The Marinated Vegetable Salad

Last Updated on May 15, 2022

This Marinated Vegetable Salad is a simply easy, vegan, and gluten free salad for anytime of year!

A cold salad loaded with a variety of vegetables and a rainbow of color to compliment any meal.

What I love about this salad is that you can customize it in a few different ways.

Serve this salad with all the vegetables raw.

Try baking a few of the different vegetables before adding to the salad.

Another way is to steam some of the vegetables and toss into the salad.

Or saute some of the vegetables before adding to the salad.

You can also experiment by adding different peppers, hot or mild.

So what are different ways to serve the Marinated Vegetable Salad?

This salad is great as a main dish, just scoop into a bowl, sprinkle your favorite nuts (such as almonds, cashews, or pine nuts) and enjoy.

Add this salad to your favorite hot or cold pasta.

Top with sliced olives and sprinkle a vegan shredded cheese on top before serving.

Whatever and whenever you decide to serve this salad, it is sure to be a compliment to any meal.

Ingredients needed for this vegetable salad

• Tomatoes – A small tomato is perfect for this salad, such as a grape sized or cherry tomato work the best. The smaller the better. But if you have to cut the tomatoes in half this is fine.

• Carrots – In this recipe I used a orange carrot, but try changing it up with any colorful carrots, such as a purple, white, black, red, or yellow. The carrot is one that could be raw, baked, steamed, or even sauteed for this salad.

• Celery – The Celery gives a delicate, slightly salty, green flavor to the salad. Try sauteing the celery before adding to the salad for something a little different.

• Broccoli – Broccoli can be added raw, steamed, or baked to the salad.

• Cauliflower – The cauliflower can also changed for this salad, try raw, steamed, or baked.

• Onion – There are so many different varieties of onions, try it raw, baked, or sauteed. Try the different varieties such as green onions, shallots, scallions, leeks, white, red, sweet, or even chives.

• Mushrooms – Only use fresh mushrooms is this salad. The mushrooms can be sauteed or even steamed. There are so many different varieties that could be used in this salad. The mushrooms I have used are the white button, cremini, and shiitake.

• Peppers – I used a green and red bell pepper in this salad to add a hint of sweetness to the salad and for the color. Want more heat, add your favorite hot peppers as well.

The Marinating Dressing

• Dried Italian Dressing – This Italian dressing is what gives this salad its zesty and tangy Italian flavor.

• Garlic – Minced garlic helps to enhance the Italian flavor of this salad.

• Maple Syrup – The real maple syrup helps to sweeten the salad with hints of a vanilla maple flavor.

• Seasonings – Salt and pepper to taste.

How to make The Marinated Vegetable Salad

Wash all the vegetables and mushrooms and set aside.

Break apart or cut up the heads of cauliflower and broccoli into bite sized pieces and place into a large serving bowl.

Slice the fresh mushrooms and add to the large serving bowl.

Dice and slice all the remaining vegetables into edible size bites and add to the large serving bowl.

If using grape size tomatoes there is no need to cut in half, but if using larger tomatoes, such as a cherry tomato, they may need to be cut in half.

Next, add the dried Italian dressing, maple syrup, garlic, salt, and pepper to the top of the vegetables and stir until everything is covered completely.

Cover the bowl and place into fridge for 3 or more hours to let the flavors marinate.

After a few hours remove from the refrigerator, stir and serve your marinated vegetables as a main or side dish.

Different ways to prepare this salad

For those of you that can not handle the raw vegetables or would like to change this salad, try steaming the mushrooms, broccoli, and /or cauliflower.

Baking is another way to change this salad, bake the broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, carrots, tomatoes, and/or onion.

Also you can saute the mushrooms, onions, celery, and peppers for a little something different.

Serving the Marinated Vegetable Salad

As a main dish on top of pasta with olives and shredded vegan cheese.

Try different nut on the top of the salad, such as slivered almonds, cashews, or pine nuts.

Or serve as a side dish, it will compliment any meal.

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