Festive Fall Kale Salad
Do you ever crave a veggie packed dinner? SAME, which make sense given I’ve been a vegetarian for 6 years. With Thanksgiving a week away I always try and figure out something for me to eat, mostly because my Aunt who usually hosts us all has enough to do, adding a “vegetarian friendly” dish isn’t something I want to burden her with. My go to the past few holidays is always “Beet” Wellington, get what I did there, and it’s actually delicious! The recipe I like to use is from The Lazy Cat Kitchen, I just omit the nutritional yeast but other than that I follow it, here’s the recipe for you! https://www.lazycatkitchen.com/beet-wellington-balsamic-reduction/
This year for Thanksgiving I’m still brainstorming what I’m going to make and last nights dinner may have given me some inspiration to spring for a salad. This kale salad was yummy, filling, and super healthy. You can also roast all the veggies and chick peas the day before and just store them in the fridge, that way the only thing you’ll need to cook is the couscous!
If you aren’t a fan of the root veggies I used you can always sub them out , I originally planned on using delicata squash but the grocery store didn’t have any so I settled for acorn which I still enjoy, although the kids…no so much 🙂
Ingredients:
Salad
- 1 acorn squash – seeded and then sliced
- 1 large sweet potato – peeled and sliced into rounds
- 4 beets
- 1 bunch kale
- 1 can chick peas
- Trader Joes Harvest grain
- sunflower seeds
- feta cheese
- pomegranate seeds
Dressing
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 3 TBS maple syrup
- 1 TBS lemon juice
- water to thin out mixture
- Preheat your oven to 375*, and while it warms up you can wash, peel and prep your veggies. Chop the top of the beets off and save them for later, if you’ve never cooked with beet greens they’re really good! Wash and dry the beets and place them on some tin foil, rub with olive oil and salt and put the whole foiled up bunch on a cookie sheet. Next, take the squash and cut it in half to remove the seeds. Then slice it into equally pieces and place it on a different cookie sheet. Finally, Peel and slice your sweet potato into rounds and add it to the squash, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and place these in the over for about 20 minutes. The beets will take longer, depending on the size, check them after 45 minutes and if you can pierce them with a fork their ready, if you can’t put them back in the oven and check them every 10 minutes until you’re able.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas, add them onto the cookie sheet along with the potato and squash for the final 10 minutes.
- I love Trader Joes Harvest grain mix, it has pearl couscous, pilaf and quinoa. If you have it accessible follow the direction on the bag, otherwise you can use peal couscous or even plain quinoa to add some additional fiber.
- Clean and massage your kale! Weird I know, but kale is really bitter and tough so massaging it helps break up the toughness. If you aren’t a huge kale fan sub it out with spinach.
- Lastly make your dressing and toss it onto the kale and set aside until everything else is cooked.
- Once your grains, veggies and chickpeas are ready you can start building your salad. First put the kale into a bowl and cover it with the TJs grain mix. Place your veggies and chickpeas on top and then sprinkle with feta cheese, pomegranate seeds and the sunflower seeds.
IMO this dish is best served with a glass of red wine 🙂
