This veggie salad with broccoli, mushrooms, chickpeas, apples, pomegranate, and avocado is one of my favorite salads right now. It’s so easy to make, super delicious and most of all incredibly healthy! I usually serve it with a creamy tahini dressing with fresh lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and almond milk. Soooo good!
It’s also an awesome flu-fighter salad! I had a sore throat when I woke up a couple of days ago and didn’t feel well at all. So I decided to boost my immune system with fresh veggies and fruits. I had lots of green smoothies, raw veggies, and soup. And of course this veggie salad. And they did an awesome job! The next day I was almost back to normal. Yaaay!
I rarely get sick anymore since I changed my diet almost four years ago. Usually I get like one or maybe two light colds per year and they only last for a day or two, if at all. This used to be totally different. During high school, I was constantly sick. Especially as a senior I had one sinus and ear infection after another and I was even scheduled for surgery. I was on antibiotics for several weeks at a time and it just didn’t get better. I really didn’t wanna go through surgery, so I tried lots of alternative therapies with herbal medicine, ate fresh foods, and tried to drink tons of water. And in the end it really got better!
So My Top Flu-Fighter Tips Are:
- Stay hydrated with lots of water (I love lemon ginger water!) and tea
- Boost up your immune system with fruits and veggies that are high in vitamin C (like citrus, kiwi, pomegranate, bell peppers, and broccoli)
- Eat lots of berries – they have a high concentration of antioxidants and help you fight off flu viruses
- Try to get plenty of relaxation and rest! This is by far the hardest thing for me, but chronic stress and little sleep of course doesn’t do our immune system any good…
Variations of This Veggie Salad
I’m not the biggest fan of raw broccoli, so I cooked it for about 2 minutes. I like it much better this way, but of course you can also make this veggie salad with raw broccoli. This salad is actually like a fall version of my usual veggie salad. In the spring and summer you can just sub the apples with cherry tomatoes and leave out the pomegranate. So from a fall-inspired mushroom broccoli salad it turns into a summer salad that is perfect for BBQs and picnics. The vegan tahini dressing is also great with kale salads or on simple green salads!
I hope you like this flu-fighter salad as much as I do! Let me know if you give it a try. As always, I love hearing from you, either on the blog, Facebook, or Instagram. Your comments and Vegan Heaven creations on Instagram really make my day!
Hope you all have a great week! Sina – xx
Veggie Salad with Broccoli and Mushrooms
Ingredients
For the veggie salad:
- 3 cups broccoli, small florets
- 1 1/2 cups canned chickpeas, drained
- 10 mushrooms, cut into quarders
- 1 avocado, cut into pieces
- 1 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1 apple, cut into pieces
- 1 handful fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
For the tahini dressing:
- 3 tablespoons tahini
- 4 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons almond milk
- salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- In a medium pot, bring some water to boil and cook the broccoli for 2 minutes.
- Make the tahini dressing. Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
- In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the salad and stir in the tahini dressing.
This salad looks so awesome. I love the pomegranate seeds, and that dressing!
Salad certainly beats a pill or being sick for a week any day, that is so neat that just eating healthy and taking care of yourself warded off whatever soar throat thing was coming on. Plus hello delicious! I made a salad my first Thanksgiving as a vegan that had raw broccoli and apples and mushrooms and a similarly creamy dressing but never wrote down the recipe. I have missed it ever since. This looks similar but even better! I can’t wait to try it :)
This salad looks amazing! It has so many of my favorite foods in it.
This is my kind of salad! I just made a broccoli salad the other day with a tahini dressing. I also blanched my broccoli for a few minutes first, but left the crunch. I was thinking of recreating it for the blog because it turned out so yummy! Great minds think alike. Can’t wait to try this version too…love mushrooms!
Love how unique the flavor combo is! And that it’s something other than a lettuce base. Looks so flavorful and filling!
Yum! What a healthy looking bowl of veggies! I’m with you—I don’t get nearly enough sleep and it does me no favors. Glad you are feeling better!
This looks so beautiful Sina and the broccoli and mushrooms make it so filling and hearty!
Delicious recipe, will definitely try it!
I loved the dressing! Super creamy!