Thai-Inspired Kale and Carrot Salad

Last week, I participated as a featured food blogger (woo!) in a kale-centric event at kor180, an indoor cycling and pilates studio in downtown Austin. It was a blast! I demo-ed one of my recipes, met a ton of awesome members of the Austin fitness and cooking community, and generally had a great time.

Obviously I was jazzed to attend a party ALL ABOUT KALE, and also unsurprisingly, I put an Asian twist on my salad recipe. What can I say? Sometimes I’m pretty predictable. In this case it was a good thing, as my recipe turned out really well, if I do say so myself. It’s crunchy, salty, sour, a little sweet, and a little spicy. Plus it’s veeeerrry easy to make and totally good for you. What’s not to love?!

Thai-Inspired Kale and Carrot Salad

Makes 4-ish servings (depending on how hungry you and your family/friends are, of course) – feel free to improvise on some of these ingredients to make the dressing as spicy/sweet/salty as you like! (By the way, you should be able to find all these ingredients at your local Whole Foods or Asian supermarket.)

Salad:
2 bunches kale
3 carrots, peeled
1 package of extra-firm tofu, chopped into 1/2″ cubes

Dressing:
1/3c soy sauce or tamari
1/8c canola oil
1/8c sesame oil
1 big squirt of Sriracha
1 big squirt of agave
A few hearty shakes of fish sauce
1 tbsp kaffir lime juice
Juice from one medium lime
1 heaping tablespoon peanut butter (optional)

Garnish:
Big handful bean sprouts
A few sprigs of cilantro, roughly chopped
Handful ground or crushed peanuts

Salad:
Roughly chop your kale into ribbons and julienne your carrots using a peeler (like this one! So useful for all sorts of fancy vegetable garnishes) and gently toss them together in a big bowl with your tofu cubes.

Dressing:
Mix together all your dressing ingredients and give it a taste. If you like it thicker/creamier, add peanut butter. If you like it thinner, go without. As I mentioned above, feel free to add more Sriracha or some chili flakes to make it spicier, more agave to make it sweeter, or another dash of fish sauce or soy to enhance the saltiness. Once the dressing is to your preferred consistency and flavor profile, toss it with your salad ingredients.

Garnish:
This is the easy part! Toss a big handful of all three garnishes on top of your salad and… dig in!