Seasonal Rainbow Salad Recipe to Combat Hot Flashes!
Good gut health is key when it comes to optimizing your hormone health and reducing perimenopause symptoms, and one of the best and easiest ways you can support your health is by simply: eating more vegetables. This salad is beyond colorful and bursting with different flavors and textures of freshly grown vegetables, because who said salads are boring, right?
It’s a delicious way to add a ton of diverse vitamins, minerals, and colors to your diet and we love the incredible gut-friendly benefits of eating seasonal foods. Shopping locally also helps you find fresh, nutrient-dense produce and enables you to give back to the environment by reducing the carbon footprint of produce transportation.
Last week, we shared a delicious seasonal recipe for high-protein frittata "muffins" to energize your mornings, so today we’re sharing a recipe for a vibrant seasonal salad to help optimize your hormonal health!
How colorful veggies help reduce hot flashes & support estrogen regulation
Watermelon radish, butter lettuce, and red cabbage are a few of the nutrient-packed springtime veggies you’ll find in this vegetarian dish. They’re rich in essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, while still staying low in calories. Antioxidants called anthocyanins give watermelon radish and red cabbage their red, blue, or purple color and may help reduce oxidative stress in the body, which could help to alleviate hot flashes.
In a year-long study with over 17,000 menopausal women, researchers found that those who ate more veggies, fruits, fiber, and soy experienced a big 19% drop in hot flashes compared to a control group. A healthier diet and reduction in overall weight are seen to be helpful in reducing hot flashes. Women who lost at least 10 lbs (4.5 kg) of weight or 10% of their body weight over 1 year were more likely to majorly reduce hot flashes and night sweats.
Adding more colorful veggies, fresh herbs, and fiber into your diet is a great way to support your body's natural pathways of detoxification and hormone excretion. This helps limit excess hormone metabolites stored in the body and ensures they’re leaving in a healthy way. Fiber-rich foods also help you stay feeling fuller and longer which can curb empty-calorie cravings to reduce unexpected sugar crashes.
The addition of chickpeas provides a plant-based protein which is a hormone-friendly alternative to red and processed meats. Research has found they may contribute to higher estrogen levels in the body, so limiting these foods and occasionally swapping for plant-based proteins may further help support estrogen regulation.
Seasonal Rainbow Salad Recipe
This vegetarian, gluten-free salad boasts a ton of prebiotic fiber from veggies and probiotics from yogurt for optimal hormone health benefits! It works perfectly as a lunchtime dish to enjoy outside in the warm spring weather. It may take a bit longer to put together than your average garden salad, but we promise, it is absolutely worth it.
Servings: 2
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Here’s what you’ll need:
Head of butter lettuce, washed
1 small sweet potato, diced
1 cup shredded red cabbage, washed
1/2 yellow bell pepper, cut in thin strips
1 watermelon radish, cut in half and thinly sliced
10-12 cocktail tomatoes, cut in half
1 cup cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 avocado sliced
3 TBSP yogurt
1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp mustard
2 TBSP fresh parsley, finely chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
Here's how to make it:
Preheat oven to 200˚C / 400˚F
Dice the sweet potato into small bites, toss with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper then place on a baking pan. Pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes and cook until soft and starting to brown very slightly.
Place half of the butter lettuce leaves and red cabbage on each plate.
Divide the avocado, watermelon radish, tomatoes, bell pepper, chickpeas, and sweet potato bites once fully cooked onto the salad plates.
In a small bowl, whisk 2 TBSP of extra olive oil together with the yogurt, lemon juice, flax seed oil, honey, mustard, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
Drizzle dressing over the salad, and enjoy! You can also top with mixed seeds if you want a bit of extra crunch and nutritional value.
Calories: 300
Protein: 12g
Net Carbs: 34g
Fiber: 13g
Fat: 9.6g
What fruit or veggie do you get the most excited about when it’s in season? Let us know in the comments below or message us on Instagram @mbody.official what your favorite fruit or veggie is!
