It’s berry season! I usually buy up fresh cranberries in the fall and freeze them for year round use but this salad is wonderful with sliced strawberries, or tart blueberries or raspberries. Berries are chock full of antioxidants and a great addition to summer detox.
If you saw my post for massaged kale salad you’ll have the base for this one. To it I have added spinach, cultured red onion, avocado, pumpkin seed, hempseed, and berries drizzled with my favorite lemon garlic tahini dressing. This salad is a veritable super-salad of Omega fatty acids, probiotics, minerals and vitamins. It takes only a few minutes to throw together (if you already have the cultured onions). I remove the kale leaves from their stems and massage them with olive oil and a spritz of lemon and leave them for a bit to macerate. You can even do that but the night before!
Let’s talk benefits!
Kale is loaded with anti-inflammatory omegas, iron and anti-oxidants… more about that here. and when you add tahini dressing you have yet another nutritional powerhouse loaded with yet more iron, vitamins and fatty acids. Add the pine nuts and you have all this plus mood and weight loss enhancers.
Hemp hearts! Most people know that they are high in protein but did you know they also help speed your metabolism, regulate your hormone balance and decrease inflammation? Yes. I know. Food is amazing.
Avocados as we know are high in proteins and healthy fatty acids but they are also rich in antioxidant phytochemicals, which aid in with eye health, and phytonutrients that help with inflammation and more importantly, help reduce the risk of inflammatory and degenerative disorders throughout the body. Think of it as a yummy grease in your kogs.
Pumpkin seeds are chockers with nutrients, antioxidants and magnesium, which helps you sleep! They help lower your blood sugar and are super heart healthy and as an added perk they help keep a healthy prostate. They are also loaded with phosphorus and zinc and thereby help with sperm quality and E.D. Yes, I said it. If you like babies… pumpkin seeds are sexy as.
Spinach is full of iron and high in vitamin K, manganese, magnesium and acts as yet another anti-inflammatory.
It’s no wonder I feel so vibrant when I’m eating gorgeous loaded salads all sunny summer. I certainly feel the difference when I do. And if you can make a big batch of kale salad as a base it’s fairly easy to throw whatever toppings you like in and go… busy mom style.
Here you can find the standalone recipes for lemon garlic tahini dressing and fermented red onion.
Enjoy immensely.
Brenna 🥰
KALE & BERRY SUMMER OMEGA SUPERFOOD SALAD WITH TAHINI DRESSING
Equipment
- High Powered Blender or Immersion Blender for dressing
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 1 bunch curly or dinosaur kale
- 1/4 cup Pine Nuts
- drizzle extra virgin olive oil
- squeeze of lemon
- baby spinach optional
- 1 cup fresh berries
- 1/2-1 avocado
- pumpkin seeds
- hempseeds hemp hearts
- fermented red onion
- 1/4 cup Tahini Dressing below
Lemon Garlic Tahini Dressing
- 1 cup stirred tahini
- 1 cup filtered water if you like it thick like a dip, 2 if you like it to run like a dressing
- 1/4-1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar with the Mother
- 2-3 cloves garlic crushed
- 2-3 teaspoons coarse kosher sea salt or pink salt according to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Wash and dry the kale, dabbing it with a tea towel. Strip the leaves off the stems and break them into small pieces and lay them in a bowl.
- Drizzle with olive oil and a squirt of lemon to accelerate maceration process and “massage” the leaves for at least two minutes until the leaves soften and relax.
- Some kale is more stubborn than others and it could take up to ten minutes. After two I tend to get bored and pull out my french rolling pin or a wooden spoon to smash it to bits. When it is soft, set aside and move on to the tahini dressing.
- Combine all ingredients for the tahini dressing in a medium to large bowl and either whisk until smooth or mix with an immersion blender.
- Pour 1/4 cup tahini dressing over the kale and rub it into the leaves.
- Sprinkle with the pine nuts.
- Slice avocado in half and if you plan to eat the whole thing, remove the pit. If you don’t, rinse the pit half in water and wrap it in clingfilm to prevent oxidization (browning). Carefully slice the other half in the skin and then scoop the whole thing out with a spoon.
- In a bowl, combine the dressed kale and spinach and top with pumpkin seeds, hemp hearts, pine nuts, cultured (pickled) red onion and berries.
- Drizzle with more tahini dressing and enjoy!
