If you’ve had some antibiotics like myself last week, you’ll appreciate this easy salad for gut health! Made with healthy vegetables like lettuce, carrots, radishes and sauerkraut it’s full of fiber, essential vitamins and minerals, antioxidants as well as pre- and probiotics that can help restore your gut microbiome!
Gut Health Salad Ingredients
Here are some essential ingredients for a good gut-healthy salad:
- Leafy greens. I probably used the nutrient-poorest leafy green – lettuce, because it’s the only leafy thing I could find end of January in the store. However, to make the salad even more nutritious and healing, you can use darker greens like spinach, radish tops or kale. These leafy greens are rich in chlorophyll, vitamin K as well as provitamin A, all of which have healing properties. However, even if you go for lettuce – surprisingly it’s also a good source of the same vitamins and fiber, just not as dense.
- Carrots. They’re cheap, sweet and a bit underestimated. Carrots are extremely rich in carotenoids, which promote overall health and regular consumption is associated with lower all-cause mortality. You can enjoy them roasted, cooked or (in my opinion) the best option – raw. In fact, raw carrots and carotenoids do increase the diversity of your gut microbiota which is essential for better gut health.
- Sauerkraut. I mean, we’ve all heard about it, we read about it, we know sauerkraut is a probiotic food. It’s super easy to make too! Sauerkraut is rich in vitamins and bioactive compounds as well as lactic acid-producing bacteria. These bacteria are important for your gut microbiome and help to improve your local and systemic immune function.
- Olive or Flax oil. These healthy fats will help you absorb better the carotenoids from the vegetables. Also, flax oil especially is extremely rich in omega-3’s that are anti-inflammatory and essential for gut health.
Other super healthy ingredients that go into the salad are radishes, dill and olives.
How To Make This Easy Salad For Gut Health
Well, it couldn’t get easier than this!
All you need to do is chop up the vegetables, add them to a bowl with salt, black pepper and flax oil to taste, then toss. If needed you can also add some juice of lemon. Keep in mind that the sauerkraut is sauer and salty, so go easy with the lemon juice and salt.
How To Serve & Options
I recommend enjoying the gut healing salad as a starter, on its own for lunch or as a side at dinner. I had it a few days in a row as a starter and once or twice enjoyed it as part of bowls with a little bit of baked chicken, potatoes and some tzatziki sauce.
The salad is light, refreshing, super healthy and overall a great way to get your vegetables in every day, even during winter!
To make it more filling you can definitely sneak in some cooked beans, lentils or even quinoa.
Easy Gut Health Salad Recipe
You’ll appreciate this easy salad for gut health! Made with healthy vegetables like lettuce, carrots, radishes and sauerkraut, it’s full of fiber, essential vitamins and minerals, antioxidants as well as pre-and probiotics that can help restore your gut microbiome!
Ingredients
- 2 cups lettuce, thinly chopped
- 2/3 cup sauerkraut, crunchy, chopped
- 1 medium carrot, grated
- 1 tbsp dill, thinly chopped
- A bunch of radishes (around 3/4 cup), sliced
- 1 tbsp olives, pitted, chopped
- 1 tbsp flax oil
- 1 tbsp juice of lemon (optional)
Instructions
- Cut the vegetables.
- Add to a large bowl..
- Then add a tbsp of flax oil and toss.
- If needed add some lemon juice or salt and pepper to taste. I didn’t need to add anything, because the sauerkraut provided enough salt and acidity.