Loaded Kale Caesar Salad

This Kale Caesar salad is loaded with so many delicious ingredients!

Did you all enjoy the holiday?  Is anyone else craving a huge salad right now?  We went over to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving, so I didn’t have to cook at all and it was glorious!  I feel like both the best and worst part about going to a friend’s house is that you don’t have any leftovers.

It’s the worst part because who doesn’t love eating cold mashed potatoes out of the refrigerator at 10:00 at night?  And, it’s the best part because sometimes I just want to be done with Thanksgiving dinner and move on to healthier meals.

So, although I was pretty good and didn’t completely stuff myself this year, it’s hard to do when you’re constantly chasing a 16 month old around the house, I’m ready to get back to healthy eating. Until Christmas 🙂

So, I feel like I need to give a disclosure about this Loaded Kale Caesar Salad.  When I came up with the original concept it was very much a Caesar salad.  But, then my imagination got the best of me and I just kept adding and adding ingredients.  It does have a creamy caesar like dressing and it does have crispy croutons, but it also has a ton of other things going on 🙂

At that point I couldn’t really back track and I couldn’t think of anything else to call it, so today I’m giving you this Loaded Kale Caesar Salad that’s maybe not quite a Caesar salad but still totally delicious!  It’s filling enough to be eaten for lunch or dinner and great for meal prep too!

Loaded Kale Caesar salad

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• Author: She Likes Food
• Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
• Yield: 4-6 1x

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Description

A healthy kale salad loaded with tons of delicious ingredients!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 4 cups diced bread, I like to use bagels
• 5–6 cloves garlic, not peeled
• 1 large bunch curly kale, stem removed and chopped
• 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 small red onion, diced
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 1 medium avocado
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Tahini Caesar Dressing:

• 1/2 cup tahini
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Roasted garlic from above

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Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.  On a large baking sheet, add the cubed bread, diced sweet potato and the garlic.  Try to keep them as separate as you can from each other, don’t mix together.  Drizzle everything with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Place in the oven.
2. Bake the croutons until crispy, 15-20 minutes and then remove from the tray.  spread the sweet potatoes out and bake until tender, about 25 more minutes.
3. Remove the roasted garlic from the papery outer shell and place in a blender along with the tahini, water, lemon juice and salt.  Blend until creamy, 30 seconds – 1 minute.
4. Place the chopped kale into a large bowl and squeeze a little bit of lemon juice over it and a sprinkle of salt.  Use your hands to gently massage the leaves for about 30 seconds.
5. Pour about half of the dressing over the kale and use a spoon to mix until all the kale is coated with dressing.  Add all the remaining ingredients (sweet potato, croutons, dried cranberries, chickpeas, onion and avocado) and then drizzle the remaining dressing over top.  You may need to thin it out with a little water for easier drizzling.

Notes

• If making as a meal prep salad: leave out the avocado until you’re about it eat it.
• You can either stir all the ingredients into the salad or lay them on top of the kale (like I did).  If making just for myself I stir them in, if making for a crowd I like to lay them on top so they can see what’s in the salad.

• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 60 mins
• Category: Salad, Vegan

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