This colorful and flavorful rainbow salad features crisp, vibrant vegetables and a blend of simple, fresh flavors. It’s a versatile, healthy side dish that complements a variety of entrees. With colorful purple cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and tasty olives, this salad is a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth! This rainbow salad salad should be on your regular menu rotation, and it’s super easy to make.
I first learned how to make this rainbow salad while in Israel. My husband and I were invited to Shabbat dinner at the home of our friends, film director Doron Eran and his wife Billy Ben Moshe. Shabbat at their home in Tel Aviv is cozy and fun, a weekly celebration with family and friends. Billy goes all out when she cooks for Shabbat, serving course after course of beautiful food. Her family is 7th generation from Tiberias, Israel, a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. She serves dishes from a variety of backgrounds, all home-cooked with love and care. She spends hours cooking for Shabbat, presiding as the chief mama in charge over a weekly celebration of life, love and family.
During the dinner Billy brought dish after dish to the table – fish with peppers in paprika sauce, tender chicken slow-braised in a spicy red sauce, an enormous roast with olives and potatoes, marrow bones with bread, and salad after salad after salad. This rainbow salad really stood out – it was so colorful! Shabbat dinner is truly a labor of love for Billy, and it shows.
As we prepared to sit down and eat, I sent out a picture through Facebook and Twitter of Billy’s rainbow salad, a very colorful mixture of fresh vegetables straight from the kibbutz. After that, I received lots of requests to share it here on the blog. Billy kindly shared her rainbow salad recipe, which is easy as can be. The result is downright delicious!
This colorful take on Israeli salad is filled with a flavorful mixture of vegetables. Consequently it has a nice, fresh crunch. The simple lemon and olive oil dressing brings it all together in perfect harmony. It’s so easy to make, and it looks really beautiful on the table thanks to all of that lovely fresh produce. This rainbow salad is the perfect addition to almost any meal. I’ve even enjoyed it for breakfast alongside a frittata. Enjoy!
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Beauty Shot Photography and Styling by Kelly Jaggers
Rainbow Salad
Ingredients
- 1/2 small red cabbage, shredded in small pieces
- 3 small ripe tomatoes, diced
- 1 whole yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 1 pound persian cucumbers, diced small with skin on
- 4 ounces small white button mushrooms, sliced
- 3/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, or more to taste
NOTES
Instructions
- Combine all vegetables in a large mixing bowl and mix well.In a small mixing bowl, combine lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Pour over the chopped vegetables and toss to coat. Serve.
Nutrition
Hi, Tori, I grew up in small town Indiana, with little exposure to anything but midwestern Yankee cooking! As an adult I learned a bit about Iraeli cooking. I LOVE matzo ball soup, and it seems like I’ve loved it forever! This rainbow salad looks absolutely smashing–like something that could have come out of our garden, or that of neighbors (except perhaps for the kalamata olives, but they look great to me!). Thank you for sharing this. I have enjoyed wandering around on your web site, and have found several recipes to try–including the one whose name I can’t remember but is made from fresh apples and frozen pastry, with a date filling. Yum! Thank you for sharing these many exciting receipes with me and others!
Excellent, so tasty and inviting. Thank you.
The salad looks delicious and I am going to try it soon.
When it’s just one it’s a little difficult to prepare such a spread for shabbat meal. Hope to change the number soon.
Shalom
I went to your website, Tori, to get an idea for something to do with fish tonight… and the first thing I see is this colorful, delicious looking Israeli salad… and I had all the ingredients (except the Persian cucumbers – BUT I did have a small zucchini!) so I just threw this together and it will be served with supper tonight (which won’t be fish, since I found a bowl of soup in the refrigerator while looking for the parts of this salad)… so soup and salad it is! Oh, and the 8 servings — they’ll be huge servings as this made a very large mixing bowl of salad!! so so good… hubby was ready to sit down and eat just salad! Plus, there will be enough for tomorrow to go with the fish…
I look forward to trying this Israeli Salad. Thank you for sharing! If Billy is willing to share other recipes, that would be wonderful (especially the fish w/peppers in paprika sauce and slow-braised chicken in spicy red sauce).
Yes, agreed, this would be amazing
Love the pictures and the recipes you send out. Keep it up!!
These photos are so representative of Shabbat in Israel. The food and the love is truly a celebration! Thank you Tori for sharing the wonder of your knowledge!
Had a variation on this at a kiddush several weeks back. Primary difference was the use of a little chopped coriander leaves, which give it an interesting lift.
Do you happen to have a good recipe for pashteda? In Israel it is a staple dish, low fat and full of seasonal vegetables.
These dishes looks absolutely marvelous.
I would like if possible to get some recipe’s please.
thank you.