I tried another new salad this week and was asked to share the recipe. Since I was privileged to pick fresh kale from the field, I thought I would want to try and make a salad from kale. I typically search for inspiration from quite a few nutritionists, dieticians and functional medicine doctors I follow. The below recipe is inspired from Culinary Nutrition and goes very well with grilled meat.
Kale and quinoa salad with cilantro balsamic vinegar dressing
For 6 people
Ingredients
A large punch of kale
1 cup of quinoa, rinsed before boiled
2 avocados, pealed and cubed
1/2 cup of dried cranberries, unsweetened if possible
1/2 of slivered almonds
1 big Granny Smith Apple, peeled and diced
Optional add-on: goat's cheese you can crumble
For salad dressing
Juice of 3 lemons
1/2 cup of olive oil
2 tbsp of white balsamic vinegar
2 tsp of fresh ginger, finely grated
1/2 tsp of dried parsley
1/2 tsp of dried basil
1/2 tsp of dried oregano
1/2 tsp of dried marjoram
Pinch of salt
A little bit of pepper
A small bunch of cilantro
You can also add a garlic clove, this time I didn't
Instructions
Wash thoroughly and boil quinoa. It should take 15 minutes to cook, then let it stand for 5-10 minutes. Cool the quinoa down.
Wash kale, remove the leaves from the thick stem and then chop into small pieces. Add some lemon juice and then massage the kale with hands. This really helps to turn kale softer, so it's not hard to chew. Let the massaged kale stand in a salad bowl while you make the salad dressing.
Put all the salad dressing ingredients in a bowl where you can use a hand blender or put all the ingredients in the normal blender. You should blend until the dressing becomes creamy.
Add the apple, avocado, cranberries to the kale. Then mix in cooled down quinoa and finally add the salad dressing.
If you want to also add goat's cheese, add it at the very end and don't mix into the salad. Rather crumble the goat's cheese on top of the salad.
Enjoy!