Arugula Salad – Health Benefits, Recipes & Everything You Must Know
Arugula Salad
Arugula is one of the oldest vegetables in the world. In early Roman times, this herbal plant was used as medicine and a medicinal remedy for improving sexual life. Now it is commonly grown all around the world and it’s quite popular as Italian cuisine. However, people mostly prefer Arugula salad as the most common way to consume this amazing leafy green veggie. Arugula can also be used to cook various dishes that are healthy as well as nourishing. To get a better idea, let’s check out the health benefits of arugula salad, along with nutrition values and recipes.
What is Arugula?
Arugula is a leafy green vegetable that offers strange flavor due to its sour and spicy taste. It is also commonly known as Rocket or Rucola around the world. Arugula belongs to the plant family of mustard greens or Brassicaceae. It is considered to be one of the most nutritious, tastiest, and easy-to-cook green leafy veggies. Because of its crunchy texture, it works amazingly as a seasoning over pizzas, sandwiches, burgers, soups, and other cuisines. Like other green leafy vegetables like Spinach or Kale,
Arugula is loaded with a wide range of essential nutrients. Arugula salad is one of the most versatile foods as it can be prepared with fruits, veggies, and other foods. Also, people use arugula dressing over soups and other dishes to get more nutrition and health benefits from it.
Arugula Nutrition
Arugula is loaded with nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, dietary fiber, protein, chlorophyll, and phytochemicals, etc. To provide you a better idea, here are the nutritional values of arugula per 100g.
| Arugula Nutrition Per 100g |
| Calories – 25 Protein – 2.6g Fiber – 1.6g Total Fat – 0.7g Saturated Fat – 0.1g Total Carbs – 3.7g Calcium – 0.16g Potassium – 0.37g |
Health Benefits Of Arugula
Arugula is one of the most nutritious and healthy green leafy vegetables for everyone to eat. There are many health benefits of Arugula, some of which are listed below.
- Good Source of Chlorophyll – Arugula is known to contain chlorophyll, which offers a great number of health benefits. Chlorophyll is medically proven to protect our liver and DNA from being damaged by aflatoxins. Furthermore, it helps in preventing skin problems, bacterial infections, builds blood, detoxification, and weight loss. However, if you want to obtain maximum chlorophyll from arugula, you must eat it in uncooked form.
- Anticancer Properties – Arugula belongs to the plant family of cruciferous vegetables, which are medically proven to prevent & fight cancer. Also, it is filled with anticancer nutrients like dietary fiber and antioxidants. Furthermore, sulfur-containing elements called glucosinolates are also present in this green leafy veggie. The glucosinolates are broken down by the body into sulforaphane, which is medically proven to fight cancer cells. Thus, it can help in preventing various types of cancers like lung, prostate, breast, and many more.
- Promotes Bone Health – Arugula is a great source of essential nutrients like Vitamin K & Calcium. Both of these are responsible for preserving bones and teeth health. Several medical studies prove the positive effects of eating this leafy green on bones and teeth. If compared to iceberg lettuce, Arugula contains 8x more calcium. Thus, it helps in preventing bone-related problems like osteoporosis and weak bones.
- Anti-inflammatory Properties – This herbal leafy green veggie is also known to possess anti-inflammatory properties. This is mainly due to the presence of indole-3-carbinol and isothiocyanates, which are medically-proven to prevent inflammation in the body.
- Detoxification – Arugula is also rich in dietary fiber content, which helps in boosting the detoxification process of the body. Also, the essential nutrients like minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals, help in quickly removing harmful toxins from the body.
- Promotes Heart Health – Arugula is an herbal cruciferous plant that contains essential compounds like polyphenols and organosulfur. These compounds are medically proven to prevent a health condition called atherosclerosis. In atherosclerosis, plaque gets deposited in the arteries to increase the chances of heart problems. Thus, consumption of this amazing green leafy vegetable can prevent heart-related diseases like stroke, heart attack, etc.
- Diabetes Prevention – Arugula is one of the best medically-proven leafy greens to prevent diabetes. This mainly happens because of the stimulation of glucose utilization in the cells. Furthermore, the dietary fiber in this leafy green helps in the regulation of blood glucose. It further causes a reduction in insulin resistance, which helps in preventing diabetes.
- Weight Loss – Arugula is loaded with dietary fiber, which helps in keeping the stomach full for longer. Thus, it helps in lowering down the caloric intake. Furthermore, it contains very few calories and loads of essential nutrients that promote weight loss.
