VEGAN KALE QUINOA SALAD

One of my favorite San Francisco lunch spots makes the most amazing vegan kale salad and I’ve been wanting to make a dupe of it for ages now.  Today I was inspired to tweak and taste my way to make the perfect dressing to nail this salad.  Believe me when I say you will love this salad!  The added quinoa makes it enough for a meal and all of the amazing veggies and seeds pack in tons of nutrients.  Check out the recipe below!

Ingredients (serves 4):

• Kale (I used curly kale and dino kale)
• Cucumber
• Radish
• Watermelon radish
• 2 avocados (one for the dressing, another for garnish)
• Shredded beet
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• Sesame seeds (I used regular and black sesame)
• Almond slivers
• Sunflower seeds
• Lemon
• Hellman’s Vegan Mayonnaise (picked up from my local Target)
• Olive oil
• Pink Himalayan salt

To get started, prep all of your veggies for salad assembly.  I started by thoroughly washing and drying all of my veggies.  I started tearing up the kale into bite sized pieces and adding them to my gorgeous bamboo salad bowl. I prefer to tear kale than chop it to avoid the woody stems in my salad, so make sure to leave the stems for your compost bin.  To soften the kale up, add a pinch of salt and massage it into the kale until it gets more tender.

For the rest of the veggies, prep them as you prefer.  I sliced my cucumbers into quarters, sliced my radishes (how pretty are watermelon radishes?!), and grated my beet.  This was actually the first time I’ve ever used a beet in cooking before and was very surprised with how much color they have fresh when cutting them (and what a mess they can be!)  Make sure to have a towel ready!  Cook your quinoa per the directions on the box and make sure it cools prior to being added to the salad.

The salad dressing was a bit of add this and add that until I felt like I had achieved a copy-cat recipe for my favorite SF salad.  In a small bowl, I combined one mashed avocado, a tablespoon of olive oil, juice from a lemon, and Hellmann’s Vegan Mayonnaise to give it extra creaminess.  I love that Hellmann’s offers a vegan option–and so readily available since I picked it up on my recent Target trip!  It’s the perfect option for when you want to go egg-less!

Blend the dressing until smooth–I worked at the avocado pieces until it was a smooth consistency and added a pinch of salt to taste.  With dressing, we all have our personal preferences so I recommend tasting it as you go to make it perfectly to your liking.  I loved the creamy and tanginess of how this turned out! So good and fresh!

Spoon the dressing onto the kale leaves prior to assembling your salad.  Add a couple spoonfuls until you’ve reached your desired dressing amount and then toss with clean hands (obviously, ha!) until throughly mixed in.  I prefer to add dressing before putting the other ingredients into the salad so that you can have a pretty display for your guests.

Once your salad is dressed, start adding all of the amazing toppings to your hearts content! Quinoa, beet, sesame seeds, radishes, avocado!

And there you have it! An amazingly delicious vegan salad that has been a favorite of mine for years!  If you prefer other ingredients, you should definitely experiment with your favorite flavors and use the avocado based dressing!  How about romaine and cherry tomato? Or spinach and sweet potato?

Want to give Hellmann’s Vegan Dressings a try? Head over to Target and use the Cartwheel app to save 20%!

 

Sponsored by Mirum, all opinions are my own. This salad is insanely delicious!