The over-hyped kale salad is not something my husband enjoys. I like it fine, but oddly, our kid loves it, and I can't say that about too many things. Go figure; anything super healthy that we're luke-warm on, she's craving like it's a candy cane. But she won't just devour any old kale salad; it's got to have a tart element, some crunch in there, and miso dressing. For a while, we were making a creamy miso dressing from Dale Talde's delicious cookbook Asian-American: Poudly Inauthentic Recipes from the Philippines to Brooklyn, which I am mildly obsessed with. But his recipe, perfect as it is, requires 9 ingredients, many of which we don't always have on-hand, like firm tofu and a selection of fresh citrus. So I just came up with this much simpler, if slightly less complex and creamy, quick 5-ingredient version which tastes pretty good, too. (It fooled our kid, so it must be okay.) Here's how we made this salad:
Ingredients:
1 bunch of kale, ribs / stems fully removed, finely chopped into thin ribbons
1/2 cup of sweetened dried cranberries
1 cucumber sliced and / or 1 carrot, chopped into matchsticks, for crunch
1/2 cup of chopped, salted and roasted nuts such as pistachip, peantus, almonds or cashews for protein and even more crunch (obviously optional)
For the dressing:
2 tablespoons shiro miso (white miso)
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup of vegetable oil (such as canola or safflower)
2 teaspoons low sodium tamari or soy sauce
2 teaspoons ponzu (this is a blend of citrus so it replaces the fresh orange, lemon and lime juices from Talde's recipe well.)
To prepare, simply mix the first two dressing ingredients together well in a small bowl, then add the other ingredients and whisk to combine.
Put salad ingredients in a large salad bowl, drizzle with dressing and toss well.
Note: You can prep and dress this salad an hour or so before serving, unlike other salads.
This salad also travels exceptionally well, to school or work, for lunch, for example. In this case though, I leave the dressing in a small separate jar to be mixed at mealtime. (Pictures above.)
Ingredients:
1 bunch of kale, ribs / stems fully removed, finely chopped into thin ribbons
1/2 cup of sweetened dried cranberries
1 cucumber sliced and / or 1 carrot, chopped into matchsticks, for crunch
1/2 cup of chopped, salted and roasted nuts such as pistachip, peantus, almonds or cashews for protein and even more crunch (obviously optional)
For the dressing:
2 tablespoons shiro miso (white miso)
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup of vegetable oil (such as canola or safflower)
2 teaspoons low sodium tamari or soy sauce
2 teaspoons ponzu (this is a blend of citrus so it replaces the fresh orange, lemon and lime juices from Talde's recipe well.)
To prepare, simply mix the first two dressing ingredients together well in a small bowl, then add the other ingredients and whisk to combine.
Put salad ingredients in a large salad bowl, drizzle with dressing and toss well.
Note: You can prep and dress this salad an hour or so before serving, unlike other salads.
This salad also travels exceptionally well, to school or work, for lunch, for example. In this case though, I leave the dressing in a small separate jar to be mixed at mealtime. (Pictures above.)
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