Are you bored with the same look-a-like salads? Here is a quick and fresh garden salad that you can eat even on the go. It is ready in 15-minutes and has veggies, fruits, and sprouts in it.
Do you need a simple mixed veggie salad that you whip up quickly and eat on the go? Look no further, here is the answer in the shape of lettuce wraps or as we like to call them salad gondolas.
They are also great as a side dish next to our Vegan Beetroot Burger to use up any beetroot you don’t need for the burger. 🙂 We also love them as a breakfast to eat with our Savory Eggless French Toast that we make with chickpea flour.
What is a garden salad?
Garden salad is a mixed vegetable salad made from veggies you can pick right out of your garden and eat raw, like lettuce, carrot, radish, cucumber, tomato, pepper, spring onion, and similar ones.
In this recipe, we show you how to make a basic garden salad that you can change depending on the vegetables you have on hand.
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What does a garden salad contain?
We like to have all around flavors and colors. Eat the rainbow you might wanna say. To make this fresh vegetable lettuce wrap we used
- romaine lettuce,
- cucumber,
- carrot,
- bell pepper,
- spring onion,
- pomegranate seeds, and
- lentil sprouts.
In less than 15 minutes you have a wonderful looking, delicious and light mixed salad with lots of tasty vegetables. I don’t even list healthy as of course eating raw vegetables can’t be anything else.
How to prepare the vegetables?
First, tear 3 medium to large leaves from your romaine lettuce heart. This will be your wrap for the garden salad. Next is the “filling” so to speak.
Peel and thinly slice the beetroot (photo #1). Cut cucumbers into small cubes (photo #2). Cut the bell peppers into small cubes similar to the cucumber (photo #3). Peel and grate the carrot (photo #4). Chop the spring onion greens (photo #5). Peel the pomegranate to get the seeds you need (photo #6).
How to make a lettuce wrap?
Take your romaine lettuce leaves and assemble your garden salad. The bottom layer will be the thinly sliced beetroot (photo #1). Then add the cucumber and bell pepper cubes (photos #2-3). Next, add the grated carrot and the chopped spring onion (photos #4-5). At the top sprinkle your lettuce wrap with pomegranate seeds and lentil sprouts and add your dressing (photo #6). Voila! Ready to go!
FAQ and Substitutions
Which lettuce is good for a wrap?
We prefer to use romaine lettuce as the shape and the size of the leaves is ideal to wrap around your garden salad. That being said you can also make the wrap from leaf lettuce, iceberg lettuce, Boston lettuce or endives.
Can you use other vegetables?
Yes, of course. You can use any vegetables that you can eat raw like radish, tomato, capsicum, salad potato, other root vegetables, purple or red onion. You can also add garnishes like nuts and seeds, fruits and sprouts.
Can you eat beetroot raw?
Yes, you can. My trusted resource when it comes to nutrition is Dr. Greger’s website. He has a series of 17 videos if you would like to learn more about the awesome benefits of raw beetroot.
Beetroot is highly nutritious. It is one of the high iron vegetables combined with Vitamin C for better absorption. Beets are a great source of fiber, folate (vitamin B9), manganese, potassium, iron, and vitamin C according to Cronometer. If you are interested in learning more about the impressive benefits of beets, read Healthline’s article.
Which vegetables do you need to peel?
You usually have to peel the root vegetables like beetroot, carrots, parsnips etc. That being said if we have fresh young carrots or salad potatoes we only wash them and use them without peeling. We always peel beetroot though as the peel can be thick to our taste even on the young beets.
What kind of salad dressing you can use?
You can use any salad dressing of your choice, like this classic Ranch dressing at Megan’s. Most of the cases though, we only drizzle the garden salad with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice. Nothing fancy, we like to keep it simple.
This Fresh Garden Salad Lettuce Wrap recipe is gluten-free and vegan so meat-free, dairy-free and egg-free. It is WFPB-friendly if you use an oil-free salad dressing.
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More quick recipes
You can browse our quick vegan meals gallery or see all recipes using beetroot or check out
What more you need to try it? If you’re ready, watch this short video:
Fresh Garden Salad Gondolas with Beetroot
Ingredients
- 3 leaves Romaine lettuce
- 1/2 Beetroot (medium)
- 1/4 Bell pepper
- 1/4 Cucumber
- 1/2 Carrot
- 1 Spring onion
- 1/8 Pomegranate
- Lentil sprouts
- 1/2 Lemon optional
- Olive oil optional
- Salt optional
- Pepper optional
Instructions
- Tear 3 medium to large leaves from a romaine lettuce heart.
- Peel and cut the beetroot into thin slices. Best to use your peeler for slicing as well.
- Chop bell pepper and cucumber into small cubes.
- Peel and grate the carrot.
- Cut the spring onion vertically to make very thin slices.
- Cut and peel pomegranate to get the seeds out.
- Assemble your beetroot salad gondolas: start with lettuce leaves then the beetroot slices, the chopped bell pepper, and cucumber, then add the grated carrot, the sliced spring onion, the lentil sprouts, and the pomegranate seeds.
- OPTIONAL: Sprinkle the salad with salt and pepper. Drizzle a bit of olive oil and lemon juice on top. Or use any dressing you like.
Nutrition
UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in July 2018, but was rewritten and republished with step-by-step photos, instructions, and tips in May 2019.
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