Kale Salad For A Crowd

Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start of Summer- yay! It is also the start of all the fun potlucks and barbecues! We had a fun event last weekend, Comedy Night, where I brought a large enough kale salad to feed a crowd (20 people to be exact). This was a winner! You can dress it before you go, too; it makes it super easy. It also happens to be low fodmap friendly (obviously), and vegan as well! You can certainly scale back the size to just feed your family for the night. I’ve thrown in some chicken or grilled shrimp for a complete dinner.

Kale Salad with Maple Mustard Dressing

Ingredients for the Kale Salad:

Two heads of curly kale
Two medium sized Japanese red skinned sweet potatoes (or regular if you can’t find them!)
Large container of cherry tomatoes, preferably heirloom mixed colors
Sliced almonds
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Garlic powder

Ingredients for the Maple Mustard Dressing:

(This makes more than you need, but store remainder in a jar in your fridge and use all week on your salads!)

1 cup of olive oil- I use a mild flavored one
1/2 cup of Dijon mustard
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
6-8 tablespoons of maple syrup (adjust to how sweet you like it; the flavor of your olive oil will effect this)
2 small garlic cloves mashed
1 teaspoon sea salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.
Scrub sweet potatoes and cut in to fairly even cubes. Place on a baking sheet (you can line with parchment for easy clean up!), drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
Place sweet potatoes in oven and cook for 30 minutes until crispy, flipping potatoes with a spatula half way through cook time. Remove from oven when done and allow to cool a bit.
While potatoes are in the oven fill a salad spinner with cold water. Remove the tough stems down the center of your kale, tear into small pieces, and add to water. Allow to soak in water for a bit before draining and spinning the water out. You may need to do this in two batches.
Add kale to a large salad bowl. (I have and love this one.) I now take a pair of kitchen shears and cut the kale into even smaller pieces in the bowl. You can also hand tear it or just leave it in larger pieces.
Wash the tomatoes and quarter them. Add to salad bowl.
Add the warm (not hot!) sweet potatoes to the salad bowl.
Add one large handful of sliced almonds to the salad bowl.
Dress the salad with Maple Mustard Dressing (instructions below for dressing) as you like. I recommend starting light on the dressing and adding more as you go! Toss well! Remember you won’t use all the dressing you make for this salad! (This makes more than you need, but store remainder in a jar in your fridge and use all week on your salads!)
Bring to a party and enjoy!

Instructions for Dressing:

Combine all ingredients in a high powered blender or food processor and mix until very smooth. Check for seasoning and sweetness. Add more salt, pepper & maple syrup as needed.