The Tuscan Kale True Foods Salad
I’ll always remember the first day I walked into a True Foods restaurant in 2010. OMG! I got their tacos. From that day a love affair started and I became a “True Foodie” Snob!
I love my food to be tasty, full of flavor yet healthy. I recently moved to Charlotte, North Carolina and I am awaiting for the first True Foods to open here. Phoenix has 2 of them within 15 minutes from each other and now I’m missing it dearly. I love everything they have on the menu. So with that, I’ve had to learn to recreate what I can not get. I lived in a town for 4 years with nothing but your basic fast food and Applebee’s so I needed to figure out how to make this delicious food. I added a bit of my own flare to their recipe.
Dr Andrew Weil created True Foods Restaurant with a focus on the anti-inflammatory way of eating. You can see his exact recipe here. There is a video of him on this page making it at the Phoenix restaurant. He talks about the key to making it taste just like the restaurants is having high quality olive oil and everything fresh. Fresh chopped garlic, kale and lemon juice, freshly grated cheese. I have been able to perfect it where it tastes just like True Foods and eat it at least once a week.
He’s a great person to learn from if you want to learn how to be healthy without starving yourself and with “diet..ing” I mean really, the first three letters of the word DIET are die. If you’ve hung out here for any amount of time you will see I am not a dietician, or nutritionist. I am simply someone who learns from others how to make healthy food taste great!
Copycat True Foods Organic Kale Salad
Notes
www.vangelaclark.com
Ingredients
- 1 bunch Lacinato Tucscan Kale (I buy from Trader Joe’s already cleaned and cut up, you still have to get the stems off though)
- Manchego or Asiago cheese cut in cubes or shredded
- Bread Crumbs
- Pine Nuts
- Tomatoes I prefer small ones on the vine
- Dressing
- 1 fresh minced garlic glove (no jarred stuff, it makes a difference)
- pinch Sea Salt
- pinch Pepper
- 4 TBLS Lemon Juice
- 1/3 cup olive oil Olive Oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper flakes (more if you like more kick)
- I make this and put it in my fridge so I have some for a couple weeks.
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a food processor for dressing and store in fridge if desired.
- The key to a great kale salad is you must food process your kale. Devein the leaves so there are no stems on it, then pulse in food processor to desired texture. Pour the dressing into the food processor to get the leaves soften and covered. YUMMMO
- Then add the toppings once kale is a bowl.
- Kale salads are great if you leave the dressing on for 20 minutes or so before eating because it softens and flavorizes the salad even more.
I always pair my kale salads with salmon or chicken. Mostly salmon. I made some coconut rice for my kids this specific night and added that to my bowl. My kids love coconut rice, and they eat this same plate of food. I do use a different dressing for them because I like a lot of garlic in mine and they don’t.
Have you been to a True Foods yet? What is your favorite thing to get? If I don’t get this kale salad, I get the Ancient Grains bowl and hummus plate. Yummo! Oh and their sweet potato hash is AMAZING! You can see my trick to making this kale salad here on Instagram. Enjoy!
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