I’ve never known my beau to eat tahini (I’m not sure if he’s ever even tried it) so when I made this salad, I didn’t tell him it would be doused in a tahini dressing…and he ate himself a big honkin helping. I loosely followed this recipe with a few tweaks.
Two ingredients I swapped:
- Instead of kale, I used baby kale. It’s more like lettuce, not so tough, and much more my speed. You still massage in the olive oil, but you won’t need as much.
- Instead of toasted pine nuts, I used toasted slivered almonds. This is simply because it’s what I had in the house. I actually think the larger size of the nuts worked well here since there’s basically only two other ingredients. The nuts felt like a true third ingredient vs. a garnish thrown on top.
- I also left out the red onion because I really dislike raw red onion.
You can read the recipe but I’ll lay out the basics for you right here in case you don’t feel like clicking through. Start by sticking a bunch of cauliflower in the oven and roasting with a drizzle of oil and sprinkles of garlic powder and salt. While that’s in the oven, prep your other two main ingredients. Massage baby kale with olive oil and let it sit so it softens up. Now make a dressing by combining tahini with water, minced garlic, fresh lemon juice, salt, and honey. When the cauliflower is done, toss with the baby kale, toasted almonds, and tahini dressing.
Thanks to the baby kale (vs. regular) this felt like a salad more than simply a veggie side dish. But it’s a warm salad. You’re gonna be all “what? a salad that’s warm? who does that?” You. You do that now. And you won’t regret it.
I served the salad with whole wheat pearled couscous tossed with olive oil and feta and pork chops broiled with lemon pepper seasoning. It was remarkably easy to keep all components of this meal in the same flavor fam.
Peaches to Apples 