Radicchio Salad Cups: A Crunchy, Colorful Way to Eat the Rainbow

These Radicchio Salad Cups might change everything if you've ever struggled to get your family excited about salads. Bursting with flavor, color, and texture, this salad is not only beautiful, it's also packed with anti-inflammatory and gut-friendly nutrients.

The best part? You serve it in radicchio leaves shaped like little cups, making salad a fun, interactive, and family-friendly experience.

My daughter, who usually doesn't go for a second serving, served herself multiple cups and genuinely enjoyed filling her own radicchio cups. Letting family members fill their "cups" turns an everyday salad into an engaging, shareable moment.

🛒 Ingredients:

• Radicchio leaves (whole, for cups)
• Apple (grated or thinly sliced)
• Orange (zested, then cubed with skin on)
• Carrots (grated)
• Red cabbage (shredded)
• Garlic (finely grated)
• Ginger (grated)
• Celery leaves (chopped)
• Parsley (chopped)
• Yellow beet (grated)
• Black radish (grated)
• Colored radishes (grated)
• Sea salt
• Olive oil

🥣 How to Make Radicchio Cups:

1. Grate or shred: carrots, red cabbage, yellow beet, black and colored radishes, garlic, and ginger.
2. Zest the orange, then cube it (skin on) into small chunks.
3. In a large salad bowl, mix all the grated ingredients, orange cubes, celery leaves, and parsley.
4. Add sea salt and drizzle with olive oil.
5. Toss everything gently to combine; the juices of the orange plus apple, and crunch of the radish, carrots, and beets create a naturally sweet and zesty blend.
6. Take whole radicchio leaves, gently separate them, and use them as natural salad cups.
7. Invite everyone to fill their own radicchio leaves (cups) at the table and enjoy!

🌿 Health Benefits of Radicchio Salad Cups

Radicchio lettuce is not just a pretty purple leaf; it's a bitter green with incredible health benefits:

• Supports digestion: Its natural bitterness stimulates digestive enzymes and bile flow.
• Rich in antioxidants: Anthocyanins give radicchio its vibrant color and help fight inflammation.
• Liver-loving: Like other bitter greens, radicchio gently supports liver detoxification.
• Gut-friendly fiber: Helps feed good gut bacteria and regulate elimination

By combining it with raw, grated rainbow vegetables and citrus, you're giving your body:

• A wide range of phytonutrients.
• Vitamin C from citrus, apple, radishes, and cabbage.
• Potassium, folate, and fiber from root veggies
• Natural prebiotics from garlic, carrots, and radish.

🧡 Why This Recipe Works for Families

• Interactive serving makes it more fun, especially for kids.
• Bright colors and crunch draw attention and stimulate the appetite.
• The sweet citrus and root veggie balance out the bitterness of radicchio.
• Great for lunch, potlucks, or healthy appetizers.

🥗 When food looks vibrant and tastes fantastic, it brings people together, especially when it's fun to eat it!

Let your family build their own radicchio cups and watch how quickly they fall in love with this salad!

Here Are More Fantastic Salads

• Quick pan-seared romaine salad
• Cucumber-carrot salad
• Vibrant watermelon salad with edamame
• Simple avocado-cucumber salad with melon

📖 Recipe

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Radicchio Salad Cups

This vibrant radicchio salad is served in crunchy leaf cups for a fun, nutrient-rich twist on family mealtime. Packed with raw veggies, citrus, and antioxidants, even picky eaters will want seconds!

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, dinner, Salad

Cuisine: American, anti-inflammatory, Mediterranean, Vegan

Diet: Diabetic, Gluten Free, Low Calorie, Vegan, Vegetarian

Keyword: lettuce radicchio, radicchio salad, radicchio salads, salad with radichio

Servings: 4 people

Calories:

Author: Githu

Cost: $10

Equipment

• Chopping board
• kitchen knife
• Salad bowl
• Salad spoons

Ingredients

• 1 medium carrot
• ¼ small red cabbage
• 1 medium apple
• 1 medium orange
• 1 small yellow beet
• a small piece of black radish
• ½ cup different colored radishes
• a small piece of ginger
• 1 garlic clove
• celery leaves (from 1 branch of celery)
• some parsley
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoon cold-pressed olive oil
• 1 head of radicchio lettuce

Instructions

• Clean and tap-dry the ingredients that you can clean.
• Grate and shred all root vegetables, cabbage, apple, ginger, and garlic.
• Get the zest from the orange before cutting the unpeeled orange into cubes.
• Chop the celery leaves and parsley
• Put all the ingredients in a salad bowl, season with salt, and add the oil.
• Use the salad spoons to toss. You now have a very delicious salad.
• Use the radicchio leaves as cups and fill them with the salad
• Enjoy and share this recipe or pin it.

Notes

• The salad can be stored in the fridge for 2 days. However, its nutrient density will decrease!
• You can substitute radicchio for romaine or classic lettuce. Radicchio holds well, as the leaves are firm and look like cups.