Creamy Millet and Kale Salad

I eat this salad once a week, and when I’m not eating it, I’m craving it. Who knew that a girl who ate her first salad at 19 years old would be loving kale one day? As much as I want to say that it’s the kale itself, I have to admit that it is the rich and cheesey non-dairy sauce that is the true kryptonite. This is a great recipe to try out on the folks that think kale is just a garnish. Feel free to swap out millet for quinoa—both are delicious and work well with this easy to prepare recipe. Don’t have kale around? Try spinach or chard instead.

Makes: 2-4 servings
Preparation Time: 30mins

Tools:
Blender

Ingredients:
Try to buy everything organic. Here’s why.
5-7 leaves of kale (or spinach or chard)
1/2 cup uncooked organic millet (or 1 1/2 cooked cups of quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice, chickpeas or gluten-free noodles)
1 1/2 cups pure water
Dash of fine ground sea salt or kombu (what’s kombu?)

For Sauce
1/2 cup cashews, soaked
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 clove of garlic
1 cup pure water
1 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1-2 tsp fine-ground sea salt (to taste)
1 tbsp tahini (optional)

Let’s Get Started:
Bring 1/2 cup millet, a dash of sea salt and 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium, cover saucepan and cook until all water is absorbed into the grain—about 20-25 minutes. Don’t peek (this is why glass lids and glass saucepans are great). You want to keep all that heat/steam inside for fluffy millet.

While your millet is cooking, remove the stems from your kale leaves and wash them well. Roll the leaves and slice them into 1″ strips (a.k.a chiffonade).

Place your sliced kale into a large glass bowl and set aside while you prepare the sauce. In a blender, place all sauce ingredients and blend until smooth. Transfer to a small saucepan, and over low heat, stir for about 2-4 minutes until warm and it starts to thicken.

When your millet is cooked, remove from heat and let it sit with the lid on for 5 minutes. Then, fluff with a fork.

Pour your warm sauce over your kale leaves and add warm millet. Mix well.

The heat from the sauce and millet will start to wilt your kale leaves a bit. This makes for extra tasty, vibrant green kale.

Serve right away and/or store for up to one week in an airtight glass container. Feel free to reheat leftovers on the stove over low heat or eat cold. This is a great meal to make for satisfying, healthy lunches to bring to work and it is a delicious way to get a bunch of powerhouse greens in for the day. Prepare for addiction!