This salad is probably one of my favourite way of eating raw kale which I am going to be honest is not the most immediately friendly veg to be eaten raw, especially if you are a kale beginner!

The key to eat raw kale is to chop it extremely finely (the smaller pieces the better) and to massage it for few minutes with a bit of lemon juice and salt. In this way the leaves soften and wilt so it’s also much easier to digest. To balance the bitterness of the kale I like to add chopped apples, grapes and goji berries, apart from adding so much antioxidants and vitamins their flavours and texture just works perfectly together.

Finally the tahini dressing just brings everything together, it’s super creamy and decadent and make the kale even softer and juicer. This salad is also perfect to make in advance as it won’t go soggy, even after few days in the fridge it will still be crunchy. I like to make a generous portion on Sunday and then bring it into work with some some sweet potatoes wedges or some veggie burgers.

Ingredients: Serves 2

200gr of cavolo nero or curly kale

1 Jazz apple

½ cup of pecans

1 teaspoon of maple syrup or date nectar

1 cup of grape

1/3 cup of goji berries

The juice of ½ lemon

For the tahini dressing:

2 heaped tablesoon of tahini paste

1 teaspoon of sweet miso paste

2 tablespoon of lemon juice

2 tablespoon of water

Salt and pepper to taste

Start by preheating the oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

Mix the pecans halves with the maple syrup and place them on a baking tray in the oven for 10 minutes.Wash the Cavolo nero and remove the stem. Chopped the leaves finely (if you are not used to eat raw kale or cavolo nero I would suggest to chop it as finely as you can, in this way it will be also easier to digest)

Place it in a bowl and add the juice of ½ lemon, apple cider vinegar and a pinch of salt. With your hands start to massage the leaves, continue this process for a couple of minutes, you should start to see the leaves wilting. Leave it on one side.

To make the dressing:

Simply whisk all the ingredients apart from the water in a bowl. At last add the water gradually until you reach the desired consistency. Ideally you want the dressing to be creamy but not too thick.

Chopped the apple in bite size pieces and cut the grape in half.

Remove the candied pecans from the oven and leave them onto one side.

To assemble the salad simply add the apple pieces, the grape halves, goji berries to the bowl where you massaged the cavolo nero and mix everything together. When serving sprinkle the candied pecans on top and drizzle with the tahini dressing.