Raw vegetable salad with the Thermomix® is a staple in our meal prep routine. We make it at least once a week, because 6 seconds at speed 6 gives exactly the texture a grater never achieves.
The secret to this salad is not the recipe, it is the order of operations. Sunflower seeds are toasted separately, spring onions sliced by hand, then everything else goes into the mixing bowl for a single 6-second pass. That keeps the carrots crisp, the kohlrabi juicy and the dressing emulsified.
Raw Vegetable Salad with Honey Dressing, Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 13 ✓
- 20 g sunflower seeds
- 3 spring onions
- 5 leaves basil
- 1 apple
- 200 g carrot
- 200 g kohlrabi
- 10 g balsamic vinegar
- 20 g sunflower oil
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp medium-hot mustard
- 20 g honey
- 1 tsp herb salt
- 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
Instructions 0 / 7
-
1
Toast the sunflower seeds.
Toast the sunflower seeds in a dry frying pan without oil.
-
2
Slice the spring onions.
Wash and trim the spring onions and slice into rings.
-
3
Add the basil.
Wash the basil, shake dry and place in the mixing bowl.
-
4
Prepare the apple.
Peel the apple, cut into quarters, remove the core and stalk, then add the pieces to the mixing bowl.
-
5
Prepare the carrots and kohlrabi.
Peel the carrots and kohlrabi, cut into pieces and add to the mixing bowl.
-
6
Blend the dressing.
Add the vinegar, oil, soy sauce, mustard, honey, salt and paprika and chop for 6 sec / speed 6.
-
7
Serve.
Fold in the spring onion rings and sunflower seeds with the spatula and serve.
Tip: Put a small bottle of soy sauce on the table so everyone can season to taste.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why 6 seconds is the hard limit
At 6 seconds on speed 6 the carrots and kohlrabi stay granular and crisp. The blades cut cleanly through the cell walls without crushing them, so the vegetables stay juicy because the cell juice does not escape.
At 8 seconds the salad turns wet. At 10 seconds it turns mushy. That is not about the speed, it is about the time. More seconds means more cut surface, more juice released and more oxidation.
Grating by hand takes 15 minutes and is never as even. A grater also crushes more cell juice than the blade does.
Toast sunflower seeds separately, not in the mixing bowl
We toast the sunflower seeds in a frying pan, not in the Thermomix®. The reason: the seeds need dry heat to develop their roasted flavour. In the mixing bowl they would only warm up, not toast.
Place them in a cold dry pan, medium heat, 3 to 4 minutes, stirring. They are ready when they start to smell nutty and take on a little colour. Do not let them get too dark or they will taste bitter.
Slice spring onions by hand, not in the mixing bowl
We slice the spring onions separately. If we blended them with everything else we would get a mush instead of rings. The thin green tubes cannot hold up to the blade in the mixing bowl.
Slice them into fine rings by hand, it takes under 2 minutes. The rings stay crisp and visible in the finished salad.
Basil, apple, carrots and kohlrabi together
Everything else goes into the mixing bowl together. The basil adds fresh fragrance, the apple brings sweet acidity, and the carrots and kohlrabi form the crisp base.
With the apple: peel it, remove the core, or the salad will taste bitter. The pieces do not need to be small, the Thermomix® handles that.
Peel the carrots and kohlrabi and chop them roughly. The exact size does not matter as long as the pieces fit in the mixing bowl.
Add the honey mustard dressing directly, not separately
The dressing goes directly into the mixing bowl with the other ingredients, not afterwards. Balsamic vinegar, sunflower oil, soy sauce, medium-hot mustard, honey, herb salt and sweet paprika. Everything chopped and mixed in one single pass.
This saves a step and ensures the dressing coats everything evenly. The 6 seconds are enough to emulsify the dressing ingredients.
Our homemade herb salt gives the salad more depth than plain salt. If you do not have any, use a ready-made herb salt or replace it with 1/2 tsp of salt plus a pinch of dried herbs.
Fold in sunflower seeds and spring onions, do not blend
After the 6 seconds the salad is ready. Now simply fold in the spring onion rings and toasted sunflower seeds with the spatula. Do not blend again or the seeds will be chopped up and the onion rings will disappear.
Serve straight away or transfer to a bowl for later. The salad keeps in the fridge for 2 days but softens over time. It is at its crispest on the first day.
What to put on the table
Soy sauce for extra seasoning. Some prefer the salad saltier, others do not. With a bottle on the table everyone can decide for themselves.
Toasted sesame seeds also work well. They add a nutty note that pairs nicely with the carrots and kohlrabi.
Storage
The salad keeps in the fridge for 2 days in a sealed bowl. Not longer, because after 2 days the carrots and kohlrabi draw too much liquid and go soft.
Freezing does not work. The vegetables turn mushy when defrosted because the cell walls burst during freezing.
Serve with: chicken, baguette and feta.
For meal prep, make it the evening before and leave it to rest overnight in the fridge. This intensifies the flavours.
More crisp salads with the Thermomix®: coleslaw, red cabbage salad and potato salad without mayo.
