Lunch in a Box: Superfood Salad with Ginger-Miso Dressing

My love of salad seems to come in waves. Some weeks I enjoy it, and try to make them as colorful and yummy as I can. Other weeks, I can't even stomach eating greens. We usually eat a ton of vegetables at dinner, so salad for lunch doesn't always get me that excited. But this week is a good week, and the main reason is because I found the yummiest salad dressing ever!! It doesn't follow the "no oil" rule of the Engine 2 diet, but it is vegan, and it is absolutely delicious. I think even Hank gives it two thumbs up, and it's sure to make even the most boring salad taste fabulous.

I meant to roast some cauliflower to add to my salads this week, but I wasn't able to find any at the grocery store. Weird. So I kept it simple, but loaded with super healthy food- fresh spinach, cooked quinoa and roasted beets. Add a little Ginger-Miso dressing, and you're in business for lunch. Since the salad is pretty low on calories, having a little bit of oil in the dressing isn't such a terrible thing.

I saw a terrific post on the Engine 2 Blog about creating your own salad bar at home, and one of these Sundays I will attempt to do it. But in the meantime, keeping salads easy and simple is a great way to ensure that you're going to have a healthy lunch without too much fuss. To keep it easy, I have my salad ingredients all ready to go in separate containers, so the night before (or morning of), I can build my salad quickly. I even put the salad dressing in my new Easy Lunch Boxes Mini-Dipper containers so that they're ready to grab when I need them.

Spinach salad, carrots, and yogurt with fresh berries.

Ginger Miso Dressing:

1/2 cup white miso

1/3 cup agave nectar (I used less- I thought this much made it too sweet)

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup sesame oil (I used closer to 1/4 cup)

1/4 lemon juice

1 1/4 cup chopped ginger (This looked like a typo to me- I probably used closer to 3/4 cup)

Blend all ingredients in a Vita-Mix, food processor or blender until smooth.