SERVES 1

PREP TIME: 10 minutes

COOK TIME: —

Have you ever ordered a restaurant salad with high hopes of chowing down on a huge bowl of greens and instead got a measly amount of veggies swimming in a pool of dressing? How restaurants think this is appealing is beyond me.

Well, this salad is the complete opposite. It’s loaded with greens, it’s packed with nutrients, and you don’t need a rubber dinghy to make your way across your plate. It’s the queen of all salads, the Mack Daddy of them all.

But maybe you’re thinking, “Leanne, it’s just a salad . . . what makes this one so special?”

I wondered the same thing when I had it for the first time in New York in 2012. It was like magic on my taste buds—the lemon, healthy oils, fresh herbs . . . the . . . mint? Mint in a salad? Weird. Who else is totally boggled by this concept? You won’t be after making this salad. I’ve been making this very same salad ever since, so I figured it deserved a spot in this book. It’s a winner!

If you don’t want to make the dressing as outlined below, this salad is also amazing with Lemon Turmeric Dressing & Marinade (here) or Honey Mustard Dressing & Marinade (here).

DRESSING:

¼ cup (60 ml) lemon juice

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons olive oil

1 teaspoon peeled and minced fresh ginger root

2 cloves garlic, minced

Pinch of finely ground sea salt

Pinch of ground black pepper

SALAD:

1 cup (60 g) destemmed kale leaves, roughly chopped

3 cups (85 g) mixed salad greens

¼ cup (38 g) hulled hemp seeds

Handful of fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped

Handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped

1. Place the dressing ingredients in a large salad bowl and stir until blended.
2. For the salad, rinse the chopped kale under hot water for 30 seconds or so to soften it up and make it easier to digest, then dry well. Add the dried kale leaves along with the rest of the salad ingredients to the bowl with the dressing. Toss to coat, then serve.

STORE IT: Keep the salad, stored separately from the dressing, in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3 days.

make it AIP:

Omit the black pepper. Replace the hemp seeds with chopped cooked chicken thighs.

make it LOW-FODMAP:

Replace the olive oil with garlic-infused oil and omit the garlic.

Per salad:

calories: 496 | calories from fat: 367 | total fat: 40.8 g | saturated fat: 6 g | cholesterol: 0 mg

sodium: 187 mg | carbs: 23 g | dietary fiber: 5.6 g | net carbs: 17.4 g | sugars: 4.4 g | protein: 9.3 g

FAT : 74%
CARBS : 18%
PROTEIN : 8%