I’ve spent so much time singing the praises of Dreena Burton’s Kale Slaw with Curried Almond Dressing from her wonderful book Let Them Eat Vegan (go buy it now. NOW.) I’ve served it at countless parties and never once found someone who doesn’t like it (exception being my family because they are weird. (I love you)). Die-hard junk foodies and meat-and-potatoes men have gone for seconds of this green ambrosia. You should make it! Really really do.
I was going to make it myself yesterday to counteract my weekend junk food binge, but had trouble mustering the energy because I was missing several dressing ingredients. Plus I didn’t feel like hauling out the food processor or blender. So I had a great idea. Over the weekend I picked up some weird “40 spices” hummus at my local inadequate grocery store. It was pretty strong and I wasn’t crazy about it on my pretzels, but I thought it might be a good sub for the dressing on my kale. So I thinned it out with some lemon juice (from a bottle! Please go buy a real lemon.) and other stuff and voila! Passable dressing.
So here it is. All amounts are approximate because Penny Parsnip doesn’t measure ever.
Lazy Kale Slaw
Ingredients:
1 big bunch of kale, stemmed and torn into bite-size pieces
couple of carrots, thinly sliced or julienned (or buy pre-shredded carrots like a true lazy person)
4 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1/2 of a small onion, thinly sliced (optional)
handful of raisins or craisins
1 apple finely diced or julienned, tossed with some lemon juice
1/2 a small tub of your favorite or least favorite spicy hummus. I used Tribe 40 Spices hummus.
lemon juice, vinegar, soy sauce, maple syrup or honey
assorted dry seasonings like garlic powder, mustard, or dried herbs to jazz it up
1. Toss the veggies together in a giant bowl.
2. Whisk the lemon juice or vinegar into the hummus until it is thinned out a bit, adding more to taste. You want it to still be pretty strong, since it will be clinging to a lot of veggies. Season to taste, and thin it to about the consistency of a thick bottled ranch dressing, but no thicker than mayonnaise. Does that make sense?
3. Pour the dressing over the veg and mix with your hands to distribute it evenly over the greens. Really massage the leaves so they soften up a bit, and make sure all the small stuff doesn’t sink to the bottom.
Enjoy! Let me know if you find any interesting combinations. You could put all kinds of vegetables in; the original recipe calls for fennel. I often use shredded raw beets. Some red bell pepper would be good in there, or some nice fresh corn if you can still get it this late in the year.
The Penny Parsnip 