or celeriac. Try these alternatives and extras too:
- Swap red onions for spring onions.
- Replace grated carrot with thinly sliced celeriac (dip it in lemon juice to stop it browning).
- Add some fresh herbs. Chopped chives, parsley, dill, oregano all work well here.
- Toasted pine nuts or cashews add a bit of crunch and protein.
- Rocket or red chicory are great alternatives to the lamb’s lettuce or add all three together!
- Sultanas make a good choice instead of (or as well as) the pomegranate seeds.
- Swap pomegranate molasses for maple syrup if you don’t like them/don’t have them/don’t want to buy a bottle just for one recipe 😉
Looking For More Christmas Salad Recipes? Try:
- Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Sweet Pepper Salsa
- Three Grain Salad with a Roasted Pepper Dressing
- Orange, Fennel and Avocado Salad
- Roast Pumpkin and Fresh Fig Salad
Craving More Beetroot? Try:
- Beetroot Soup with Coconut Cream
- Beetroot and Millet Burgers with Dill Yoghurt
- Sweet Chilli Beetroot Baba Ganoush
- Vegan Beetroot Falafel in Pitta Bread
Don’t forget to check out all my Vegan Christmas Recipes, collected together in one place!
If you make my recipe I’d love to hear how it turns out for you. Please leave a comment and a star rating below and share your pictures with me on social media. Tag me @thinlyspread and include the hashtag #thinlyspread so I can see them! Follow me on Pinterest, Facebook,Twitter and Instagram where I share recipe ideas, links to vegan events and articles and where I natter on about my favourite subject – vegan food!
Winter Beetroot Salad - A Simple Christmas Coleslaw
Ingredients
For The Beetroot Salad
- 2 medium cooked beetroot chopped into cubes
- 60 g pack of lamb's lettuce washed and drained
- 100 g red cabbage thinly shredded
- 100 g carrots sliced into julienne strips
- 1 orange sliced
- 2 tbsp pomegranate seeds
For The Winter Salad Dressing
- 175 ml virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 1 tsp pomegranate molasses or maple syrup
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 2 star anise
- 1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
Instructions
- Whisk together all the winter salad dressing ingredients except the salt and the star anise. Taste and add salt as desired.
- Lay the lamb's lettuce leaves in the bottom of a large shallow bowl.
- Toss together the cabbage, carrots and onions and pile on top of the lettuce.
- Place orange slices around the edge of the bowl.
- Top the salad with chopped beetroot and pomegranate seeds.
- Pour salad dressing into a bowl, top with the star anise and some pomegranate seeds. Serve alongside the salad