Two Yummy Salads

After months of waiting, Veggie Burgers Every Which Way by Lukas Volger is available from my library.  I’m not disappointed, he really seems to get veggie burgers.  For me homemade veggie burgers symbolize everything great about veganism and vegetarianism.  While meat burgers are often just a slab of meat, veggie burgers are made from an eclectic collection of ingredients, and can have an infinite variety of textures, flavours and ingredients.  Once you get away from the meat, there’s so much to work with!  Like most vegan cooking, creating delicious burgers inspires me to be creative, play with food and marvel at all the amazing ways plants can be prepared.

I was inspired reading through this book this afternoon and made a recipe that I had all the ingredients on hand for, “Seeded Edamame Burgers with Brown Rice and Apples.”  Now that’s a mouthful of a recipe name!  These delicious burgers had an Asian flavour, so I decided to make an Asian-influenced roasted corn salad to go with and was craving kale so made a massaged kale salad to boot.  All in all, a colourful, yummy meal! 

Here are my two salad recipes:

Asian Roasted Corn Salad

• Kernels from 3 ears of corn
• 1 Finely diced red pepper
• 1 Finely diced carrot
• 1 t Toasted sesame oil
• 1 t Rice vinegar
• 1 t Tamari soy sauce
• 1/2 t Chinese 5 spice
• 1/2 t Ground ginger
• 1 Clove garlic, crushed

Preheat oven to 400.  Mix corn, peppers and carrot .  Whisk remaining ingredients in a small bowl.  Toss corn mixture with dressing.  Adjust seasonings to taste.  Roast for 30 – 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes until corn becomes slightly chewy.

Massaged Kale Salad

If you’ve never had a massaged kale salad, you’re in for a treat.  While raw kale is usually too tough to eat, when it’s massage with salt and oil the cell walls break down and make it tender.  I always feel light and energetic when eating it.  I’ve seen various versions in a number of vegan and raw cookbooks and this is my variation.  This version is a “Kitchen Sink” version, using whatever I had on hand, yummy!

• 1/2 c Arame
• 1 Bunch Black or Dinosaur Kale
• 1 T Hemp oil
• 1/2 t Sea salt
• 1 T Lime juice
• 1 T Balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 Avocado
• 1/2 Carrot, grated
• 1 small Kohlrabi bulb, grated
• 1 c Sunflower sprouts

Put arame into a small bowl and pour boiling water over to cover.  Set aside.  Remove kale stems and slice in small strips.  Put kale, oil, salt, juice and vinegar in a salad bowl.  With clean hands massage the mixture for 3 –5 minutes until it becomes bright green and is reduced in volume by half.  Add remaining ingredients and toss to combine.