Creamy Millet and Kale Salad

I eat this salad once a week, and when I’m not eating it, I’m craving it. Who knew that a girl who ate her first salad at 19 years old would be loving kale one day? As much as I want to say that it’s the kale itself, I have to admit that it is the rich and cheesey non-dairy sauce that is the true kryptonite. This is a great recipe to try out on the folks that think kale is just a garnish. Feel free to swap out millet for quinoa—both are delicious and work well with this easy to prepare recipe. Don’t have kale around? Try spinach instead.

Makes: 2-4 servings
Preparation Time: 30mins

Tools:
Blender

Ingredients:
5-7 leaves of organic kale (or spinach)
1/2 cup uncooked organic millet (or quinoa)

For Sauce
2 Tbsp fresh, organic lemon juice
1 small clove of organic garlic
1 cup pure water
3 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp pink Himalayan or Celtic sea salt
3 Tbsp organic tahini
1/2 cup organic cashews, soaked

Let’s Get Started:
Bring 1/2 cup millet, a dash of sea salt and 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium, cover saucepan and cook until all water is absorbed into the grain—about 20-25 minutes. Don’t peek (this is why glass lids and glass saucepans are great). You want to keep all that heat/steam inside for fluffy millet.

While your millet is cooking, remove the stems from your kale leaves and wash them well. Roll the leaves and slice them into 1″ strips (a.k.a chiffonade).

Place your sliced kale into a large glass bowl and set aside while you prepare the sauce. In a blender, place all sauce ingredients and blend until smooth. Transfer to a small saucepan, and over low heat, stir for about 2-4 minutes until warm and it starts to thicken.

When your millet is cooked, fluff with a fork.

Pour your warm sauce over your kale leaves and add warm millet. Mix well.

The heat from the sauce and millet will start to wilt your kale leaves a bit. This makes for extra tasty, vibrant green kale.

Serve right away and/or store for up to one week in an airtight glass container. Feel free to reheat leftovers on the stove over low heat or eat cold. This is a great meal to make for satisfying, healthy lunches to bring to work and it is a delicious way to get a bunch of powerhouse greens in for the day. Prepare for addiction!

Where to purchase some of the unique ingredients online:
Find raw coconut oil at Sunfood Nutrition.

You can find the following at Amazon:
Fine Ground Celtic Sea Salt

Pink Himalayan Salt (Pack of 3)

Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

Nutritional Yeast

Organic Millet
Organic Quinoa

RawGuru carries:
Truly Raw, Organic Vietnamese Cashews
Fine Ground Celtic Sea Salt
Fine Ground Pink Himalayan Salt
Raw, Cold-Pressed Coconut Oil

Recommended appliances:
Vita-Mix 1700 Turbo Blend 4500 Countertop Blender

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12 Comments to “Creamy Millet and Kale Salad”

  • danielle Jul 9, 2010 4:34 pm

    wow I just made this with spinach so good!

  • 4 Little Men and Girly Twins Jul 11, 2010 12:52 pm

    I just found your site and I am in love!

    question…. what would you use instead of tahini? My son is allergic to seaseme… maybe add another pureed nut?

    oh and how long do you soak the cashews?

    thanks for sharing!

    brittany

  • Heather Crosby Jul 11, 2010 1:06 pm

    4 Little Men and Girly Twins~
    JUST last night I made this recipe (I did mention that I was addicted, right?) and was out of tahini. I doubled the amount of cashews instead and it was still delish. You may try soaked sunflower seeds too.

    Soak cashews 2-4 hours, but not much longer than that. Here’s a chart with soaking times for many nuts that may be helpful for the future. Let us know how it goes!

  • Denise Kuschewski Jul 21, 2010 7:19 pm

    OMG cheesy sauce is amazing. Didn’t remember to soak my cashews I’m advance and used straight sesame seeds instead of tahini and it still tastes sinfully yummy! Thanks yumuniverse.com.

  • Lisa Persico Aug 10, 2010 12:49 pm

    hey Heather!

    want to give this puppy a spin! is there another thing you would suggest if someone is allergic to nuts for a replacement of the cashews?
    maybe it just wouldn’t be as creamy?

  • Heather Crosby Aug 11, 2010 12:31 am

    Hey Lisa~
    I think you could leave the cashews out, or try macadamia nuts. Let us know how it goes!

  • Melissa Bortz Aug 13, 2010 7:08 am

    Wow, this was delicious! I am addicted to kale, in general, and loved this creamy sauce! Thank you for all of your fresh and delicious ideas!

  • Zom G. Aug 20, 2010 8:54 pm

    This dish used the last of my summer kale and it was so yummy! The sauce was dreamy & delicious and…you know what, I’m just going to go have some more instead of finishing up this description. Toodles & thanks!
    Zom G. recently posted..Vegetable Recovery PlanMy ComLuv Profile

  • Katherine (In Corpore Sano) Aug 22, 2010 10:57 pm

    Hi, I just found your blog and am so impressed. This cheesy kale recipe looks amazing. I can’t wait to try it.

  • Liz Aug 24, 2010 7:59 pm

    Amazingly yummy, loved it!!

  • [...] Creamy Millet & Kale Salad This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. ← Red Quinoa and Roasted Veggies [...]

  • Nathan Stock Aug 29, 2010 10:54 pm

    I have made this several times since you posted it and I don’t see stopping anytime soon. A classic. It’s the only way by body will ingest the ultra-nutrient-filled Kale (and love doing it).

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