Easy and full of nutrition, this Simple Green Salad with Leftover Turkey and Homemade Ranch Dressing is a refreshing lunch or simple dinner.Simple Green Salad with Leftover Turkey and Homemade Ranch Dressing | RaiasRecipes.com

It’s almost time for spring cleaning…

With the holidays over and spring right around the corner, everyone’s cutting back on sugar and carbs and detoxing from all the sweets. One of my favorite ways to do that is smoothies, another is salads.

There’s something so cleansing about a salad that makes it the perfect way to calm your body after a stressful morning or day. Washing and chopping up fresh greens just makes me feel healthier! 

Simple Green Salad with Leftover Turkey and Homemade Ranch Dressing | RaiasRecipes.com

Green goodness.

When it comes to the greens, I’m kinda picky about what goes in my salads. I am not a fan of lettuce, except for romaine. You will not find iceberg in my fridge, or red leaf lettuce either. But you will find spinach and kale galore! In fact, kale is one of the only things my brown thumbs can grow in my sad little garden! 

But anyway, greens are delicious, for the most part, and full of vitamins that our bodies need! For this salad I chose to go with romaine and kale, along with some delicious cucumbers and leftover organic turkey (a good source of protein, selenium, and vitamin B3!).

Romaine is full of vitamins C, A and K, as well as folate. It’s also a good source of aspartic and glutamic amino acids. Kale is also extremely high in vitamins A, K, and C, and is also full of the flavonoids quercetin and kaempferol, which are antioxidants. And cucumbers? They’re good for a healthy dose of vitamin C, beta-carotene, and manganese, as well as quercetin, apigenin, luteolin, and kaempferol. Cucumbers have also been shown to inhibit the activity of pro-inflammatory enzymes.

Simple Green Salad with Leftover Turkey and Homemade Ranch Dressing | RaiasRecipes.com

Finding the right ranch.

Even though I love my salads green, I love them with a little something on top. 😉  Like dressing… 

Now, mind you, I don’t go for store-bough stuff. It’s usually full of awful ingredients no-one needs to be consuming. But homemade is a different story!

While I love making my own dressings because I can add in whatever healthy ingredients I like, ranch has been one of the hardest ones for me to get the hang of. Time after time I would make up a batch that I thought was good, only to have my husband (the ultimate taste tester of copycat foods) wrinkle his nose at them. 

Until I tried this mix from my friend Loriel. Instant winner! He raved about the flavor her all-natural, organic ranch mix had – and I raved about how easy it made making homemade ranch dressing!

Simple Green Salad with Leftover Turkey and Homemade Ranch Dressing | RaiasRecipes.com

You should totally give Loriel’s mix a try. I PROMISE you won’t regret it. 🙂 Promise. If you’re in the market for additive-free, organic seasonings, she also has a killer Italian mix (my Slow-Cooker Stuffed Italian Meatballs utilize it) and French onion mix, too!

Simple Green Salad with Leftover Turkey and Homemade Ranch Dressing | RaiasRecipes.comIn the recipe card I’ve linked to some of the products from my affiliate partners that I like to use. Purchasing through these links won’t cost you anything extra, but I will earn a small percentage that will go to help support and maintain this site and its free content. Thanks! 😉

Simple Green Salad with Leftover Turkey and Homemade Ranch Dressing
Free of grains, gluten, eggs, and sugar.
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Salad
  1. 1 head romaine lettuce
  2. a handful of kale
  3. 1/2 a cucumber
  4. 1 c. chopped leftover turkey
Ranch Dressing
  1. 3 T. Naturally Free Ranch mix
  2. 1 c. sour cream (get organic or make sure there are only like 3 ingredients...)
  3. 1/4 c. evoo (aka extra virgin olive oil)
  4. 1/4 c. whole or raw milk (raw is uh-mazing)
Instructions
  1. Wash and chop your greens and place them in a large bowl.
  2. Wash and slice the cucumber and sprinkle it on top of the salad, along with the turkey.
  3. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whip with a fork until creamy.
  4. Add a tablespoon more of evoo or milk if you want the consistency thinner (I like my ranch thick 'n creamy!).
  5. Pour over salad and enjoy!
  6. Store leftovers covered in the fridge (will keep a few weeks).
Notes
  1. Please note that kale and cucumbers are on the EWG's Dirty Dozen list, so grow your own or buy them organic! I also recommend using organic turkey, if you can find it. So much more yummy. 🙂
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Easy and full of nutrition, this Simple Green Salad with Leftover Turkey and Homemade Ranch Dressing is a refreshing lunch or simple dinner. RaiasRecipes.com

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