A Spring Kale Salad

A kale salad made in less than 10 minutes using ingredients from your pantry. Enjoy with fresh vegetables, tahini dressing and lots of avocado! A perfect salad for an on-the-go lunch.

This is the way to make a salad for when you are in a bind: take leftover ingredients, add them to a bed of kale and pour over a delicious, creamy tahini dressing! If you are new to eating healthy and are pressed for time, I’m going to venture and say that a kale salad may not be your first food of choice. But trust me on this - quickly preparing kale in the right way will mask the earthy tones and rough leaves, leaving you with a smooth and satisfying, nutty salad.

 This salad is one that works better the more you play around with it, using ingredients you have in your pantry. Layer on foods that you absolutely love and always have on hand. For me it’s a hearty dollop of avocado with limejuice, leftover brown rice, shredded carrots, nuts and tomatoes. Each bite picks up where another spoonful left off – tasting an array of fresh flavors. Tying this salad together, dress it in a nutty tahini sauce that has a tangy kick from the apple cider vinegar. This salad has been my savior for last minute lunches – convenient, easy and filled with a slew of tasty goodness, embellishing a simple kale salad.

Serves: 1

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients for the Spring Kale Salad:

- 3 big hanfuls of kale

- 1/2 avocado

- handful of cherry tomatoes

- 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice

- 1 carrot

- handful of nuts (I used macadamia)

  Ingredients for the Tahini dressing:

- 3 tablespoons of olive oil

- 1/2 tablespoon honey

- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or lemon juice

- 1 tablespoon of tahini

Instructions:

Start by tearing the kale leaves into bite-size pieces, disregarding the steams.  Then wash the kale leaves and pat dry.  Before you massage the kale, you want to pour the tahini dressing on top of the leaves.  Then use your hands to massage the dressing into the kale.  The acid from the dressing will help break down the cell wall.  Massage for 2-3 minutes.  The longer you massage, the softer the kale will become.

Then simply shred the carrots, cube the tomatoes and mash the avocado into a creamy-guacamole finish. Add these, along with the brown rice and nuts to the salad. Mix the salad together and enjoy!

I hope you guys love this salad and are able to make it as much as I have! It only takes 5 minutes to make and I find myself coming back to it multiple times a week because I'm such a procrastinator when preparing lunch for the next day!

I also wanted to say thank you so much for all you guys tagging me on instagram showing me your 8th and lake creations! It makes me so happy to see you guys enjoying the recipes! You can find me at #8thandlake!

xx Marie