This is a fresh, delicious and warming Kale Salad with Warm Vegetables. This salad is really easy to make and only require a few key ingredients. Serve this salad as a main course on its own, add your favorite protein to it or serve it as a side dish to your main course. This salad is both vegetarian and gluten free and can be made vegan.
I really love mixing raw and baked/fried vegetables in a salad. It make a salad much more interesting, makes it both fresh and light as well as flavorful and warming at the same time. This salad is made with green kale as the base and paired with baked beetroots and sweet potatoes, fried mixed mushrooms and fresh cherry tomatoes. It is served with a delicious and flavorful dressing that has a bit of an Asian touch and topped with dry roasted warm sunflower and pumpkin seeds. This salad is really easy to make, taste amazing, has both a lot of taste, different textures but still feels light and fresh. It can easily be adapted according to taste and food preferences and also be made vegan. It is great to eat on its own, to top with your favorite protein or to serve as a side dish to your main course.
Afew tips:
- Start by baking the beetroots until they’re medium soft before you add the sweet potatoes since they will get ready faster than the beetroots.
- You can use any mushrooms that you like or have at home. I used a mix of chanterelles, shiitake and portobello mushrooms.
- I really don’t like making very heavy dressings, hence I only used a small teaspoon of mayonnaise to add some tanginess to the dressing. But you can add more if you prefer a richer mayonnaise taste but you can also omit it if you want to keep the dressing lighter. Yes, it will impact the taste a bit but just go with what you like.
- The sriracha sauce is optional, depending on if you want a spicy or non spicy dressing. You can also adjust the amount of sriracha according to taste.
- I would recommend you to use freshly roasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds that still are warm. I really love the warmth they add to the salad.
Ingredients for this Warm Kale Salad:
- Kale
- Beetroots
- Sweet potato
- Mixed mushrooms (I used chanterelles, shiitake and portobello)
- Cherry tomatoes
- Sunflower seeds
- Creme Fraiche
- Mayonnaise
- Tamari or soya sauce
- Rice vinegar
- Lemon juice
- Sriracha sauce
Other recipes you might like:
- Halloumi Salad Bowl (Vegetarian & Gluten Free)
- Baked Feta Cheese & Grape Salad (Vegetarian, Gluten, Grain Free & Low Carb)
- Summer Salad with Sweet Potatoes & Fried Peach (Vegetarian, Gluten & Grain Free)
- Winter Kale Salad (Vegan, Gluten Free & Low Carb)
- Easy Winter Salad with Apple Cranberries (Vegetarian & Gluten Free)
- Antioxidant Quinoa Salad (Vegan & Gluten Free)
- Half Baked Salad (Vegan, Paleo & Gluten Free)
Warm Kale Salad (Vegetarian & Gluten Free)
Ingredients
- 4-5 Kale leaves cut into smaller pieces
- 2-3 Beetroots washed and quartered
- 1 medium Sweet potato sliced
- 200 g Mixed mushrooms (I used chanterelles, shiitake & portobello) cut into smaller pieces
- 6-8 Cherry tomatoes divided in two
- 2 tbsp Sunflower seeds
- 2 tbsp Pumpkin seeds
For the dressing
- 1 dl Crème fraiche
- 1-2 tsp Mayonnaise (optional)
- 1-2 tsp Tamari or soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp Rice vinegar
- 1 tsp Lemon juice
- 1/2-1 tsp Sriracha sauce (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
- Cut and wash the beetroots and sweet potatoes.
- Place the beetroots on a parchment covered baking sheet or in a baking pan and drizzle some olive oil on top. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes.
- Add the sweet potatoes to the baking pan and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and golden brown.
- Meanwhile combine the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl. Taste to check if additional seasoning is needed.
- Slice the green kale and add to a bowl.
- Preheat a nonstick pan over medium heat with some olive oil when about 5 minutes of the baking time for the vegetables in the oven remain.
- When the pan is hot add the mushrooms and fry until golden brown, stir regularly.
- When the mushrooms are done add them to the bowl.
- Add the cherry tomatoes to the bowl.
- Place the pan back on the stove and add the sunflower and pumpkin seeds and dry roast until warm and golden brown.
- Take out the vegetables from the oven and add to the bowl.
- Add about half of the dressing to the salad and mix until combined and all parts are covered with the dressing.
- Top with the roasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds and serve with more dressing on the side.