The essence of a great salad is not just the layering of flavours but the layering of textures as well.
This salad started out with daikon as the recipe centre piece. Daikon is a white root vegetable, similar in flavour and texture to a radish and is common in Asian cuisine. To be honest it’s not something that I buy frequently but every once and a while I like to mix things up to add variety to our diet.
Daikon is a cruciferous vegetable and as such has several cancer fighting properties. Daikon is high in antioxidants, especially vitamin C. Antioxidants are essential for fighting free radicals. Research has also shown that daikon juice helps prevent the formation of carcinogens in our body and helps our liver to process toxins.
The green component in this salad is Swiss Chard. Swiss Chard is loaded in phytonutrients and is one of a handful of foods containing betalain.
Add to these ingredients a cup of cannellini beans and you’ve got a yummy salad that is nutrient dense and fibre rich.
This easy to prepare salad is a combination of cooked and raw elements that is suitable as a stand alone for lunches or as a hearty side dish at dinner time.
Swiss Chard and Daikon Salad
Ingredients
2 bunches of Swiss Chard, chopped
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 TBSP butter
1 cup of cooked Cannellini beans
1 daikon, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Directions
- Melt butter in medium sized fry pan
- Add onion & garlic. Salt and pepper lightly and saute for 5 minutes
- Add Swiss Chard and cook until tender. Let this mixture cool for about 10 minutes and transfer to your serving bowl
- Add beans, daikon and red pepper to the Swiss Chard mixture and sprinkle lemon juice over top
- Mix together and salt & pepper to taste
Enjoy!
