Kale Salad With Citrus Avocado Dressing

Being called “the queen of greens”, kale is at the top of every food expert’s must-eat list. Packed with nutrients, it promotes overall health and wellness. It is regarded as one of the world’s healthiest foods – as it is rich in fiber, vitamins A, C and K, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and protein. It is an antioxidant powerhouse which benefits your entire body, from your bones to your heart to your digestive system. Kale is also loaded with all sorts of beneficial compounds which have powerful medicinal properties. It is thought that adding kale to your regular diet may prevent, control or even cure certain diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma, digestive problems, and bone issues among others. But note that large quantities of kale are thought to slow down the thyroid so it may not be the best choice for people with hypothyroidism. Add kale to your beauty regimen as it also promotes healthy skin and hair. This is not medical advice!

We can tell you more about kale but the best thing to do right now is to try and make this kale salad with citrus avocado dressing at home so you can experience kale’s benefits yourself. The dressing is sweet, tangy, and creamy so this salad is not only nutritious, but also very delicious. With all the other ingredients used in this recipe, this will surely be your next favorite superfood combo salad.

Ingredients:

This recipe takes about 5 to 10 minutes to make. Serves 2 to 3.

• 6 to 8 leaves of dinosaur kale
• ¼ cup of cooked quinoa
• 10 to 12 pieces of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• ½ avocado, cubed
• 1 tbsp hemp seeds

Citrus Avocado Dressing:

• juice of 1 lemon
• juice of 1 orange
• ½ avocado
• ½ tsp sea salt
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper

Instructions:

Wash the kale thoroughly and place them in a salad spinner to dry them out.
Remove the stems and cut the leaves in half.
Cut the leaves using the chiffonade technique and set aside.
To prepare the dressing, put lemon juice, orange juice, avocado, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Blend until smooth.
Place the kale leaves and quinoa on a large mixing or salad bowl.
Pour in the salad dressing.
Toss well to make sure that everything is coated with the dressing.
Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with tomatoes, avocado and hemp seeds on top.

Ideas And Tips:

• Chiffonade is a technique for slicing herbs or leafy vegetables into long, thin strips. To do this, stack the leaves, then roll them tightly. Using a sharp knife, slice the leaves perpendicular to the roll.

• If you want to soften the kale leaves and lessen the bitter taste, rub the salad dressing on the leaves. This also ensures that all the leaves are coated with the dressing.

• You can add the hemp seeds in the salad dressing instead of sprinkling them on top of the salad.

• Aside from hemp seeds, you can use flax seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds or chopped nuts.

• You can add berries or other fruits such as apples, pears, peaches, grapes, mangoes, kiwis, watermelon, honeydew or cantaloupe.

• You can also add onions, zucchini, cucumbers, jicama, water chestnuts, carrots, celery or bell peppers.

• You can add chopped herbs such as basil, scallions or cilantro.

• If you can’t find kale in your area, you can also use collard greens, baby spinach, Swiss chard or lettuce.

images – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZShLL95hSa4