Kale Salad with Butternut Squash, Potatoes, and Vegan Green Goddess Dressing

~Amanda~

Alright, I know that the words KALE SALAD probably scare a lot of people, but don’t stop reading yet and just give this amazing recipe a chance… I honestly believe it will change your life and might even make you love kale, seriously, I’m not joking (and for those of you that are like me and already are obsessed with kale, you are absolutely going to love this salad!). One of my favorite blogs to look at for recipe ideas these days is Kale Me Maybe. I mean first of all the name is amazing, but secondly, she has the most delicious and nutritious recipes and I am always getting so many new ideas and inspiration from her. I first came across this recipe a few months ago and with a few additions, I am obsessed with it, particularly with the homemade Vegan Green Goddess Dressing. It’s super healthy and one of the best salad dressings I’ve ever had!  

The green goddess dressing, as you probably guessed, is made with a bunch of flavorful and healthy green things like avocado, green onion, cilantro, and basil. And the base of the dressing is cashews… there is no oil or anything heavy or creamy in the dressing, just natural, organic, vegan, healthy ingredients so there is no guilt at all! This was the first time I had ever used soaked cashews in a recipe and it originally sounded a little weird to me, but they totally make sense to use now that I’ve made it so many times. You soak the cashews in water overnight before blending them with the other ingredients in a blender. By soaking them, you are making the cashews so soft and when blended they get almost creamy in texture and make the dressing seem so much more indulgent than it really is. This is huge when you’re trying to eat healthy… make homemade things that taste so good that you think they should be bad for you, but they’re actually so good for you!

Now onto the KALE… I absolutely love kale and the more I eat it, the more I love it. It does have a unique taste from other greens because its high iron content makes it slightly bitter and I think this is what scares some people away from it. But when it’s combined with this creamy and bright green goddess dressing, warm and sweet butternut squash, salty and savory potatoes, and tangy sundried tomatoes, you don’t notice that bitter flavor one bit… the kale is merely an insanely healthy vessel for all those other super delicious and healthy ingredients to go on. And now because we’re on our health kick this month, I’m going to tell you how good kale really is for you to give you even more incentive to eat it!… Kale is loaded with antioxidants (quercetin and kaempferol), it can help lower cholesterol which in turn may reduce the risk of heart disease, there are numerous cancer-fighting substances in kale, and it’s an excellent source of so many vitamins (C, K, and A being the highest in daily percentage values). So good for you that it’s at least worth it to give it a chance, right?!

To make the salad, first start by making the dressing by combining all the ingredients in a blender. Then the next step is to roast the butternut squash and potatoes. Roasted butternut squash is one of my favorite things ever… I seriously buy at least two a week to have with dinner or I even mix leftovers with scrambled eggs and peppers for breakfast! When roasted, it is so sweet and delicious and is the perfect addition to this salad. The roasted potatoes offset the sweet butternut squash to give the salad some contrast. Some additional add-ins can include sundried tomatoes, garbanzo beans, and you can even throw in some leftover proteins from other meals (we had some amazing leftover chicken apple sausage that I put on top of our salads and it was the perfect boost of protein). Sounds pretty tasty, right?! Give this salad a chance and you might find you actually like kale and can start incorporating it in to your diet more frequently!