Strawberry Kale Salad

Drizzled with a vegan buttermilk-style dressing, this Strawberry Kale Salad is the perfect light meal for swelteringly hot summer days. It’s makes a great lunch, but it’s also perfect for dinner. 

Hot, Humid Days

It’s been hot here. The kind of sticky, humid hot that makes any kind of simple activity seem like a daunting task. I don’t want to do anything except sit very still and drink buckets of iced tea.

Cooking dinner is at the top of my “I don’t want to do” list. Even though I have air conditioning, turning on the oven or standing over the stove to make a hot meal doesn’t sound appealing to me at all. I don’t want to eat hot food, either. On these super hot days, I turn to raw foods and salads.

Strawberry Kale Salad

To keep my meals interesting, I’m always on the lookout for new salad recipes. I came across a dish made with baby kale, strawberries, and endives in a recent issue of The Food Network Magazine, and even though the dressing was loaded with dairy products, it looked good. I headed to the kitchen to tweak the salad and veganize the dressing. After some tinkering, dinner was ready. It was cool and refreshing, and I devoured it quickly.

Strawberry Kale Salad comes together quickly, and it makes a terrific lunch or light dinner. It’s great as a side dish or a main meal on days when you want something that’s not too heavy. If you’d like to add a little more oomph, toss in some chickpeas or white beans.

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Strawberry Kale Salad

Drizzled with a vegan buttermilk-style dressing, this Strawberry Kale Salad is the perfect light meal for swelteringly hot summer days. It's makes a great lunch, but it's also perfect for dinner. 

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Keyword kale salad, strawberry salad

Yields 4 servings

Author Dianne Wenz

Ingredients

For the Dressing

• 1/2 cup almond or soy milk
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar divided
• 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked for two hours, rinse and drained
• 1 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons fresh chives chopped

For the Salad

• 5 ounces baby kale
• 1 pint strawberries sliced
• 3 endives sliced
• ¼ cup sunflower seeds roasted

Instructions

1. To make the dressing: Mix together 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar and non-dairy milk, and let sit for 10 minutes. It will curdle, which is what you want. Place the curdled milk in a blender along with the cashews, lemon juice, the remaining apple cider vinegar, mustard, sea salt, and garlic. Blend until smooth and creamy. If the dressing seems too thick, add water, a teaspoon at a time. Stir in the chopped chives.
2. To make the salad: Toss together the baby kale, strawberries, and endives in a large bowl. Drizzle on the dressing and top with the roasted sunflower seeds.