Warm Kale Salad with Maple Lime Tahini Dressing
This cozy warm kale salad topped with a sweet and tangy maple lime tahini dressing is the best way to get your veggies in during the colder months. Hearty, tasty and easy to make for lunch or dinner.
My favorite seasonal veggies happen to be during the fall and winter…my least favorite seasons. I feel it’s a fair compromise and at least I know I will eat well during these months so it makes the time more bearable. So, when I want something like a salad this time of year, it tends to include a lot of cooked ingredients because me and the cold don’t mix. I like having something warm and creamy, so taking inspiration from my Pistachio Lime Brussels Sprouts I made this hearty Warm Kale Salad featuring my new obsession of a dressing, Maple Lime Tahini Dressing.
Why You’ll Love This Warm Kale Salad
- Everything cooks on a sheet pan. The salad is made using the oven. No stovetop or complicated cooking techniques needed.
- Budget friendly. Uses seasonal ingredients that helps to keep this salad more on the budget-friendly side of cost.
- Nourishing. Loaded with vibrant veggies and fiber packed chickpeas for a balanced and satisfying meal.
Key Ingredients and Substitutions
- Kale: Use hearty leaves like lacinato kale and curly kale. Avoid using baby kale as it is too thin for roasting.
- Brussels sprouts: To save time shredding use a vegetable shredder attachment with your food processor or a bag of pre-shredded brussels sprouts from your local market.
- Butternut Squash: Any winter squash you love works great in this too. Sometimes I love to swap the squash out for kabocha squash or honeynut squash.
- Chickpeas: To make this easy and accessible, I used canned chickpeas. If not a fan of chickpeas, try swapping for some butter beans or lentils.
- Tahini: Good quality tahini matters so use the brands you love. I personally always use Soom Foods.
- Maple Syrup: Our main sweetener that also blends into the dressing very well.
- Limes: Opt for fresh as we need both the lime and zest for flavor building. If not a fan of limes, try oranges!
- Pistachios: If you have a nut allergy, you can swap the pistachios for pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds.
- Pomegranates: Works really well with the citrus flavors of the lime. It’s okay to leave this out or swap with a different fruit like sliced apples.
How to Make a Warm Kale Salad
Dry off your chickpeas using a clean kitchen towel. Discard any skins that happen to rub off in the process. Place the chickpeas and the cubed butternut squash on a parchment lined baking tray and toss with a generous amount of oil and a pinch of salt to coat. Spread the chickpeas and squash out evenly on the tray with enough space in between for everything to roast then place on the top rack in the oven for 30 minutes, giving a toss half way.
Add the brussels sprouts and kale to a separate parchment lined baking tray and drizzle with oil and salt, then toss to coat evenly. In the last 13-15 minutes of the chickpeas roasting, add the tray of brussels sprouts and kale to the oven to roast, giving a toss half way.
Meanwhile, make the dressing by adding the tahini, soy sauce, vinegar, syrup, lime zest and juice, and garlic to a bowl and whisking together. When the dressing thickens, pour in half the water and whisk, then continue to add and whisk in water until your dressing is at your desired consistency. Taste and adjust with additional salt as needed.
Now assemble the salad. Add the kale and brussels sprouts to a mixing bowl and top with the crispy chickpeas and squash. Add half the dressing and the pistachios, parsley and pomegranate seeds. Give the salad a toss to combine and season to taste.
Expert Tips
- Remove any thick woody stems from the kale. Since we are roasting the kale for a short time, the thicker parts of the stem won’t cook through and will remain tough.
- Customize the flavors in the dressing to your preference. Use the recommended amounts as a guide and once fully mixed, taste and adjust and add more citrus, sweetness or saltiness to your liking.
- Adjust the dressing consistency to your liking. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time and whisk together until you achieve your desired consistency for the creamy dressing.
- Roast different vegetables. You can swap the butternut squash and/or brussels sprouts for other hearty in season winter produce like kabocha squash or cabbage.
- Spread out your vegetables on the baking tray so they have space to roast. This will make sure that your vegetables roast appropriately without steaming on top of each other.
Frequently Asked Questions
I used lacinato kale for the preparation of this salad as it is thicker and heartier, which allows it to roast for a little longer without burning. I would avoid using baby kale as it is thinner and works better used in raw preparations.
There are 4 things you can change about kale to make it less bitter. First, try counteracting the bitter with something sweet like maple syrup in a dressing. Second, try adding something acidic like lemon juice to breakdown some of the compounds associated with the bitterness. Third, some salt as it is an excellent method for blunting bitter flavors and helps to also breakdown some of the plant fibers that may lead to bitterness. Lastly, cooking which transforms a lot of those strong flavors into something more mild. By roasting the greens then coating them in a tahini maple lime dressing, we are tying all of these aspects together to help make our kale taste amazing.
