Tangy Raw Cauliflower Salad is the best thing to have for lunch or even dinner on the days following a rich dinner party. This salad gives you the feeling of refreshment you need after you are loaded with high-calorie foods.
One of our favorite cauliflower recipe is curried roasted cauliflower salad especially in fall and winter. Go check it out too! Love refreshing and filling salads? You should see our piyaz beans and cucumber orzo salad recipe.

It is a very healthy salad full of vitamins and nutrition. Even the cauliflower haters will love this amazingly scrumptious salad because they won’t understand it’s cauliflower.
This salad is a crunchy mixture of raw cauliflower, red bell pepper, mung beans and greens. I want everything inside this salad in tiny size, so I grate the cauliflower. You can’t guess it is cauliflower; it tastes just like cabbage.

Especially red cabbage is typcally used in crunchy salads, but raw cauliflower is not as common in salads. There is no difference when raw, so why don’t we use this vitamin rich winter vegetable in salad? I grate the cauliflower because it is easier and quicker, but it looks even nicer when you divide or chop it in very small florets.
The second important ingredient in this raw cauliflower salad is mung beans. Have you ever heard of it? Please see the small green lentil like beans in the pictures. They are boiled mung beans. As you can see, these beans are much smaller than white or red beans; as small as green lentils.
Mung beans are not very common in Turkey, so I never think twice to buy when I rarely see it at the market. As far as I know, mung beans are part of Indian and Chinese cuisines. They are pretty nutritional; rich in fiber, magnesium and vitamins B and C. It is said that these little guys are good for diabetics too.
So you should have mung beans in your diet if you can find it in your area. You can make various recipes with these beans like stews, but I do love them in salads.
You can use other types of beans in the salad if you can't find mung beans. Know how to cook fava beans? Use them as a substitute.

About the dressing
I prepared a very tangy dressing for the raw cauliflower salad flavored with dried mint. Make sure you are generous enough when using the dressing on this salad. Raw cauliflower needs a lot of dressing, which is another great thing about the salad. The dressing doesn’t contain and mayo or cream; it has just lemon, vinegar, homemade pomegranate molasses, salt and dried mint.
As always: If you make this recipe, let us know what you think by rating it and leaving a comment below. And post a pic on Instagram too—tag @give_recipe so we can see!
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📖 Recipe
Tangy Raw Cauliflower Salad
A festive detox salad with cauliflower, mung beans and greens.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Mixing
- Cuisine: Turkish
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
Salad:
- 2 cups grated cauliflower
- 1 cup boiled mung beans
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- ¼ cup crumbled walnut
- ½ cup green onions, chopped
- ½ cup parsley, chopped
Dressing:
- ½ cup lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- 3 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
- 1 teaspoon dried mint
- 1 and ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine all salad ingredients.
- In a separate small bowl, mix all the ingredients for dressing.
- Pour the dressing over salad and stir well.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 219
- Sugar: 15.5 g
- Sodium: 904 mg
- Fat: 15.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 20 g
- Protein: 3.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Madeleine says
Hello, I'm Madeleine, Tonight I made your Tangy raw cauliflower salad. It was terrific, but there were two ingredient that I didn't have : boiled mung beans which I replaced with canned green beans; and coconut molasses which I replaced with some green stevia powder.
I really enjoyed this refreshing salad. Thank you. It'll often be a standby on my table!
Greetings,
Madeleine
Lana says
I love the sound of this salad! Just printed out your recipe 🙂
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
This raw cauliflower salad is definitely a perfect dish for the summer weather here in Australia at the moment - I have to make it!
Sarah@WholeandHeavenlyOven says
This is one gorgeous salad, Zerrin! I just love all that veggie goodness---just what I need after all the weeks of cookies! 😉