Leave a Comment / By Vegan Agility Team / June 3, 2020

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Amazing vegan spinach salad recipe

Name: Vegan spinach salad
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 2 cups spinach (fresh baby spinach); 1 cup red rice; 1/2 cup zuchini ((courgettes)); 1/2 carrot (medium sized); 1 cup white beans (cannellini or haricot); 1/4 cup green beans (cooked and chopped); 1/2 cup parsley (fresh and chopped); 3 tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed (adjust to your liking)); 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil; 1/2 tsp sea salt (adjust to your liking); 1 tsp black pepper (adjust to your liking); 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (or a vinaigrette of your choosing); 1 tbsp pecans (crushed); 2 scallions ((spring onions) finely sliced)

with tasty white beans & red rice

Time To Prep

10 Minutes

Meal Benefits

High in essential nutrients

Key Vitamins

Vitamins A, B6 & K

Easy vegan spinach salad

By: Vegan Agility Team Last updated: December 5, 2020

Jump To Recipe

This fantastic vegan spinach salad with white beans is easy to make and packed with a comprehensive range of minerals and vitamins to help boost your essential nutrient intake while on a vegan diet. Some of the key nutrients needed on a plant-based diet are iron, magnesium, and zinc, and this healthy salad recipe has all three thanks to using spinach as the salad base. The addition of the white beans helps to boost your plant-based protein intake while increasing your consumption of healthy fibers, which is great for maintaining a healthy digestive system while also helping you to fight those annoying food cravings.

What makes spinach so great in a vegan salad anyway?

For many individuals who enjoy a regular salad, spinach tends to be the go-to leafy green to use as the base of their spinach salad recipe. This is most likely due to its minimal prep time and a wide range of uses. For me personally, I always have a few bags of spinach on hand for any spinach salad recipes I want to experiment with or for making an energizing green smoothie, but what nutritionally makes spinach so good?

Spinach nutritional properties

Nutrition per every 1 cup serving:

Macronutrients: Fat 0.1g, Carbohydrates 1.1g, Protein 0.9g
Vitamins: Vitamin K 144.9 mcg – 121% DV, Vitamin C 8.4mg – 9% DV, Vitamin A 140.7mcg 16% DV
Minerals: Iron 0.8mg – 5% DV, Magnesium 23.7mg 6% DV, Potassium 167.4mg – 4% DV

Benefits of spinach in salads

Spinach is a brilliant leafy green for juicing and is loaded with essential minerals needed to bring balance to any diet, particularly calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc.
The alkalizing effects of spinach that occur thanks to the nutrient-dense content make it the perfect leafy green to use as a base for a cleansing juice.
Spinach also is low carb yet high in fiber and antioxidants, making it a brilliant leafy green for digestion as well as weight loss and weight maintenance.

The best plant-based carbohydrate choices to put in a vegan spinach salad

Low carb healthy choices: When focusing on a low carb salad, the key is to up the vegetable content and lower the grains, pasta, and noodles. Great low carb choices to complement a spinach salad are:

broccoli
kale
carrots
cabbage
beetroot
bell peppers

High carb healthy choices: Foods with a higher carbohydrate content will be much more filling, leaving you with that “satisfied” feeling. Due to the higher carbohydrate content, they will contain a larger amount of calories. This is excellent for those trying to pack on some mass or for people who expend a lot of energy throughout the day through strenuous exercise or a physically demanding job. Some excellent higher carb foods that can be used when creating your own vegan spinach salad recipes are:

potatoes
sweet potatoes
brown rice,
white rice, pasta
rice noodles

High protein with medium carbohydrate choices: For vegans and vegetarians focused on fitness, health, and optimal muscle recovery, a higher protein moderate carb food choice is best to couple with your spinach salad, allowing you to increase your intake of essential amino acids while keeping carbohydrates fairly moderate.

quinoa
wild rice
couscous

Our tasty vegan spinach salad recipe steps

Do you want more deliciously healthy vegan salad recipes?

Why not try out some of our alternative vegan salads that use a blend of different plant-based foods high in essential nutrients to achieve a delicious yet healthy result. These recipes allow you to get a bit creative with your salads while adding extra nutritional benefits that enhance the end result in both nutrients and flavor.