I am a bit in love with this amazingly bright green dressing. It is mostly green from avocado, but it also contains parsley blended in, which makes the creamy avocado color an even brighter green. This whole kale and sweet potato salad is delicious!
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time15 minutesmins
Total Time25 minutesmins
Course: Dinner, lunch or dinner, main dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: delicious, gluten-free, healthy, vegan
Servings: 4
Ingredients
Dressing
1ripe avocado
1scallion - or a handful of garlic chivesI find wild garlic chives in my garden
1clovegarlic, or 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/4cupfresh parsley
1teaspoondried tarragonor 1 tablespoon fresh if you have it! - It's also okay to substitute another herb or just leave this out entirely.
fresh juice of 1/2 lemon - about 2 tablespoonsinclude the lemon pulp, if possible (but, of course, not the seeds!)
1/2teaspoonwhite miso pasteor you can use a pinch of salt (about 1/24 teaspoon) instead - this makes the recipe soy-free
1/8teaspoonsmoked paprikaor another blend of herbs or spices
Salad
4-6cupsbeets and/or sweet potatoes, rinsed and cut into cubes - skin on is okay
1bunchkalechopped into bite-sized pieces
1canbeans (15 ounces) - or 1 1/2 cups cooked beansmost beans work here - cannellini beans, black beans, kidney beans, etc.
1/4cupnutswalnuts, pecans, cashews, whatever nuts or seeds you have available
Instructions
Cut the beets and/or sweet potatoes into cubes, one-inch or smaller. You can put them in water and boil for 15 minutes, or steam them, or roast them in a 400 degree oven for 20-30 minutes. Whichever way you cook them, they are done when they are soft enough to be easily pierced with a fork.
Meanwhile, cut the kale into pieces, rinse the beans in a strainer, and add them both to a big serving bowl.
Put all the dressing ingredients into a blender. My main blender jar is too big to blend this well, so I either double the dressing recipe (it gets eaten up quickly!) or I use a smaller 12-ounce "smoothie" jar of the blender to blend it. Blend until smooth, stopping the blender to scrape down the sides as needed. Sometimes I need to add olive oil and/or water to get it to blend smoothly -- sometimes it needs a lot of added liquid to blend. Keep blending and adding liquid until everything is completely smooth and circulates easily in the blender.
When the root veggies are cooked, drain them if you boiled them, and add them to the big bowl. Then gently stir the mixture of beans, kale, and root veggies.
To serve, put the kale-veggie mixture into each person's bowl. Scoop some dressing on top, and add nuts on top. Yum!
If there are leftovers, I recommend storing the nuts, dressing, and salad separately and combining them just before serving. The dressing only lasts a couple of days in the fridge.