Sesame Ginger Chicken Salad

My inspiration comes from a lot of places and I love when I get inspired. This Sesame Ginger Chicken Salad was inspired by an article I am writing on the cognitive benefits of cruciferous vegetables.

As I was writing, I decided I needed to add more cabbage to the day, so that’s exactly what I did. I went out and bought a bag of coleslaw mix and it was the perfect time saver for this salad — bagged salads are my favorite grocery store short cut.

I had all of the other ingredients for this salad in my refrigerator or pantry, so hopefully they are staples in your house too.

I’m also working to get more soy in my diet and whenever I can fit edamame into my diet and that of my girls, I do it. There has been so much research done on the cancer protective benefits of soy, I’m convinced that I need more.

There are some swap outs you can do with this salad, but some ingredients you should keep in. Here’s how you can change things up:

• Swap out chicken for tofu
• Swap out cashews for sliced almonds
• Add mandarin orange slices for sweetness
• Swap out the cilantro for flat leaf parsley

Here’s what you should keep, for flavor and for nutrition:

• Edamame
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Bell pepper
• Scallions

At a minimum, keep the veggies and just add more. You could make this vegan if you swap out the chicken for a plant based protein. Also, you could swap out the honey in the dressing for either agave or granulated sugar.

My favorite nutritional benefit from this salad is the fiber amount in each serving – this is huge for a salad and almost a quarter of the amount of fiber you should get getting in a day.

Print