Paleo Thai Style Multicolor Raw Vegetable Salad Recipe- Vegan, GAPS Legal

Winter is here finally, but you know what? Though most of the time I crave hot and thick soups and stews once it is cold, this time, what I'm really craving is creamy vegetables, ideally raw vegetables with something on them that makes them creamy. I was looking for ideas of what to make with my almond butter together with raw veggies when I came across this recipe, which looked delicious, only I was missing quite a bunch of the ingredients, many of which are too expensive for me to keep in stock in my house, and other ones are unobtainable where I live, so, using that as inspiration, I came up with this absolutely delicious creamy vegetable salad which truly hits the spot.
This recipe is both Paleo and Vegan, and is GAPS legal and could be allergy friendly if you use sunbutter in place of the almond butter.
I highly suggest you try it!
And if you don't have the vegetables I mentioned- feel free to switch it up a bit. Use any hard veggies that will slice thinly or will spiralize, whether raw zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, kohlrabi, beets, celery, fennel, carrots, or whatever- you just want the equivalent amount of vegetables so there will be enough to use up all the sauce.
Alternatively, feel free to simply use this sauce on a greens salad, or on rice noodles or as a dipping sauce for spring rolls or whatever- the sauce is delicious and can be used so many different ways- your imagination is the limit.

Paleo Thai Style Multicolor Raw Vegetable Salad Recipe- Vegan, GAPS Legal

Sauce Ingredients:
2 tablespoons almond butter (I used my homemade almond butter) or other nut butter or sunflower seed butter (or peanut butter if you aren't trying to make it Paleo)
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon date syrup or equivalent liquid sweetener like maple syrup, honey (use 1-2 teaspoons only if using honey), jaggery syrup, or white sugar if you're trying to keep this as cheap as possible
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar (or rice vinegar, or white vinegar)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
Hot pepper flakes to taste
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Vegetables:
2 beets
4 carrots
1 zucchini
1 fennel bulb

Instructions:
1. Mix the almond butter, water, lemon juice, sweetener, vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, hot pepper flakes, salt, and garlic clove in a food processor and blend.

2. Slowly drizzle in your olive oil into your mixture, so that it emulsifies nicely and becomes a thick and delicious mixture.

3. Chop up your cilantro and mix it in.

4. Set aside your dressing unless you will be eating it immediately.

5. If you have a spiralizer, spiralize all the spiralizable vegetables for the salad. If you don't, a grater will do. I sliced my fennel super super thinly so I had thin crescent shapes, grated my carrots, and spiralized my beets and zucchini. All you want is to ensure that you have small and thin vegetables so that the flavor of the sauce will spread over it easily.

6. Mix your vegetables together.

7. Pour on the sauce and mix in well, right before serving. If you aren't serving this immediately, store the veggies separate from the sauce so they don't wilt, exude water, and dilute the sauce during storage.

Enjoy!

Are you a fan of creamy vegetables? What is your favorite way to make vegetables creamy?
What foods or types of foods have you been craving lately?
Does this look like a recipe you'd try?