You guys. I did a 6 day juice cleanse. Who am I?
It was the longest one I’ve ever done – and I feel marvelous. But ummm I seriously missed chewing. Like, big time.
Part of being on a juice cleanse is the “post” cleansing period where you have to eat really clean and healthy foods so your body doesn’t go into shock. So don’t pull a Gaby and eat pizza on your first day “post” cleanse like I did a few months ago. My stomach literally punched me in the gut.
So salads are the name of the game. Loaded salads to be exact. This one is kind of a re-creation of what I did for Thanksgiving last year and everyone was totally obsessed. I just threw a bunch of vegetables into my oven and roasted the heck out of them until they were slightly golden brown and gorgeous. Aren’t veggies better when they are roasted? I think so. They taste like candy. And then I threw in 2 avocados, because 2 is always better than 1 and who doesn’t love avocados Am I right? I don’t know if we can be friends if you don’t like avocado.
Speaking of which, did I tell you that Thomas, my hubby, thought he was allergic to avocados for a hot second. I thought we were going to have to call off the wedding (kidding) but it turns out he just had a serious avocado overdose. I guess eating 10 avocados in a day while I was recipe testing for my book will do that to a guy.
Anyways…. I also added some dried cranberries and my all time favorite salad dress ever. Mustard Herb Vinaigrette. You should totally make it if you haven’t tried it yet. My recipe makes a decent size batch, so you can be awesome like me and store it in the fridge and just throw it into loaded salads all week long. It’s seriously delish. And it makes life easier. Pinkie promise.
Ingredients
- 3 cups arugula
- 1 cup chopped butternut squash, cut into bite sized pieces
- 2 cups cauliflower florets, broken into bite sized pieces
- 1 cup mushrooms, cleaned and stems removed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 avocados, skin removed and cut into wedges
- 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
- handful of dried cranberries
- handful chopped white cheddar cheese
- Mustard Herb Vinaigrette
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Arrange the arugula in a large salad bowl.
- Place the chopped butternut squash, cauliflower and mushroom heads on a baking sheet in an even layer and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Place the baking sheet into the oven and roast for 30-35 minutes until the vegetables are slightly golden brown and tender to touch.
- Remove the vegetables from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before tossing them with the arugula.
- Add the avocado, cherry tomatoes, cranberries and white cheddar cheese and toss to combine.
- Drizzle 2-3 tablespoons of the vinaigrette on top and toss. Taste and add more vinaigrette or salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve immediately.
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Looks wonderful Gaby!! Perfect for any season
Yahoo for making it all 6 days!! Did you lose more weight, or did it just kind of stay the same after a while? I can’t wait to start my 6-day cleanse next Tues! Love your salad choice- good one for coming off the cleanse!
I lost 5 lbs this time around! I still have a few more to lose, but I think it’s going to have to be some serious exercise that makes those lbs come off!
OK that would have been so random if Thomas would have been allergic to avocados!
I saw your line-up of juices on IG. You are my hero.
this looks amazing! thanks for sharing!
This is stunning!
Holy guacamole – this is one killer salad. I’ve always loved avocado, in fact I’m dreaming of having avocado toast right now, lol. I’m so interested to do juice cleanse, but afraid for not being able to do it. So in the meantime, let me enjoyt this salad first, then.
I am a huge fan of huge salads to eat all week. No joke, it is a weekly thing I do. I am officially making this next weeks big salad. I think you may have met your avocado loving twin here. I am Mexican/Spanish, grew up in California and Mexico, and eat avocados straight out of their perfect little vessels! Oh with salt and pepper of course. Soooo perfect.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely wonderful! I only made one change. I used spinach instead of arugula. Thank you for the recipe!
yay!! spinach is just as good!! so glad you loved it!
Gaby — what’s the dressing in the picture above? It looks too white to be your Herb Mustard Viniagrette (which I love, by the way). The “Ranch-dressing-lover” in me is just curious…thanks!
It’s the herb mustard vin – but I made it in a blender rather than by hand and it turned white!! weird, right? tastes the exact same but it’s more creamy since I used the blender!
Yes to loaded salads – I always dream of a world where I can have one huge veggie salad on a daily basis. Alas, that isn’t my reality but maybe someday….
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