- Aphrodisiac – Since the very first century, arugula has been consumed as an aphrodisiac i.e. an herb to improve sexual life. This is because of the presence of certain phytochemicals, minerals, and antioxidants in this leafy green veggie. This theory has been proven in various medical studies.
Arugula Salad Recipes
There are endless arugula salad recipes that you can try because of the versatile nature of this leafy green veggie. To provide you some ideas, here are a few recipes for arugula or Rucola salad that you can use.
Arugula Salad With Fruits
When it comes to arugula salad recipes with fruit, you can always experiment with different fruits. The fruit-arugula salad is one of the tastiest and healthiest options for you to eat frequently. Here is a recipe that you can try this week at home.
Ingredients – Lemon Juice, Arugula, Olive Oil, Basil, Sugar, Garlic Powder, Apple, Strawberries, Nectarines, Nuts, Grapes
- Add half cup of olive oil and juice squeezed from one lemon into a big bowl.
- Then, add all the non-liquid ingredients into the bowl, mix them thoroughly, and keep in the refrigerator.
- Add some washed grapes, arugula, 4 chopped strawberries, and 2 chopped apples into a plate.
- After that, add some nuts and goat cheese to the above fruit mixture.
- Take out the bowl with arugula salad dressing prepared in step 2 and add it to the mixture prepared in step 4.
- The salad is ready for you to eat.
Arugula And Peach Salad Recipe
Arugula and peach salad recipe is another delicious and nutritious option that you can try. Because of the juicy peaches, it’s one of the tastiest salads made with arugula to consume during summers.
Ingredients – Arugula, Peaches, Strawberries, Nuts, Yellow Bell Pepper, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Black Pepper Powder, Kosher Salt, and Lemon
- In a big bowl, add four cups of arugula, four chopped peaches, 4 sliced strawberries, a cup of chopped yellow bell pepper, and nuts.
- Add 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1tsp lemon juice, and ½tsp kosher salt into a small bowl.
- Mix the ingredients in step 2 thoroughly and then add a little black pepper powder according to taste requirements.
- After that, add the salad dressing from step 3 into the mixture prepared in step 1.
- Mix thoroughly and your salad is ready to eat.
Arugula Salad With Lemon Dressing
Arugula salad with lemon dressing is a highly nutritious and healthy recipe for you to prepare at home.
Ingredients – Baby Arugula, Lemon Zest, Lemon Juice, Honey, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Parmesan Cheese, Salt, and Pepper
- Put 1 lemon’s juice, ½tsp lemon zest, 1tbsp honey, a little salt & pepper in a big bowl.
- Mix all these ingredients thoroughly for a minute.
- Put ¼cup of extra virgin oil into the mixture and beat it thoroughly.
- Add 200gms of baby arugula and roughly grated parmesan cheese into the above mixture.
- Again, mix all these ingredients for a minute or two, and your salad is ready to eat.
Watermelon Arugula Salad
When it comes to taste, watermelon arugula salad is the best arugula salad to prepare at home.
Ingredients – Arugula, Watermelon, Feta Cheese, Kalamata Olives, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Shallot, Gourmet Wine Vinegar, Salt, and Black Pepper
- Add 200 gm of arugula, 2½ cups of seedless watermelon cubes, ½cup of crushed feta cheese, and ½cup half-cut Kalamata olives in a big bowl.
- Mix all these ingredients thoroughly for a good texture.
- After that, add ½cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 chopped shallot, 2tbsp vinegar, a little salt, and pepper into a small bowl.
- Stir these ingredients meticulously to prepare the dressing for the salad.
- Add this dressing to the big bowl and mix thoroughly, and the salad is ready to eat.
Arugula Pear Salad
Arugula pear salad is probably the most commonly prepared and best arugula salad around the world. It’s not only delicious but also very nutritious and healthy to eat.
Ingredients – Walnuts, Arugula, Anjou Pear, Lemon, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Gorgonzola Cheese, and Black Pepper
- Firstly, roast ½cup of half-walnuts in a small pan on medium flame, until there’s a fragrance. Then, allow it to cool for some time.
- Add 200gms arugula, 1 sliced Anjou pear, 1 lemon, 225gms Gorgonzola, and a little salt & pepper to a big bowl.
- Put 3tbsp extra virgin olive oil into the bowl and all the roasted walnut halves to the mixture.
- Mix thoroughly for a few minutes and your salad is ready to eat.
That’s A Wrap!
So these were the top health benefits, nutritional values, and recipes of Arugula salad. Arugula is undoubtedly one of the most nutritious and healthy leafy green vegetables around the world. Thus, it’s very important to include it in our diet plan to get the most health benefits from it.
If you have any queries or recipe suggestions, feel free to write below in the comments section.
