Happy hump day. Let’s do a power salad to get through the remainder of the week. Well, at least I had to.
My littlest guy is 20 days old and I’m exhausted. Luckily, recovery during post-pregnancy is going well, but slower than I have patience for. I still can’t lift anything too heavy and have to ask Matt for help. Along with that, his cooking duties continue—a great thing, since I’m overflowing with work deadlines with the baby arriving earlier than expected.
The only downside of him cooking is he’s a blogger too, so managing space in our tiny kitchen can be a challenge when we are both cooking and baking for the blog and for the family. Even more sucky, when the little guy frowns at my food, like he did to this salad and reached only for his dad’s breakfast pizza. I know, weird dinner combo, but as I mentioned—two bloggers in one home equals a hodge podge of mismatched dishes. And even more so, since our palate’s run counter to one another.
So as usual, this vegetarian power salad was consumed by me alone. Ah, well. Maybe my little baby will be into beets, and all the “lawn clippings and Barney throw-up” that his brother doesn’t care for. And yes, for real, the little guy described this salad as, “more Barney throw-up”. The original Barney throw-up that made is face pucker in disgust was this creation. And greens of any sort beyond spinach is, according to him—lawn clippings. Maybe he’ll grow into these salads like kids grow into “smelly cheese”.

Power Salad with Jalapeno Dressing
Ingredients
- 3 cups baby arugula
- 1 cauliflower, trimmed, sliced and roasted
- 1 1/2 cups chickpeas
- 3/4 cups shoestring beets
- 1/2 cup cooked red quinoa
- 1/2 cup mini heirloom tomatoes
- 1/4 cup sliced Diamond of California almonds, toasted
- Jalapeno dressing
- 1 jalapeno, seeds removed
- 1 shallot
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine arugula, roasted cauliflower, chickpeas, shoestring beets, quinoa, mini heirloom tomatoes and almonds.
- For the dressing: Place jalapeno, shallot, lime juice and dijon mustard in a blender or food processor and pulse until pureed. With the machine still running, slowly add in olive oil; mix until emulsified. Add in salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour the dressing on the salad and toss well to coat.
Love this. I would fight you for the perfectly seared piece of cauliflower! And the beets. All of it, so so good! pinned
Your little guy is hilarious – how could he say no to this salad? Love the dressing!
Aaw, I’ll come eat your Barney throw up! Looks delicious to me!
This salad!!! So gorgeous!
Gorgeous..:) Never knew your husband was a blogger..baby must be delicious too!
Well, this salad looks pretty awesome to me. I would eat it any day!
I need this for lunch today!
This salad looks so good but I can understand wanting pizza too – I’d want both!
This salad looks like the perfect lunch!!
Naomi, this looks like my kind of salad! So fresh and clean!
I love how colorful it is 🙂
Looks like he’s following in her footsteps. 🙂
I could seriously go for this salad right now just to get me over the hump!
This salad looks amazing! And, I’m loving the addition of the jalapeno dressing!
It’s awesome that you have such a talented guy like Matt to help you out. That being said, I’d choose this salad over the breakfast pizza any day. Shhh..don’t tell Matt!! 😉
Seriously- this salad is off the charts beautiful!! This is what I would want to sit down with 🙂
I love everything in this salad! My kids would never eat it either, but hey, more for me. 🙂
This salad is gorgeous!! I absolutely love all the colors and flavors you combined. And I remember when you posted that beet pizza; I was in love with the looks of that one too!
I completely understand the mismatched food dilemma, LOL! I have all sorts of weird shit in my fridge from the blog that could hardly make a meal at times! LOL! But this salad looks AMAZING and I want it in my belly! Especially that cauliflower!
Beautiful recipe and awesome ingredients! Exactly the type of salad I love, and this now reminds me…I really want to go to a salad bar (all you can eat). 0_0
Are the beets cooked or raw?
I just laughed out loud– lawn clippings and Barney throw up! I have no clue how you are able to keep your blog going with a newborn. I could barely manage a shower when my guy was little! But I was really good at pinning. At 2am. Gorgeous photos, and I think your salad sounds delish!
I would be all over this vegetarian power salad with you! beautiful and delicious! Matt doesn’t eat salad??!!!
That roasted cauliflower!!!! Yummy! I love beets too. I would never complaint about this salad for sure. 😉
I will eat any leftover ‘lawn clippings’ or ‘Barney throw up’ that you might find yourself left with.
I love the name too – a perfect creation to get through the remainder of this work week.
I need some of this salad – so much better than the greasy food I’ve been eating today. And thank god for hump day.. the weekend can’t be here early enough.
I love all your photos!! Beautiful photo and blog!
Love the look and sound of this power salad. Adding jalapeño to the dressing is a great idea for a spicy food lover like me, must try this. Also: just saw the pictures of your newborn on IG and I have to say he is incredibly adorable. What a gorgeous little boy!!
I’m so impressed that you are able to do this with a 20 day old. I hope you are getting plenty of snuggle time, too:-)
Photo and the salad are both great. I love these hearty salads!
This looks delicious! I’m always on the search for new-to-me vegetarian recipes, so this is perfect. And I love beets, too!
This salad looks delicious and your pictures are amazing! So many gorgeous colors and textures!
I’ll take a bowl of this AND a slice or two of breakfast pizza. Both look delicious 🙂
Yum!! This looks perfect for summer – nice to spice up a boring salad!
Does not look like barney throw up to me!!! haha… love kids reactions to things particularly food! 🙂
My little guy loves beets, in fact just made some the other day.. need to make this salad!
Hope you are able to get some rest amidst the deadlines, photoshoots, feedings, and everything else that it takes to be a momma. 🙂
Such a colorful salad! Love the layers of flavors too 🙂
Is this recipe adapted from My Darling Lemon Thyme? It looks oddly familiar…
I made this last night for dinner. It was out of this world and we are keeping it on our rotation of healthy and DELICIOUS salads to make for dinner. Thank you.
This was dinner last night. Wonderful combo of sights, tastes and textures. Even my anti-Barney Throw Up husband liked it and requested it be added to the weekly rotation. Thanks for sharing!
OMG I tried the last and it was amazing, The colors were great ans the taste was out of this world,
Thanks for the share