This vibrant Marinated Vegetable Salad is a great way to add a burst of color and fresh, healthy vegetables to your table. Cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, and more soak up the deliciously tangy, slightly sweet vinegar marinade.
More veggie-loaded, marinated salads we love include my Homemade Three Bean Salad and Asparagus Salad.
Good, old-fashioned Marinated Vegetable Salad is a classic dish that will never go out of style. An assortment of crunchy, colorful veggies are marinated in a slightly sweet vinegar mixture in the refrigerator until just slightly softened and oh-so flavorful.
This is not strictly a summer recipe but I do love to add a cold marinated salad like this one to a summer menu. Especially when I’m serving Classic Beef Burgers, marinated grilled chicken or steak. It is the perfect complement to those dishes and just perks up the whole situation with beautiful color and fresh flavor.
Table of contents
Ingredient Notes
- Vegetables: Broccoli and cauliflower florets cut into small pieces. Halved cherry or grape tomatoes, in assorted colors. Sliced carrot, celery, and sweet yellow onion. And, chopped red bell pepper.
- Marinade: Vegetable oil, white wine vinegar, granulated sugar, a clove of garlic (minced), Dijon mustard, Italian seasoning, salt and freshly ground black pepper.
How to Make Marinated Vegetable Salad
- Place the chopped vegetables in a large bowl. Add the marinade ingredients to a mason jar or small bowl, shake or whisk well to combine, and pour it over the top.
- Toss the mixture with tongs to coat the vegetables with the marinade. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Do I Need to Blanch the Vegetables?
How crunchy or tender you like marinated vegetables is all about personal preference! After marinating for 4 hours, the vegetables will still be quite crunchy. After 24 hours, they will have softened, just slightly and will continue to soften more with time. If you prefer veggies with a softer bite, the harder vegetables can be quickly blanched before they’re marinated.
- Briefly boil: Place the broccoli and cauliflower florets into a pot of boiling water and allow them to boil for a maxiumum of 2 to 3 minutes. We are not cooking them through, we just want to soften them oh-so-slightly so that they are mostly crisp and only slightly tender. You want to be very careful to not let them cook too long. Err on the side of undercooking or you might end up with mushy veggies which is just plain yucky. They’ll soften a bit more as they marinate so be vigilant.
- Shock: Pull the veggies out of the boiling water, drain quickly, and then immediately transfer them to a large bowl filled with ice water. This will shock them, stopping the cooking process and locking in their bright, vibrant color.
- Drain: Once they are totally chilled, transfer to a colander and drain them well.
- Repeat: Use this same process to blanch the carrots, cooking them just until “crisp-barely-tender”. After shocking them in the ice water bath, add them to the colander to drain with the broccoli and cauliflower.
Variations
There is an endless number of ways you can modify this recipe to suit your taste. Here are just a few ideas to get you started.
Mediterranean-Inspired Go the Greek route and use cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, artichoke hearts, and kalamata olives. Stir in some fresh oregano and garnish with Feta cheese just before serving.
Tex-Mex Style: For a Tex-Mex twist try marinating fresh sweet corn kernels, black beans, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, and red onion. For the marinade, omit the Dijon, sub the Italian seasoning with cumin, and add a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Stir in some chopped avocado and fresh cilantro just before serving.
Sub Different Veggies: More vegetables that work well for Marinated Vegetable Salad include snap peas, zucchini, asparagus, radishes, green beans, and mushrooms. Feel free to change things up and use the vegetables you love most!
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Marinated Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups cauliflower florets, chopped small
- 1½ cups cherry or grape tomatoes, assorted colors, halved
- 1 cup broccoli florets, chopped small
- 1 cup sweet yellow onion, thinly sliced
- ¾ cup cucumber, unpeeled and chopped
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into ¼ -inch rounds (about 1 cup sliced)
- 2 ribs celery, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
Dressing
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Combine all the vegetables in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the dressing ingredients to a mason jar or small bowl and either shake or whisk well to combine. Pour over the vegetables and toss to coat the vegetables with the dressing. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- After 4 hours, the vegetables will still be quite crunchy. After 24 hours, they will have softened, just slightly and will continue to soften more with time.
- Stir well before serving to redistribute the marinade/dressing.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated using generic ingredients, and is an estimate not a guarantee. For more accurate results, please refer to the labels on your ingredients at home.
More Summer Salads
This post was originally published on August 8, 2015. It has been updated with new text and images.
I’m doing low carb; could I use Splenda (in the same amount?) instead of the sugar? Maybe use mushrooms instead of the carrots? Thank you!
I haven’t tried subbing Splenda but think it would work just fine. 100% yes on the mushrooms – I’ve done this recipes with mushrooms and loved it!
Hello! I’ve been making this for a couple of years now and thought I should let you know how much we like it. I’ve just made another batch for Canadian thanksgiving on Monday with orange and purple cauliflower from the farmers market. It’s such a colorful salad and keeps well. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Great! Love the idea of adding colorful cauliflower. I bet that’s really pretty!
This was a BIG hit! My husband and sons thoroughly loved it, as I did. We added a lot of fresh cukes and tomatoes and fresh basil from the garden. We will be making this often- thank you, Valerie!
I just made this. It is so tasty. I could eat the dressing all by itself. It makes a lot – perfect for a pot luck. Thank for sharing.
I don’t see how many this would serve?
You are right! I’ve updated the recipe card with servings and nutrition info. Thanks, Linda. I saying it will serve about 8 but if you are serving it at a buffet with a lot of other choices I think it could be even more.
How many would this serve
This is such a gorgeous salad Valerie, love the colors. I could eat it every day!
Valerie, this salad looks absolutely amazing… so perfect for summer. I’m hanging on to summer as long as I can, too!