Tempeh Green Goddess Salad with Creamy Avocado Mint Dressing

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Tempeh Green Goddess Salad with Avocado Mint Dressing

Wanna be the healthiest goddess in town? Wanna glow from the inside out? Well then you gotta try this Tempeh Green Goddess Salad with Avocado Mint Dressing.

Course Salad, Stuff in a Bowl

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Servings 2

Author Brewing Happiness

Ingredients

Salad Ingredients

• 3-4 cups kale, chopped and de-stemmed
• 2 cups broccoflower, aka. green cauliflower, cut into florets
• 2 cups broccoli, cut into florets
• 1 cup english peas
• 1 avocado, cubed
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, roasted or raw
• 1/2 fuji apple, sliced
• 8 oz tempeh, sliced into 8 thin strips
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon coconut sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Creamy Avocado Mint Dressing Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup silken tofu
• 1/2 large ripe avocado
• 2 heaping tablespoons mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar (sub lemon juice)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 garlic clove, minced minced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Instructions

1. In a blender or high speed food processor, blend all of your avocado mint dressing ingredients until smooth and creamy.
2. In a large bowl, take 1/4 cup of your dressing and massage it into your kale. (Aka. take your hands and squish the kale and the dressing together until the kale is soft and the dressing is covering all of the kale.)
3. Divide your kale between two bowls. Top your kale with broccoflower florets, broccoli florets, english peas, avocado chunks, sunflower seeds, and apple slices - dividing each ingredient evenly between the bowls.
4. Then heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add in your tempeh slices and 1/2 cup water. Flip your tempeh over when about half of the water has evaporated.
5. Once all of the water has evaporated, add your olive oil, coconut sugar, salt and pepper to the tempeh pan and reduce the heat to medium.
6. Cook on each side for a few minutes, until the tempeh is golden brown and slightly caramelized.
7. Add your tempeh to each salad and top with more avocado mint dressing.
8. EAT UP.

Since I can’t exercise for a few weeks ’cause of my “broken back,” I’ve resolved to eat extra well – just cause it’s no fun feeling super heavy after a meal when you know you can’t do anything to combat it. So I’m trying to eat ALL THE GREEN THINGS EVER. And I think I pretty much succeeded with this salad. But this salad isn’t just for me, it’s also for you! ‘Cause it really is a nice winter to spring transition salad. It’s full of winter seasonal veggies, but it’s light and fresh like spring! I know the world is starting to warm up (thank goodness!) and that always leaves me craving light, fresh food. So if you’re in the same boat and you’re a goddess (hint: everyone’s a goddess) then this is the salad for you!

The great part about everything being seasonal is that it’s a very affordable meal to make! Especially cause you’ll have leftover veggies and dressing to make the salad again! The other think I love is that all of these veggies and fruits are super easy to prep. Just do some slicing and dicing and you’re done! I even took the easy way out and bought a bag of kale instead of cutting my own. (I do have a few grievances with bagged kale and you can hear about them in THIS VIDEO, but overall it makes my life easier.) If you’re a kale hater, then just replace it with some other lettuce-type leaf. Your salad, your rules – that’s what I always say.*

*Okay, I don’t always say that. But I did today.

I would say that the two defining elements of this salad are the tempeh and the avocado mint dressing. I prepped the tempeh in a very basic way. I know that a lot of you  have probably not made tempeh at home. (And I bet some of you haven’t even heard of it.) THAT’S TOTALLY OKAY! Tempeh is a nutty-flavored meat substitute made from soy. When I say meat-substitute I don’t mean it tastes like meat, I mean that it has protein and you can use it in meat-like ways. AKA this salad. The two keys to making tempeh at home are (!)

1. Always slice the block in half (lengthwise?)… meaning you want to cut it so that you are reducing the thickness by half. Does that make sense? IDK. I hope so. ‘Cause this will just make you’re life better. I promise. 
2. Always sauté/cook the tempeh in water first, allowing it to evaporate. I don’t know where I learned this from but it is VERY IMPORTANT. It takes out this weird indescribable sorta gross flavor that tempeh can have if you don’t cook it in water first.

The tempeh adds a nice smokey, nutty, salty and sweet flavor to the mix. And the avocado mint dressing adds an amazing creamy and refreshing taste to the salad. It’s an undeniable combo. You GOTTA TRY IT. K kewl. Bye.