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Easy Anti-Inflammatory Slaw With Special Ingredients That Will Rocket-Boost Your Health!

When I make salads, I love putting together a plate of different colors and that’s why I love eating slaw. Most slaw recipes only use cabbage as the main ingredient, but I love adding other nutrient dense vegetables like dark leafy greens. Eating an abundance of raw and colorful food is one of the habits I live by and I discuss in my books The Food Babe Way, Feeding You Lies, and Food Babe Kitchen.

This salad contains some of my favorite vegetables:

  • Kale – A little over 10 years ago, I discovered kale for the first time. This is one cruciferous vegetable that I could never live without now (I eat some just about every day)! Cruciferous vegetables contain carotenoids that protect your eyesight and also help to prevent cancer. Kale is loaded with vitamins A, C, and B6, and a rich source of manganese, calcium, copper, and potassium. It’s also a vegan source of protein – with about 3 grams per cup. 
  • Pumpkin seeds -These little seeds are another good source of plant-based protein that have been shown to fight inflammation in the body as they are an excellent source of chlorophyll. They’re also loaded with magnesium – a mineral that many of us are deficient in that is important to heart health. Deficiencies can lead to muscle pain, poor digestion, anxiety, and trouble sleeping.

Kale-Slaw-Salad

The reason why fruits and veggies are different colors is because of the different naturally-occurring “phytochemicals” that they contain, which all provide their own set of healthy nutrients and antioxidants. For instance, leafy greens are green because they are high in chlorophyll which helps to prevent cancer and is an amazing anti-inflammatory. Carrots, on the other hand, are orange because of the beta-carotene that they contain, which is an antioxidant that helps to protect your eyesight, keeps your immune system strong, and fights aging.

Doing your best to eat a wide array of colorful fruits and vegetables every day is a simplistic way to make sure that you are getting the nutrients that your body needs to function at its best. Once I made the change to this way of eating, I was no longer a prisoner to sweet cravings – those vanished, along with ravenous afternoon hunger. I craved vegetables instead. I couldn’t get enough broccoli, spinach, kale, carrots, and fresh salads. I wanted green juice all the time. I dreamt of apples. My whole body was smiling. And I know that this has been another factor in stabilizing my weight, leaving me with no need to rigidly diet.

If you haven’t started eating this way and want to eat more fruits and vegetables, start by adding one or two raw pieces of fresh produce to your diet – today. This can be as simple as adding a fresh piece of fruit to your daily breakfast, or including ingredients like tomatoes, dark leaf lettuce, sprouts, onions, and cucumbers in your sandwiches. Move from there to having one or two raw vegetable salads daily – at lunch and dinner, for example.

For in-between meals, do the same: snack on raw, cut-up organic veggies. Keep cut vegetables such as carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, and peppers in the refrigerator for quick snacks. For a sweet bite, grab a piece of fresh fruit or a cup of fresh berries. And don’t forget to juice! A veggie-fruit juice is one of the best all-around snacks you can choose. It staves off hunger without spoiling your appetite for a meal.

Food Babe's Kale Slaw Salad
 
Prep time
Total time
 
Serves: 2
Ingredients
Ingredients:
  • 3 cups finely chopped kale
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • 1 cup finely chopped red cabbage
  • 1 medium carrot, grated
  • 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
  • ¼ cup pumpkin seeds
  • Optional: 4 ounces cooked chicken, salmon or whitefish
Dressing:
  • 3 tablespoons almond butter (nut allergy: use sunflower seed butter)
  • 2 teaspoons maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 2 teaspoons low sodium tamari
Instructions
  1. Pour lime juice over kale and massage with clean hands for about 2-3 minutes to tenderize kale.
  2. Mix kale, red cabbage and carrot together in a medium bowl.
  3. Place dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk well to combine.
  4. Pour dressing over kale and stir. Add the cilantro and pumpkin seeds and mix to combine. Let sit for 10-15 minutes to develop flavors. Serve with chicken or fish on top, if using. Enjoy!
Notes
**Please use all organic ingredients if possible.**

 

Want help with meal planning and nutritious recipes like this? Join the Food Babe Eating Guide Program

I include salads like this as a regular part of this program because it’s one of the best ways to stay alkaline, provide your body a rich source of chlorophyll on a daily basis, and prevent disease.

