While everyone was reheating their leftover Thanksgiving dinner Friday night, I rushed out to the grocery store (which was nice & empty BTW) to fill up my cart up with vegetables to juice and kale to inhale. It seems that last week I ate like my life depended on it; it’s the holidays!
Saturday morning I woke up and juiced, went for a walk, cleaned house, worked in the kitchen, decorated our house for Christmas, drank water like a fish, juiced again and made this amazing kale salad for dinner.
One of the reasons I picked this recipe from the Super Natural Every Day Cookbook was that it looked extremely healthy, yet filling. I also thought it would help get my taste buds in check since they were accepting nothing but pumpkin pie and my mom’s stuffing for 24 hours straight. I found myself scarfing down the salad, but it wasn’t because I was super hungry. The toasted coconut and the crispy kale coated in olive oil, sesame oil and shoyu created a buttery/salty/ crunchy effect that I like to call instant crack! It’s a delightful thing when “health food” becomes addictive, isn’t it?
And we’re off!
Ingredient gathering! Make the dressing. Three things in a jar. Put the lid on. Shake!
Remove the kale ribs and tear up the leaves. Add them to a bowl with the coconut flakes.
Pour over most of the dressing. TOSS!
Spread the kale/coconut mixture out onto two trays. Roast!
It’s like the kale & coconut just got back from Hawaii! Did they bring us back a shell necklace & macadamia nuts?
No. They just came home with tans. dang.
Put the freshly Hawaiian vacationed kale/coconut into a bowl. Toss with remaining dressing.
Load a bowl/plate with brown rice (farro, millet, or quinoa are good subs too).
Top with a mound of the kale/coconut mixture.
And watch….
how it suddenly DISAPPEARS!
Kale Salad with Toasted Coconut & Sesame Oil
makes 4 servings
(recipe slightly adapted from Super Natural Every Day Cookbook, by Heidi Swanson)
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons shoyu, tamari or soy sauce
- 3 1/2 cups shredded lacinato kale (ribs removed)
- 1 1/2 cup unsweetened large flake coconut
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the oils with the shoyu. In a large bowl, toss the kale and coconut with about two-thirds of the dressing.
Spread the kale evenly across two baking sheets and bake until the coconut is nice and golden and the kale is wilted, tossing once or twice along the way about 12-18 minutes.
Remove from oven and transfer the kale mixture to a medium bowl. Take a taste of the mixture and if it needs more dressing add some and toss. Place the brown rice on a serving platter and top with the tossed kale. Serve warm.
