Massaged Kale Salad: One of a Trillion Recipes
by Ali Seiter
I have a confession to make and please don’t injure yourself by falling off of your chair/couch/bed/beanbag in utter disbelief when I announce that I eat raw kale salads. That’s right. I, unlike any other vegan blogger, happily munch on the thinly shredded crucifer in uncooked form to retain its maximum nutrient content. Since no one in the online community have ever offered a how-to on massaging kale into a crunchy, delicious, and tremendously healthy salad, I thought I’d share with you my own rendition the only recipe in existence for a raw salad featuring this green superfood.
Feel free to include basically whatever salad vegetables you like. I found that the mushrooms, avocado, walnuts, nutritional yeast, and carrots offered especially nice textures and flavors to the salad, so I do recommend you include those. If you find the harsh bite of shallots displeasing, you can place them in a bowl, cover them with water, and let sit for about 30 minutes to take the edge off.
Ali’s Massaged Kale Salad (Raw, Gluten Free, Oil Free, Soy Free)
Serves one vegan salad monster or two more modest diners.
Ingredients:
- 4 large leaves curly green or purple kale, cut into fine chiffonade
- 8 crimini or button mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1/2 avocado, diced
- Pinch of sea salt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large handfuls baby spinach, chopped
- 1 large carrot (about 5 oz), small-diced
- 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 3 shallots or 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 oz raw walnuts, coarsely chopped
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp flax meal
In a large salad bowl, place the kale, mushrooms, avocado, salt, and lemon juice. Squeeze, massage, rub, and get nice and friendly with the vegetables until the kale begins to wilt and release some moisture, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, spinach, carrot, tomatoes, and shallots and mix again with your hands, massaging gently just to combine. Add the walnuts, nutritional yeast, and flax meal and stir to combine. Devour.
Recipe submitted to Wellness Weekend, Healthy Vegan Fridays, and Raw Foods Thursdays, as well as featured on Health Freak Food.
Meal Checklist: Protein—walnuts, flax, nutritional yeast. Whole Grain—none. Vegetables—mushrooms, avocado (really a fruit, but oh well), garlic, carrots, tomatoes, shallots. Leafy Greens—kale, spinach.
Local Ingredients: Garlic from Brantmeier Family Farm, carrots from Tipi Produce, shallots from the Plahnt Farm.
Comment Provoking Questions: Have you ever tried a massaged kale salad? (Obviously not, since I just came up with this recipe, previously unbeknownst to mankind.) What are you favorite vegetables to include in salads?
Until next time, Ali.
Wow – beautiful salad. Just had a look through your blog. What a fantastic resource! You’ve put a lot of work into it. You can tell it’s definitely something you’re passionate about. I’ll be telling my patients to check it out. If people are wanting to make a positive change with their diet, where do you recommend they start? Personally, I try to get people onto green smoothies, but was curious to see your thoughts. Keep up the great work!
Why, thank you very much! I’m honored to be of service to your patients.
I certainly think green smoothies are an easy way to start incorporating more greens, fruit, and all sorts of good nutrition into one’s diet. Many people find the idea and color of green smoothies off-putting, however, so I recommend starting with a lower green-to-fruit ratio, using a mild green like spinach, and blending in a generous amount of banana. As they become more used to green smoothies, they can start adding more greens and using stronger tasting (not to mention more nutrient-dense!) greens like kale.
I’d also highly recommend encouraging them to make more of their meals from scratch and decrease the amount of processed foods in their diets.
Feel free to email me at ali.seiter@gmail.com if you like! Thanks again for your support.
You can never have too many raw kale salad recipes… Yours looks like a great version.
My sentiments exactly. Thanks, Janet!
Looks good to me too!
Thanks, Mandee!
I just made and ate my first massaged kale salad a couple of weeks ago. I must have read your mind
i was surprised by how much different -and better!- the raw kale is when it’s wilted. Dont know why i didnt think tomadd nooch….grest idea!
I know, right? Raw kale can be very off-putting, but massaging it makes it much more accessible, not to mention delicious. Nooch is a SPECTACULAR addition!
wow, i make a salad almost identical to that one! great minds think alike
Well, I did indeed draw inspiration from your along with other vegan blogger’s kale salads. It truly is a delicious version!
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I love looking at new ways to include kale. Thank so much
You can never get enough kale, I always say!
This looks delicious Ali! I love massaged kale salads, so it’s always good to have more ideas
Thanks for submitting to HVF!
Thanks, Gabby! This recipe is actually my most popular post to date, which is quite encouraging seeing as it means that more and more people are trying to eat as much kale as possible. Whoo hoo!
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