Crrrrrunch! If you love some texture and crunch in your salad, then this super crunchy salad is sure to please you and your palate.
This rich low-carb salad is a great alternative to potato salad. Leek gives piquant taste and fresh spring color. Nuts provide texture and crunch together with the main ingredient, raw cauliflower. Sour cream is a perfect sauce and it ties the tastes and textures beautifully together.
See “Tips for Variation” in the end of the post how to get even more spring and Easter colors to this salad!
Tips for making the salad
The cauliflower should be chopped very fine, almost to rice-like consistency but bit more coarse. Food processor works best for chopping the cauliflower. My not-the-best-quality food processor produces best results when I use slow speed and don’t fill the bowl completely.
Other than that, this salad is easy to make. Just combine everything and mix well. It’s a good idea to let the ready salad stand in the fridge for a few hours, so that the flavors mingle and get deeper. Use airtight container for storing the salad, since the smell of the leek is quite prominent.
But let’s check how to make this crunchy creation. Here are the ingredients.
Just place everything in a large bowl and mix properly with big spoon.
Ready! Transfer to an airtight container, close tightly and let stand in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
Crunchy & Nutty Cauliflower Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups = 720 ml very finely chopped cauliflower
- 1 cup = 240 ml finely chopped leek (the green part)
- 1/2 cup = 120 ml chopped organic walnuts
- 1 cup = 240 ml full-fat sour cream
- unrefined sea salt OR Himalayan salt to taste
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix until well mixed.
- Transfer into an airtight container.
- Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving so that the flavors mingle and get deeper.
| Nutrition information | Protein | Fat | Net carbs | kcal |
| In total: | 24.8 g | 85.7 g | 22.6 g | 960 kcal |
| Per serving if 4 servings in total: | 6.2 g | 21.4 g | 5.6 g | 240 kcal |
| Per serving if 6 servings in total: | 4.1 g | 14.3 g | 3.8 g | 160 kcal |
| Per serving if 8 servings in total: | 3.1 g | 10.7 g | 2.8 g | 120 kcal |
Tips for variation
If you prefer more sauce and creamier salad, you can add another 1/2 cup (120 ml) sour cream.
Chopped green onion is a great alternative to leek, in case you don’t like leek or simply don’t happen to have it at hand.
You can add 1 teaspoon ground turmeric for nice yellow color. Actually, that is my favorite food coloring and perfect for Easter. You can see the result from the last two photos of this post.
Sometimes I like to sweeten my salad with 7 drops liquid stevia, but that is completely optional. Stevia just rounds the flavors and gives a hint of sweetness which complements other flavors.
You can also add 1–2 tablespoons unsweetened mustard. Personally, I like the combination of mustard and cauliflower.
One of my favorite seasonings, garlic bread seasoning, goes also well with this salad. 1 teaspoon of this flavorful seasoning is enough.
If you like coconut, you can replace the chopped nuts with unsweetened, shredded coconut. I recommend to use a bit less, so 1/3 cup (80 ml) is a perfect amount in my opinion. You can also replace the walnuts with some other nuts, for example chopped macadamias are really delicious and they give some real crunch.
To make this salad even more filling, you can add hard-cooked, peeled and chopped organic eggs. Also chopped nitrate-free and organic ham, bacon or sausage, or grated Swiss cheese make this salad fill your stomach in a delicious way. Add some green salad leaves or salad mix and a couple of slices of low-carb bread for a complete lunch.
I made this today, but having no leeks on hand I used Bok Choy. It turned out great, and with an even (significantly) lower carb count I couldn’t be happier 😉
Wonderful! So great to hear it turned out well 🙂
This sounds amazing but according to a leading thyroid doctor in Australia, people with thyroid disease shouldn’t eat raw cauli, cabbage, broccoli etc as they contain things called goitrogens…. anyway, I’m wondering how this would go with cooked cauli? I’m thinking maybe cooked and wrung out as in the prep for cauli pizza base???
Yes, you are right about goitrogens in raw cruciferous vegetables. They might be not good for people with hypothyroism. I often make mock potato salad with cooked cauli chunks and it works well, I think that would also work well in this salad. So I just cook the cauli chunks (app. 1/2-inch or 1.5 cm) and pour carefully out all the water.
Sounds great…will give it a go, thanks.
This was very good. I hadn’t worked with leeks at all. Learned they really need to be washed well. Cutting into the green and into strips to get the dirt or sand out…yes sand. I didn’t do this well enough..got some crunchiness that I didn’t want.
Sorry to hear it was crunchy in a wrong way 🙂 Leeks can indeed be really nasty to clean… But great that you liked it!
Sounds good, I am all about the crunchy and I love cauliflower.
Thanks, Kalyn!
This looks deeelish!
Thank you! 🙂
I absolutely love Cauliflower and I love this recipe, it’s so quick and easy. Yum!
Wow, Carol! Thank you! Great to hear that you like it!