Superfood Salad

Superfood Salad Fete-a-Tete 2

This super food salad is a colorful (and very satisfying) platter for a luncheon with the ladies, Sunday brunch, or a healthy weeknight dinner. It’s a composed salad. All that means is taking different ingredients put them together on a platter to create an impressive work of art.

Prep Time
Cook Time
Total
Servings
Ingredients
  • Kale and Chicken Salad:
  • 2 cups tightly packed kale leaves
  • 1 cup leftover plain chicken, roasted or grilled, chopped into small bite-sized pieces
  • ¼ cup walnuts, roughly chopped + ¼ cup chopped for garnish on final salad
  • 1 large apple, cored and roughly chopped into bite size pieces
  • Vinaigrette:
  • ½ cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp. dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp. goat cheese + 1 Tbsp. crumbled for garnish on final salad
  • pinch of salt
  • ½ lemon, juiced
  • Roasted Sweet Potatoes:
  • 1 large sweet potato
  • 1 tsp. dried oregano
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. olive oil + cooking spray
  • Quinoa:
  • ½ cup dried quinoa
  • 2 cups water or chicken stock
  • ½ lemon, juiced

Let's go

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First up, make the kale salad:

  1. Wash and chop kale leaves into thin, fine pieces. Transfer into a medium-sized bowl.
  2. Chop all other ingredients, chicken, walnuts, and apple, add to bowl with kale.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk all vinaigrette ingredients together: vinegar, dijon mustard, goat cheese, lemon and salt.
  4. Mix the vinaigrette with the kale salad mixture and refrigerate for 30 minutes – 1 hour. (Chef’s Tip: This allows the kale to tenderize, becoming less bitter, and for the chicken to absorb the flavors of the vinaigrette).

Now, move onto the sweet potatoes:

  1. Preheat Oven to 400° F.
  2. Peel and cut the sweet potato into small bite-sized pieces, about 1 inch.
  3. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly spray with cooking spray, to prevent sticking.
  4. Lay the potatoes onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle with dried oregano, salt pepper, and olive oil. Lightly move around to coat evenly and then spread out so they are all in one layer.
  5. Bake for 35 minutes, checking after about 20 to flip over if they are getting too dark.

In the meantime, make the quinoa:

  1. Rinse quinoa and put into a small saucepan, combining with the water or chicken stock.
  2. Bring to a boil. Turn down heat so it is on a low simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.
  3. The quinoa should have absorbed the liquid, without burning or sticking to the bottom of the pan. Juice lemon over quinoa, cover and let sit on the stove top for 10 minutes.

Now, let’s assemble the salad:

  1. On a medium-sized serving platter or in a large salad bowl, spread quinoa to form a bottom layer. In the middle, top with a heaping pile of the Kale salad, building the highest point in the middle, like a small mountain. Put the sweet potatoes on either side of the mountain. Sprinkle the walnuts and goat cheese across the top.
  2. Cover and reserve until you serve this.

Note: this can be made and assembled an hour beforehand. All components can be made 3 hours before if need be.

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