Store the base salad, the pistachios, parsley and pomegranate and the dressing separately in airtight containers and place in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can enjoy this salad cold, but the salad can also be warmed back up. Preheat your oven to 325F and spread the leftover salad base on a baking tray. Allow everything to warm through for a few minutes and then drizzle with your dressing and top with the nuts, herbs and fruit when ready to serve.
How to Serve
This salad includes complex carbohydrates from the roasted squash, plant-based fats from the avocado oil and tahini, and protein from the tahini maple lime dressing, pistachios and chickpeas. You can make the salad even more hearty by including some whole grains like farro, quinoa, or wild rice.
More Satisfying Vegan Salads
- Roasted Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad with Crispy Tofu
- Cannellini Bean Salad with Maple Lime Dressing
- Chickpea Quinoa Salad with Marinated Tomatoes
- Roasted Lentil Potato Salad
- Kale Crunch Salad
Warm Kale Salad with Maple Lime Tahini Dressing
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This cozy warm kale salad topped with a sweet and tangy maple lime tahini dressing is the best way to get your veggies in during the colder months. Hearty, tasty and easy to make for lunch or dinner.
Ingredients
- 1, 15 oz can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 a medium butternut squash, peeled with seeds removed and cubed
- 1 bunch lacinato kale, woody stems removed and chopped into bite size pieces
- 1 lb brussels sprouts, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 2–3 tsp of maple syrup (I did 2, but you can make it sweeter if you like)
- Juice and zest of one lime
- 1 clove garlic, crushed or grated
- 3–4 tbsp of water
- 1/3 cup pistachios, chopped
- 1/3 cup parsley, minced
- 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds, optional
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Avocado oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Place the chickpeas in a clean kitchen towel and pat dry. Discard any skins that happen to rub off in the process. Place the chickpeas and the cubed butternut squash on a parchment lined baking tray and toss with a generous amount of oil and a pinch of salt to coat. Spread the chickpeas and squash out evenly on the tray with enough space in between for everything to roast then place on the top rack in the oven for 30 minutes, giving a toss half way.
- Add the brussels sprouts and kale to a separate parchment lined baking tray and drizzle with oil and salt, then toss to coat evenly. In the last 13-15 minutes of the chickpeas roasting, add the tray of brussels sprouts and kale to the oven to roast until softened and some slightly crisp around the edges, giving a toss half way.
- Meanwhile, make the dressing by adding the tahini, soy sauce, vinegar, syrup, lime zest and juice, and garlic to a bowl and whisking together. When the dressing thickens, pour in half the water and whisk, then continue to add and whisk in water until your dressing is at your desired consistency. Taste and adjust with additional salt as needed.
- Now assemble the salad. Add the kale and brussels sprouts to a mixing bowl and top with the crispy chickpeas and squash. Add half the dressing and the pistachios, parsley and pomegranate seeds. Give the salad a toss to combine and season to taste. Serve with extra dressing and toppings as desired.
Notes
Remove any thick woody stems from the kale. Since we are roasting the kale for a short time, the thicker parts of the stem won’t cook through and will remain tough.
Customize the flavors in the dressing to your preference. Use the recommended amounts as a guide and once fully mixed, taste and adjust and add more citrus, sweetness or saltiness to your liking.
Adjust the dressing consistency to your liking. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time and whisk together until you achieve your desired consistency for the creamy dressing.
Roast different vegetables. You can swap the butternut squash and/or brussels sprouts for other hearty in season winter produce like kabocha squash or cabbage.
Spread out your vegetables on the baking tray so they have space to roast. This will make sure that your vegetables roast appropriately without steaming on top of each other.
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on the blog, then let me know what you thought in the comments below! And if you loved it, don’t forget to rate it too. Feel free to follow on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok for the latest nutrition tips and recipe videos.
★ Catherine
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Can you please leave nutritional information with your recipes? It’s important for me to know especially protein and other things often lacking in vegan food, to ensure my diet is balanced and healthy. Thanks!
Hi Diane. Totally understand your request, but I don’t normally include this information for a few reasons. 1, these nutrients can vary depending on brand of product used and 2, I do have followers that visit my site that are negatively impacted by seeing these numbers due to ED diagnosis. For accurate measuring, I would suggestion taking the url and plugging it into an app like myfitnesspal that can convert the recipe page into the numbers needed and allow you to adjust numbers based on the branded products you may use. Thank you for understanding!