This salad only gets better as it marinates, so you can make it on a Sunday night and have salad to go (or ready & waiting for you at home) for the workweek ahead.
This is a bulk recipe. It makes 7 (seven!) big meal-sized salads. If your household isn’t likely to work it’s way though that much salad in 4 or 5 days, feel free to halve or quarter the recipe.
I’ve been adding dandelion greens. I pick a big handful of them in my yard & stuff them in the jar on top of the marinated vegetables before I go to work.
It feels subversive and wild to eat dandelion greens for lunch at work. Like I’m introducing a vital primordial antidote into an environment that is stressful and virtual.
I suppose that is because I am.
According to Eileen at Phoenix Helix, dandelion greens have “twice the calcium, 3 times the vitamin A, 5 times the vitamins K and E, and 8 times more antioxidants” than spinach.
Plus, they’re fresh. And free.
Wahls Protocol
This salad covers all 3 vegetable categories for the Wahls Protocol:
- Sulfur-rich: broccoli, cauliflower, red onion, red cabbage and daikon radish;
- Coloured: celery & red cabbage;
- Greens: greens~!
Through my n=1 experimentation, I know that I’m optimized when I hit all three categories each day.
Each meal.
Workday Lunch
Mason Jar salads are my new scheme for work. With a Victorious Offal Muffin (which I make with pureed parsley instead of caramelized onion these days) & an avocado or a Hot Woman Shake, I’m one of the luckiest people on the planet at midday.
I alternate that lunch with Salmon Nori Wraps, and I feel like I’m hitting my bases.
To make this recipe you’ll need eight big mason jars. Seven of them should be the wide mouth variety.
If you don’t yet have your own Mason Jar collection, buy a case. They’re inexpensive and versatile.
They make great water bottles and have a small footprint, which is helpful if you are storing food, like maybe Emerald City Soup, in a crowded fridge.
I use a bunch of them every time I decant a batch of kombucha.
Mason Jar Salads (AIP & WahlsPaleo+)

- ½ purple Cabbage
- 1 head Broccoli
- 1 head Cauliflower
- 2 cups diced Daikon Radish
- 1 small red onion
- 4-6 stalks celery
- 1 bunch curly kale
- Dandelion greens or pre-washed spinach
- ½ batch of Mason Jar Salad Dressing
Make a jar of salad dressing and it set aside.
Dice the Cabbage, Broccoli (including the stem ~peel it if tough), Cauliflower, Daikon, Onion and Celery and place in a large bowl. Mix to combine.
Pour half (or a little more) of the jar of salad dressing over the diced vegetables and toss until thoroughly coated.
Divide the vegetable mixture evenly between seven wide mouthed mason jars.
If there is dressing left in the bottom of the bowl, pour it over the first two jars.
There should be a nice gap between the marinating vegetables and the top of each jar.
Next, use scissors to remove the tough kale stems and to cut the leaves into small pieces. Push these into the tops of 3-4 jars.
Refrigerate. Each day, reverse the jars (heads, tails & back again) so that the marinade gets to bathe all the vegetables.
Eat the kale topped salads first.
For the jars without kale, press as many dandelion greens or spinach as you can into the top of the jar on your way out the door. Before serving, give the jar a shake to cover the greens with dressing before you pour your beautiful salad on a plate.
Infinitely Expandable Salad Variation
If you have a friend you want to feed, chop a head of lettuce into a salad bowl. Add your jar of marinated vegetables. Add more dressing from your mason jar, or squeeze a lemon or two over top. Toss & share.