Nutritious Kale Salad with Hazelnut-Balsamic Dressing

Alisa Fleming ~ If you are interested in health (and particularly if you are dairy-free and/or vegan), then you really should know about kale. Whether you like it … well, that is a different story altogether. For years I’ve been trying to enjoy the “kale green smoothie” trend. Many friends swear by it, some saying, “maybe your using too much?” But, even with just one leaf, the bitter and what I call “yucky” flavor of kale shines through.

However, while not all of us will agree that kale should be liquefied, that doesn’t mean it can’t be pretty darn tasty in other forms. In fact, I do enjoy plain raw kale salad, when appropriately dressed with a yummy dressing of course!

So what makes kale so fabulous? Here is a quick lowdown on kale from the World’s Healthiest Foods:

• Kale is an awesome bone-builder, packing in an amazing amount of vitamin K (a little known nutrient that our bones require) and a good amount of dairy-free calcium that is fairly well-absorbed.
• Kale has some special cholesterol-lowering benefits, that are most pronounced when you steam the kale (sure, you can steam the kale in this recipe if you wish!), but are still there to a lesser degree in raw kale.
• Kale reportedly lowers your risk of at least five different types of cancer, including bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and prostate.
• Kale contains over 45 different flavonoids in kale, combining both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits to help reduce chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.

Nutritious Kale Salad with Hazelnut-Balsamic Dressing

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

 

Recipe adapted from the Street Eats Recipe Collection.

Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 generous cups chopped kale (see note below)
• 2 tablespoons chopped, toasted hazelnuts
• 2 tablespoons dried cranberries
• ¼ cup flat leaf parsley, whole leaf
• ⅓ cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ cup crushed or ground, toasted hazelnuts
• ½ cup canola oil

Instructions

1. Combine the kale, chopped hazelnuts, cranberries, and parsley in a large salad bowl.
2. To prepare the vinaigrette, combine the vinegar, water, mustard, salt, shallot, garlic, thyme, pepper, and hazelnuts in a medium bowl using an immersion blender.
3. With the blender running, slowly blend in the canola oil until an emulsion forms.
4. Alternately, you can prepare this with an upright blender, drizzling the olive oil in through the top as it runs on low.
5. Pour the vinaigrette over the kale salad, toss gently to coat, and serve.

Notes

If you are timid with kale, start by using just 2 cups of kale in the recipe below, and use 2 cups of a milder green, like romaine. Also, I find that this makes more than enough vinaigrette. I would just add half at first, then drizzle in more as desired.

This recipe is Vegan, Vegetarian, Dairy free, Egg free, Gluten free, Peanut free, Soy free, Wheat free, and optionally Sugar free.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 1 generous cup salad

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