Rainbow Salad

A disclaimer: This salad has nothing to do with pride, parades or flags and everything to do with Yummy.

Over the years, many of the guests I have hosted have been students of mine- girls from the seminary world who try to keep their figures trim while in Israel and thus spontaneously fall in love with anything that depends on photosynthesis  (while secretly eating the leftover brownies in my kitchen after I have gone to sleep-true story!) I recently had 7 girls over for Shabbat (yes, my husband is a saint- or more like, whenever these meals take place he secretly retreats to the place in his mind where the Yankees play all day). Each meal when girls come over has to feature at least one good, hefty salad to satisfy their dietary restrictions. Of course, it doesn't matter how much oil is in the dressing, how many nuts and croutons there are on top or whether the cucumbers were deep fried, as long as there is some green, it qualifies. But I digress. Recently, I decided to try a new salad that resulted in this rainbow explosion of color, hence, its name.

Needless to say, some CPR was necessary when the salad was served. 

Two important tips for the salad: 1) glass bowl is a MUST 2) tomatoes go on top.

What you put in this salad is entirely up to you, but I will say that it takes A LOT of vegetables and their accessories to fill up a bowl. I have since made this salad again and changed up a little what I put in. Whatever is on hand, goes in. 

In this particular one there is lettuce (the necessary green that tells the girls it is fit for consumption), red cabbage, orange pepper, shredded carrot, chick peas, craisins, cucumber, red onion, baby corn (not visible from this angle), yellow corn, tomatoes and croutons. 

I recommend a mayonnaise based dressing for this salad. Any will do, but I made a garlicky Italian dressing using mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, fresh crushed garlic and Italian dressing mix. I topped it with croutons and mixed. I served it with shovels and it was done within 10 minutes.