Kale Salad with Avocado Dressing

Kale Salad with Avocado Dressing

Ingredients:

For the Salad:

• 10 cups chopped kale leaves

• 1 apple, sliced and cut in half

• 1/4 cup toasted walnut

• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 2 tbsp lemon/lime juice

For the Dressing:

• 1 avocado

• 1/2 cup fresh basil

• 1/3 cup olive oil

• 2 to 3 tbsp fresh lemon/lime juice

• 2 garlic cloves

• salt and pepper to taste

• 2 tbsp water + more if needed

1. Cut avocado in half, remove the seed. With a spoon, scoop out the flesh and place in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add the basil, garlic and 2 tablespoons each of water and lemon/lime juice. Process on low speed as you slowly pour in the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add in the additional 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and water if you'd like a thinner dressing. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Place the chopped kale leaves in a large bowl and drizzle the olive oil and lemon juice over the leaves. Using your hands, massage the oil and lemon juice for a few minutes into the leaves. This process helps to soften the leaves. If you are using young kale leaves, skip this step as the young leaves are much more tender than the mature leaves.

3. Add the sliced apples, toasted walnut and dried cranberries to the salad. Serve with the Avocado Dressing.

Yields: 4 servings (as a main meal) or 6 servings (as a side salad)

Notes&Tips:

• With our vegetable garden producing a lot of kale, I like to use the young kale leaves to make salads - not only for lunch but also for dinner as the main meal.

• Most of the time, I use the young kale leaves so I do not need to "tenderize" the leaves for a salad. For this recipe, the kale leaves were more mature and hence, I added olive oil and lemon juice rubbed into the leaves to help tenderize them to make them more edible in a salad.

• The Avocado Dressing for this recipe can also be used as a dip for raw vegetables such as carrots, celery, cucumber and sweet peppers or even for seeded crackers like Crunchmaster.

• My family and I enjoyed this Kale Salad with Avocado Dressing as our main meal for dinner. It was filling and delicious.