When you join, you’ll get hundreds of pages of my tested tricks and tips to make healthy eating mindless, and a monthly meal plan full of Food Babe approved recipes and guidelines. You’ll also get exclusive how-to videos and access to live group check-ins with me, where you can ask me anything. Join us here. 

If you know someone who loves eating the rainbow (or needs to), please share this recipe with them!

Xo,

Vani 

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14 responses to “Easy Anti-Inflammatory Slaw With Special Ingredients That Will Rocket-Boost Your Health!

  1. What’s not to love about this salad? But the best bit for me is the pumpkin seeds. I am a pumpkin seed addict. I usually roast my own and buy them out of season for an added salad punch. And they do help you sleep! I am a chronic bad sleeper and am looking to food (not drugs!!) to help me. Thanks Food Babe.

    1. Hi Laura, wife of mine. I also checked out Food Babe’s blog today and saw this salad and really hope you mean it when you raved about it, this better be dinner tonight because I am sick and tired of steamed broccoli and chicken. Every. Single. Night. Just kidding, I can make it myself. Dinner’s on me. I think we have most of the ingredients on the list except the ginger…right?

  2. Just a little trick I learned to further tenderize kale: Place on cutting board and
    roll with a rolling pin. Wha – la!

  3. Thank you for all you do! I am an avid follower of your teachings. One question- I recently received a delicious recipe where you can make a green juice without having a juicer(squeeze through a tea towel), and it said you need to boil kale first, before eating. I think it was similar to how you should soak and dehydrate nuts because the phytic acid binds nutrients and doesn’t let them properly absorb. What do you know about this? I always added them raw to my smoothies, but this has now been stuck in my head and I wanted your thoughts on this.

  4. Hi Vani – Thank you for all the hard work you do to get us the important information we need to stay healthy. I noticed today in your recipe that you include fish as an option. That really took me back. I know with all the research you do regarding food and gmo’s etc., that what you really don’t need is a whole other research project. However, I wanted to let you know that one-third of the ocean has died due to Fukashima (sp?) and it is still spilling into the ocean. The fish are not healthy to eat. They contain radiation. The West Coast has now been touched by this radiation as it moves throughout the whole ocean. I love fish and I mean all kinds of fish, but now, you will never see me eat so much as one shrimp. The government is keeping this covered up as well as the media, and so people are unaware and look at you like you are crazy unless they do their own research (which let’s face it, most people will not do). I am sure you run into the same thing when you talk about the food. People seem to want to stay ignorant and not wake up to what is really happening all around them.

    Anyway, I thought you would want to know so that you can discontinue encouraging people to eat fish from the ocean at least. That is, if you have an opportunity to research this out.

    Thanks Again Vani,
    Cindee’ Stiles

    1. ” However, I wanted to let you know that one-third of the ocean has died due to Fukashima (sp?)”

      What is you source please? What was the sample area used? Do the stats add up? Would be very interested to know.

  5. I’d also like to know about fish from the Vancouver Island area (Pacific side). I order hot smoked salmon from that area which is superlative. However, I do like to be sure my fish is healthy to eat. Please let us know about this as soon as possible.

    Thank you so much.

    P.S. Yes, please let us know about substituting spinach for kale.

    Audrey

  6. The recipe looks great and it is a good effort to get people to eat healthy.

    Pumpkin seed extract is a modest free-radical scavenger as per Xanthopoulou et al. 2009, Food Research International Vol 42. So, it is a good antioxidant. And this is for sure not because of chlorophyll, which by the way, the leafy greens have a whole lot more of, though sadly digesting it is something evolution weeded out of our systems.

  7. I heard you on food revelution summit and you told how to make your own cashew milk can you please send how to do it? Thanks!!!

  8. Though I think more recent studies show that it may not make a difference and even other studies that say nightshade are anti inflammatory. I’m pretty confused myself but I give people the option for the recipes. For me, I’m sensitive to nightshades, but if you’re not probably best to ask a professional if you should eliminate nightshades.

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