This Vegan Pesto Salad Combines Some Of Our Fave Blood Sugar Balancing Foods

The formula for a perfect mindless meal? Greens plus grains plus flavor, a sentiment that Chef Franklin Becker took to heart when he created this Greens & Grains Salad for The Botanist at the new Manhattanville Market in Harlem, New York. Tossed with a vegan, nut-free pesto, it’ll pack tons of micronutrients into your lunch hour (or dinner, or whenever).

The greens in question go beyond just kale (though there are two varieties of this leafy green in the mix) to include zucchini ribbons, which add another texture and some extra nutrients like manganese and vitamins A and C. For grains, it’s a mix of quinoa (one of our go-tos!) and puffed kamut. Whole grains like these are higher in fiber and phytochemicals, and may actually help support healthy blood sugar more effectively.

The dressing, if you want to call it that, is a pesto made with sunflower seeds instead of pine nuts and nutritional yeast instead of cheese, so it’s nut-free and vegan. If you’re a meal prep fan, this recipe yields a whole batch of pesto—just scale the ingredients for the salad appropriately, so you can have everything set for a ready-to-go lunch.