Rough weekend? We’ve all been there. You peeled out of work Friday afternoon in such a hurry to start your weekend, excited for all the events and activities you had planned for the weekend. Drinks! Dinner! Brunch! Beach! Then, you blinked and it’s 6pm on Sunday evening. Cue the Sunday Scaries.
Fear not. This Sunday Salad has proved time and time again to cure any kind of Sunday blues, and prepare you for the dreaded case of the Mondays that you have ahead of you. It’s full of all the colorful and fresh vegetables you didn’t eat this weekend (no, late night pizza is not a vegetable), plus a cleansing lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and cayenne dressing.
Not only do these vegetables contain a rainbow of phytochemicals which are important in long term disease prevention, but eating raw vegetables, like those found in salads, also helps your body rehydrate, thanks to their naturally high water content.
We all know rehydrating after a big weekend is the most important thing you can do on a Sunday (unless you’re out of clean underwear, and then laundry takes precedence). A dehydrated body not only feels sluggish and cloudy, but it can’t regulate it’s temperature, eliminate toxins, transport nutrients and oxygen to cells, or cushion body tissues and joints. Ouch.
Ironically, when you’ve had a big weekend, guzzling water and eating a giant salad is the last thing on your mind. Hair of the dog, anyone? If a Bloody Mary and some Pad Thai are your go-to cures, kudos to you. For the rest of us that still wake up feeling ten years older on Monday mornings: try taking the 15 minutes on Sunday night to make this salad (that still leaves plenty of time to watch GoT), and let your body do the rest. Hello, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed you on Monday morning!
- ¼ head of red cabbage
- 5 large stems of of lacinto kale
- 1 large carrot
- ½ red bell pepper, de-seeded and de-stemmed
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas (or one 15oz can)
- 1 avocado
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
- black sesame seeds
- Cut the center out of the cabbage and finely chop, or shred into ¼ inch chunks using a mandolin.
- De-stem kale and roughly chop.
- Rinse carrot and shred finely using a grater.
- Julienne red bell pepper, or slice using mandolin.
- Add all vegetables to large salad bowl and sprinkle in chickpeas.
- Make the dressing: mix olive oil, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and cayenne. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour dressing over salad and lightly toss.
- Slice avocado and lay on top of salad, sprinkle with black sesame seeds and serve.