Raw Baby Kale Salad with Apples, Sunflower Seeds and Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette

The South Arm Older Adults Community Kitchen made a Raw Baby Kale Salad with Apples, Sunflower Seeds, and Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette as a side dish to serve along with the Greek Bean Soup, Fassolada.

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Adding seeds to salad is a great way to add proteins to our diet.

Ingredients

  • 5 oz. mixed baby kale leaves (or use Red Russian Kale leaves, chopped)’
  • 1 large apple (like Honeycrisp)
  • 1/4 cup dry-roasted sunflower seeds

Dressing

  • 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • 2 teaspoons honey (or Agave nectar)
  • 1 teaspoon white balsamic vinegar (or any mild white vinegar)
  • 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

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Instructions

  1. If you can’t find the mixed baby kale leaves, Michelle highly recommend Red Russian Kale for this salad instead of other kale varieties. If using Red Kake, cut away the rib in each leaf and chop the kale into bite-sized pieces. The baby kale does not need to be chopped. Whichever kale you use, if it is even a little bit wilted, you can crisp it in a salad spinner with very cold water and then spin dry (or with paper towels, until it’s very dry).
  2. To make the dressing, mix together the white balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and sweetener and then whisk in the olive oil.
  3. Core the apple, cut into slices, and cut each slice into chunks. Put apple pieces in a small bowl and toss with about half the dressing, making sure each piece of the apple is coated with dressing.
  4. Put the kale into a bowl large enough to hold all the salad, add the rest of the dressing and toss to coat. (If you don’t like much dressing, you may not need to use all). Add the apples coated with dressing and sunflower seeds and toss again.

We only have two hours to use the kitchen this week as it has been booked for another event. Stella, the co-coordinator of the South Arm Seniors Program also helped out to make the cookies.

Here are the cookies that we made.

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These Chocolate Chip Coconut Oat Cookies are Michelle’s family favourite. According to Michelle, it is the perfect cookie. You can find the recipe here.

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The second cookie that we made is Crackled Gingersnaps. These are great for the Christmas holiday. Click here for the recipe.

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We bagged the cookies for the freezer until the fundraiser on 15th November. We have to bake these cookies much earlier because we will not have the community kitchen on Remembrance Day.

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A tip that Michelle shared on baking a perfect cookie is to have the butter in room temperature. A test that can be conducted to make sure the butter is at the right softness is to try to poke the butter and it should leave a mark like the above. If it’s still cold, you can microwave it for 15 seconds. Microwave 5 more seconds each time if it’s still hard.

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