I’m excited to share this delicious romaine salad recipe from Chef Jessica Bella, a talented chef with unique ideas for creating delicious and super healthy recipes.
A Unique & Delicious Salad Recipe
She’s a Certified Natural Foods Chef and Graduated from The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health & Culinary Arts. She focuses on creating vibrant, Superfood rich recipes that nourish the body. We are collaborating on some recipes to share with you and I think you’ll love this romaine salad with kale.
I use fresh and crispy romaine as the base (you can also add dark leafy greens like baby spinach, arugula, and kale). If you want to learn more about the benefits of eating greens, be sure to read my article series: Get Your Leafy Greens On (Part 1) and Part 2.
Then I’ve added sweet and crunchy apples (feel free to use both tart green and sweeter Honeycrisp), and tart *unsweetened cranberries or cherries.
Then for an extra texture and boost of omega-3, this salad is topped with rich walnuts or gut-cleansing pumpkin seeds. Just right to make this salad full of flavor, texture and a plethora of vitamins minerals.
It’s the dressing that makes this salad shine. It’s creamy, savory and sweet; includes potassium, magnesium and calcium-rich tahini, fresh turmeric for an anti-inflammatory kick, a whole orange for vitamin c, immune boosting garlic and heavy metal detoxing cilantro (or parsley if you are one of those that dislike cilantro).
This romaine salad is wonderful to enjoy any season. It’s bright and refreshing for summer, and the vitamin punch in this dish make this a perfect immune boosting salad for winter.
Looking for the perfect plant-based dinner?:
- Vegan BBQ Meatloaf
- Acorn Squash Stuffed with Quinoa
- Mushroom Burgundy Sauce Over Polenta
- Sweet Potato Veggie Lasagna
You can find her these days at the Integral Center whipping up delicious recipes for sale like fully loaded sweet potatoes with spiced chickpeas & Asian firecracker slaw with almond tahini ginger dressing. Visit her, Facebook page if you’d like to see what she’s up to.
She also offers Sacred Meditative Dinners and other conscious community events that focus on the relationship with our food, transformative healing retreats, and also offers personal Wellness and Vibrancy coaching and personally tailored prepared food and cleanse programs. You can also follow her @chefjessicabella on Instagram.
I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below for this Romaine Salad Kale Apples Cranberries recipe! If you have a photo, post it on my Facebook page, tag me using the hashtag #plantbasedcooking
This recipe is Certified Plantricious because it meets the following guidelines.
The Trusted Seal for
Plant-Based Nutrition
- Must be whole food plant-based, contains no animal products
- May be minimally processed
- No added oil
- No added sugars
- No artificial additives or preservatives
- Sodium (mg) to Calories ratio, 1 ≤ 1
- Total Fiber to Calories, 2g ≥ 100 calories
Romaine Salad with Kale, Apples & Cranberries
Equipment
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 head of romaine lettuce washed and chopped
- 3 large leaves of kale washed and chopped
- 2 carrots shredded
- 1 apple seeded and cut into thin slices
- 6 scallions white and green parts chopped
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries , low sugar & no oil. Honestly Cranberries
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
Dressing
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 1 orange peeled
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 1-2 tbsp fresh turmeric rough chopped (or substitute1/2 tsp powdered turmeric)
- 1/4 cup fresh lime or lemon juice (1 whole)
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
- dash of cayenne pepper
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place all of the salad ingredients, except the apple slices, into a large bowl.
- Place the dressing ingredients into a blender and blend on high until smooth.
- Drizzle the dressing over the salad ingredients and toss to coat.
- Place the apple slices around the bowl in an decorative pattern.
Chris
This salad was delicious. I didn’t have any pumpkin seeds so I used toasted pecans instead. Also just cubed the apple and toasted it in with the cranberries and everything else. Added no extra salt due to dietary restrictions. It was a big hit. Will definitely make this again.
Diane Smith
Hey Chris, I’m so glad you enjoyed it and mixed it up with your own take! Thanks for letting me know.