Crunchy red cabbage & beetroot chopped salad with a delicious mustard dressing. The perfect salad for picnics, BBQs or a buffet and it's good in a lunch wrap with vegan feta.

Red Cabbage & Beetroot Chopped Salad with Mustard Dressing

Name: Red Cabbage & Beetroot Chopped Salad with Mustard Dressing
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 4-6
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 3 radishes, finely chopped; 1 celery stalk, finely chopped; 1⁄4 red or white cabbage, finely chopped; 2 gherkins, finely diced; 1 mini cucumber or 1⁄4 cucumber, diced; 2 cooked beets, diced; 1 spring onion, finely chopped; 1 apple, finely chopped, tossed with the juice of 1⁄2 lemon; juice of 1⁄2 lemon; 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil; 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard; 1 teaspoon thyme leaves (or 1⁄2 teaspoon dried thyme); 1⁄2 teaspoon sugar; salt and freshly ground pepper

There's something rather special about a chopped salad and this red cabbage and beetroot chopped salad is rather tasty.

Do you ever make chopped salads?

I remember making them for my dad to take to work when I was a child and he loved them.

They were out of fashion for a while, but seem to have gained popularity again recently.

What is a chopped salad?

Chopped salads were first made and became popular back in the 50's when film star Natalie Wood asked the chef at La Scala in LA to chop their gourmet salad for her.

And so the chopped salad was born.

The ingredients are chopped into small uniform pieces, which means you get lots of different flavours in each bite.

Much more crunch than a slaw, but just as tasty, if not more so.

The Kew Garden's Salad Book

This luscious chopped salad comes from a vegtastic cookbook by Jenny Linford called The Kew Gardens Salad Book.

With this book, Jenny hopes readers will expand the range of vegetables they eat and broaden their palates by promoting delicious plant-based recipes.

There are 65 biodiverse salad recipes taking inspiration from around the world and reflecting the research and conservation carried out at Kew Gardens.

When you get down to it, it's a gorgeous salad cookbook full of delicious vegetarian and vegan salads.

Why I love this book?

I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of this book to review and here's why I love it.

It's hard to get a good salad when you are out, so you have to make them at home, but it's too easy to make the same salad every time, so it's good to have some tasty inspiration.
There's a section on making salad dressings highlighting different oils, vinegars and other flavour boosts.
The salads are really varied.
Simple to make salads with tasty salad dressings, all you need is a few ingredients, a mixing bowl for the salad and a small bowl for the dressing.
It's full of beautiful full-page photos (good photos make a cookbook, don't they?)

Book Details

Book: The Kew Gardens Salad Book
Author: Jenny Linford

Photographer: Hugh Johnson (100 colour photos)
Publisher: Kew Publishing
Format: Hardback

ISBN: 978-1842468333

Price: £22

The Kew Gardens Salad Book by Jenny Linford (Kew Publishing, £22) available from The Kew Shop and all good book shops.

Recipe Count

Vegan recipes = 35

Vegetarian recipes = 30 (most you can make simple swaps like using vegan Greek yoghurt, vegan feta or vegan sour cream)

Total recipes = 65

What you need to make beet & red cabbage chopped salad

Here are the simple ingredients you need to make this delicious summer salad.

Salad ingredients

Cabbage - red cabbage or white cabbage
Radishes
Spring onion - green onions or salad onions
Celery
Cucumber
Pickled gherkins - pickled baby cucumbers
Beetroot - pre-cooked beets or pickled beets for added punch
Apple - and lemon juice to stop it browning

Dressing ingredients

Wholegrain mustard
Fresh thyme leaves - or dried thyme
Lemon juice - freshly squeezed
Extra virgin olive oil
Sugar
Salt & black pepper

How to serve this chopped salad

Here are some ideas for serving this cabbage & beet salad.

As it is - serve this healthy cabbage salad for lunch, topped with some crumbled vegan feta
Buffet - serve it as part of a buffet, BBQ, cookout, picnic or girl dinner
Lunch boxes - serve it with falafel and hummus for a tasty lunch
Coleslaw - serve it instead of traditional slaw, like this dill carrot slaw
Wrap - serve in a wrap with vegan feta
Pitta bread - serve in pitta with tomato, cucumber and salad leaves

Of course, you could make a big bowl of the salad in the fridge and add it to everything. It's the perfect summery side dish for this time of year.

Storing chopped salad

Store the finely chopped salad in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Take it out of the fridge for a few minutes before serving, as the chill from the fridge deadens the flavours.

It's better served at room temperature.

salad, chopped salad

Lunch

British

Yield: 4-6

Author: Jacqueline Meldrum