Locked and loaded kale salad topped with toasted quinoa, dried cranberries, shaved parmesan cheese, and toasted almonds, all tossed in a super creamy tahini-lemon-garlic dressing. This addicting salad is one that you will come back to, again and again! It's mind-blowing good!
Ingredients
Salad:
2bunches of the Dino kale
¾cupuncooked quinoarinsed, drained, and dried
1cupwater
½cupdried cranberries
½cupgrated or shaved parmesan cheese
½cupsliced almondsplus extra for topping
Dressing:
¼cuplemon juice
⅓cupolive oil
3tablespoonstahini
2tablespoonshoney
2tablespoonsred wine vinegar
1clovegarlicmashed
1teaspoonsea salt
1teaspoonblack pepper
Instructions
Prepare quinoa. In a medium pot, add the rinsed and dried quinoa. Mix it around until it gets nice and toasted, which is about 6 minutes or so. You might hear some popping noise and it smells good.
Next, add the water. Give everything a stir.
Cover, reduce heat to low, and set timer for 18 minutes.
Once the timer goes off, carefully remove the lid and fluff the quinoa with a fork. Set it aside to cool.
Next, it’s time to prepare the salad dressing. Add all of the ingredients to a blender or food processor, and blend/process everything together until creamy.
After you make the dressing, prepare the kale.
The best way to do this, is to remove the kale from the stems (the stems are bitter, so throw that away). Then fold up the kale tightly, and chop it pretty thin, about ¼-½ inch pieces.
Add the kale to a large bowl. Then add a pinch of salt and use your hands to massage the kale VERY WELL, until the leaves begin to wilt; this will help the kale soften.
Last, add the dressing, the cooked quinoa, cranberries, and toasted almond slices. Toss everything well and plate!
Garnish with shaved parmesan cheese and extra toasted almonds!
Notes
Optional step: toast the sliced almonds in a small pan on the stove (just add them to the pan and stir for a few minutes until they get slightly browned).
Did you make this recipe?
I’d love to see what you made - tag @kalejunkie in your posts and I’ll re-share!