Moringa is a tropical, heat loving plant that produces delicious leaves that can be used similar to spinach or other greens. The flavor of moringa is a little bit nutty (maybe pecan-ish), and some of the leaves have a bit of a peppery bite, but none of these flavors are overwhelmingly strong. I’ll pull off a leaf when I’m in the garden and just snack on it. Its deliciously fresh tasting. My family is pretty good about trying new vegetables and when I started putting moringa in salads, no one really questioned it.
The many health benefits of moringa can be found with a quick internet search and I am particularly fond of the site MoringaForLife. I started growing moringa because it loves our HOT Georgia summers. Once the moringa seed sprouts, the plant is about 2 feet tall in less than a few weeks. I love anything that grows that easily, especially something I can put in a salad in the middle of the hot summer.
Moringa Salad
This delicious salad is super easy to throw together and so bright and colorful.
Start by harvesting some fresh moringa leaves. I put together a quick video tutorial on how to prune your moringa and harvest the leaves.
Important – Do not wash the leaves before stripping from the stem. It will make a mess with the leaves sticking all over the place.
To pull the leaves off the stem, treat each stem individually.
Hold the bottom of the stem in one hand and gently pull leaves towards the end of the stem.
You’ll have a handful of leaves and a clean stem.
Do this for each stem until all the leaves are stripped off.
Next, chop one yellow (or orange, or red) pepper and add to the bowl.
Add some chopped tomatoes, about half container of grape tomatoes or 2-3 roma. I found these grape tomatoes that were nice and ripe, and just sliced them. Any ripe tomato will work.
Chop one cucumber and add to the salad. Toss. 
Isn’t that so colorful! Before serving, toss with your favorite vinaigrette or this easy recipe: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 Tbsp. honey, 2 Tbsp. white balsamic vinegar, 1 clove of garlic, smashed, a few sprigs of fresh thyme (or 1/4 tsp. dried), a few shakes of salt and pepper. Toss this all together and enjoy!
If you are trying to please fussy eaters, I would try adding a head of romaine, chopped small, for a more traditional toss salad look, while still gaining all the nutritional benefits of moringa.
Printable Recipe
Moringa Salad - unique, colorful, and delicious
Ingredients
Salad
- 1-2 cups of fresh moringa leaves
- 1 sweet pepper red, yellow, or orange, chopped
- 1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes
- 1 cucumber chopped
Dressing
- 1/4 c olive oil
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 2 Tbsp white balsamic vinegar
- 1 clove garlic smashed
- few sprigs of fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp dried
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Strip moringa leaves from the stem.
- Chop pepper, tomato and cucumber.
- Add to the salad bowl, along with moringa leaves. Toss.
- Mix vinaigrette and add just before serving.
- Toss and enjoy.