Apple and Kale Salad with Oil Free Maple Dijon Dressing
When our CSA box arrived, full of kale and apples, this lovely fall salad almost created itself. I knew I had a hit when my daughter, her best friend and her boyfriend came to town and devoured the entire bowl in one sitting! It’s all fall with maple syrup, cranberries and apples. Maple pepper pecans are the perfect topping and add a great crunch. I am going to be serving this as one of the dishes on Christmas!
Make sure you don’t skip the first step of massaging the kale with lemon juice and salt. It softens the kale but most importantly, it removes the bitter edge. It’s like magic! This salad will hold well for a couple of days. You may have a little dressing left over, but I am sure you will find a use for it! If not, it will freeze well while it waits for the next salad!
Instead of using oil in the dressing, we are using a cashew cream. Let’s face it. Getting our calories from whole foods instead of processed foods is always a better choice. So, I decided this dressing would be a whole food dressing.
Did you know that cashews have a lower fat content than most other nuts? They have antioxidants and fiber. They are a good source of copper, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, and zinc. And they have been shown to help fight heart disease! Now, why wouldn’t we choose that over oil?
Enjoy this recipe and I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season!
Apple and Kale Salad with Oil Free Maple Mustard Dressing and Maple Pepper Pecans
Serves 6-8
Maple Pepper Pecans
- 1 1/2 cups pecans
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- pinch Himalayan salt
- Toss pecans in maple syrup, mustard powder, pepper and salt. Spread the nuts on a non-stick sheet and dehydrate at 115 until dry and crispy. 5 to 8 hours. Roughly chop pecans.
- Alternatively you can spread on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, stirring once while baking (not raw).
*If you are not going to use these right away, put in an air-tight container.
Dressing
- 1 cup cashews, soaked until soft, drained and rinsed
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 lemon, juice from
- 2 tablespoons diced shallots
- Place all ingredients except shallots in high-speed blender and blend until smooth.
- Stir in shallots.
Salad
- 3 medium bunches of kale, de-stemmed and torn into bite-sized pieces
- 1 lemon, juice from
- sprinkle of salt
- 4 apples, cored and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- Place kale in large bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and salt. Massage the lemon juice and salt into the kale for about 4 minutes.
- Add chopped apples and dried cranberries. Toss.
- Add dressing (start with half and then add to your taste) and toss well.
- Top with pecans and serve.
kaia lauren wrote on January 26, 2015
best salad ever in the world!!!!!! i love you mom!!
Susan wrote on January 26, 2015
Awe…I love you, too, Boo!
Monika wrote on January 23, 2015
Dear Susan, such a lovely recipe! This is the first I’m trying and not only sit and admire. Made it yesterday to myself and meat loving husband. We both loved it! And it turned out to look as beautiful as all your work 🙂 Am sure to make it again, however next in line is your Orange Chocolate Hazelnut Tort. Thanks for a Rawmazing and Beautiful site!
Cheers!
ASEA Associate wrote on January 17, 2015
Love picking up the new ideas for a raw food diet. My family and I have been going strong for 7 months now and this blog has provided a much needed boost for our menu. Thanks for the share; I will be back.
Vincent
Anna wrote on January 17, 2015
Everything looks insane!! So inspiring… can’t wait to try it at home!! 🙂
xx
Emma wrote on January 16, 2015
Thank you so much for the recipe! I always try to put more kale on my menu and now I`m really motivated to try your yummy- looking recipe 🙂
Richard wrote on January 11, 2015
I couldn’t find our website’s, what happened to them ?
http://www.SusanPowersPhotography.com
http://www.ShootingTheKitchen.com
Susan wrote on January 12, 2015
Hi, Richard,
They are back up. A glitch with some back end plugins. Cheers!
Shaun wrote on January 11, 2015
I would love to make this dressing, but I am not a fan of sweet dressings. Is there a good substitute for the maple syrup that isn’t sweet, or could I just leave the syrup out altogether?
Susan wrote on January 12, 2015
Hi, Shaun, I try to make my dressings very balanced as far as flavor goes. I don’t know that I would actually call this a “sweet” dressing even though it has maple syrup in it. If you are looking for a recipe that doesn’t, I would suggest trying a different recipe before I would just omit an ingredient. There would not be a balance of flavors at that point. Cheers!