Kale & Broccolini Salad With Maple Vinaigrette Dressing

This Kale Broccolini Salad (as featured on my Instagram page) offers a well balanced way to dress up kale from the usual form we’ve become used to seeing over the years (usually in a smoothie or juice of some sort, sweetened up to mask the grassy flavor).

*Tip* – Be sure to massage the kale well after adding in the dressing to really break down the fibers and soften the kale to a more pleasant texture for you and your guests to chew and enjoy.

This salad is not your average garden salad that you’ll find at your local fast food joint. This kale broccoli salad is much more impressive as it contains both kale and broccolini which each offer amazing health benefits. The added benefits of the walnuts and dried cherries give a boost to other needed vitamins and minerals while giving some depth and balance to the flavors. As many of you may be aware of, Kale is known as a superfood due to its extremely high content of Vitamins A, K, and C. It is also very high in antioxidants. Broccolini, while not as common to find in all supermarkets and shops across the US, also offers antixoidants that have anti-cancer properties, much like is found in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables.

Here is what you're going to need for this recipe:

• 1 bunch Kale
• 1 bunch Broccolini
• 1/4 Cup Unsalted/Unroasted Walnuts
• 1/4 Cup Dried Cherries (Can be soaked in warm water to reconstitute if too firm.)
• 1/4 Cup Candied Pecans
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (Extra Virgin)
• 2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 tsp Maple Syrup
• 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
• Salt & Pepper, To Taste

First, rinse and pat dry the kale and broccolini. Remove the kale leaves from the firm stem to avoid any tough and fibrous stalks in the salad. Chop into bite sized pieces. Trim the ends of the broccolini stalks and chop into bite sized pieces, removing any leaves if necessary. Place all the greens into a large bowl and set aside.

Prepare Dressing as listed below. Once dressing completed, pour over entire mixed greens and gently massage the kale, ensuring to break down the fibers, resulting in softer leaves. Once the kale and broccolini has been thoroughly massaged, add pecans, walnuts, and dried cherries and toss evenly. Salad may be covered and placed into the refrigerator until ready to serve.

For the Maple Vinaigrette Dressing, place the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon mustard and salt & pepper into a medium sized mixing bowl and whisk vigorously to emulsify.

This recipe was posted to my blog (which was recently deleted in full so I've been slowly working at getting it back to being full of new content) which you can find at http://takemyveganity.com

Be sure to follow me there, where you can also find links to all my social media sites like Youtube, Instagram, & Twitter! Hope you all enjoy the salad and let me know what you thought about it in the comments!

Warm regards,

Dave