Asian Kale Salad Recipe & More | Interview and Cooking with Chef Carole Levy

Asian Kale Salad Recipe & More | Interview and Cooking with Chef Carole Levy

Chef Carole can be reached at carole@theveggievanguard.com or you can follow her on Instagram @theveggievanguard

Carole has loved art and food since she was a young girl cooking with her
grandmother. Her first professional culinary experience was in a vegetarian
restaurant where she built a foundation for eating healthfully. After many years
of working with top chefs in restaurants and bakeries, she opened a café in San
Francisco and incorporated a culinary job training program as part of its
mission. While her career shifted away from food to creative advertising for the
film industry, she never lost her passion for
cooking. In early 2019 she participated in PPMNY’s 21 Day Jumpstart Program and shifted her 23 years of vegetarian eating to a whole food, plant based, SOS-free lifestyle eliminating dairy, salt, oil, and sugar. Since then she’s become Culinary Educator for Plant Powered Metro NY pod,
earned a certificate from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell, and is a certified Food for Life instructor.

Carole’s greatest ambition is to inspire people to take chances
in the kitchen by teaching individuals to cook without fear, be open to creativity,
and embrace more health minded, nutrient dense food combinations.

Asian Kale Salad with Vegetables in a Ginger Miso Dressing

2 cups kale, de-stem and chopped into small bite size pieces
A squeeze of lime or orange juice
½ cup snap peas
1 red bell pepper, deseeded and julienne
1 small carrot, made into ribbons
1 small cucumber, made into ribbons (prefer Persian or English for less seeds)
½ cup edamame (ok to use frozen)
⅓ avocado, pitted and sliced
1-2 scallions, chopped (or you can slice some shallot)
Cilantro, torn in small pieces
Fresh basil, torn into small pieces or chiffonade
Sesame seeds (optional for decoration)

• Wash kale, dry, and remove stems. Chop kale into small bite-sized pieces.
• Place kale in a large salad bowl and squeeze a small amount of citrus over the top
and using your hands gently massage, scrunching up until kale begins to soften.
• Bring a small pot of water to a boil, add snap peas and edamame and cook for a few
minutes, until bright green. Drain water and put these vegetables in a bowl of ice water to
stop the cooking.
• Start layering all the other vegetables on top of the kale.
• Toss with Ginger Miso Dressing, top with sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Makes 2 servings, if you eat salad as an entrée, the above would be for one person.

Ginger Miso Dressing Adapted from T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies

2 tbl miso paste (yellow or white preferred)
3 tbl rice or apple cider vinegar
1-2 medjool dates, pitted (depending on size and sweetness)
1-2 tbl grated fresh ginger
1 large garlic clove
¼ cup silken tofu or non-dairy plain yogurt

2 tbl mirin or sweet white wine
¼ cup water
• Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth.
Makes approximately 1 cup of dressing – so delicious it’s worth making double

Pesto
1 ½ cups packed fresh basil leaves
4 cloves garlic
¼ cup roasted pine nuts
1 ½ tbl nutritional yeast
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

• Put the basil, garlic, pine nuts, and nutritional yeast in
a food processor or blender.
• Pulse on and off several times, scrape down the sides.
• Add lemon juice
• Continue to puree until smooth paste is formed.
You may need to add more lemon juice to get desired consistency.

Makes approximately ½ to ⅔ cups

Peach Basil Nice Cream

2 frozen bananas peeled, cut into 1” pieces
2 frozen peaches pitted, sliced
2-3 tbl fresh basil, chopped

Note: Before freezing your fruit make sure it’s very ripe. Bananas should have lots of brown dots! Peaches will smell and give off a peach aroma and their skin will look have some indentations. By having super ripe fruit, this will make the dessert have the right sweetness without adding any extra sweeteners!

• Into a heavy duty blender or food processor
blend bananas so they begin to breakdown.
(Vitamix is best equipment for this)!

• Scrape the sides and push the nice cream down into the blades of the blender or food processor.
Add your sliced frozen peaches and basil. Blend until you get a smooth, soft-serve consistency.

• You can eat the nice cream straight out of the blender if you like the soft-serve texture. For a
firmer texture, spoon the mixture into a deep dish, cover and set it in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

• Store in an airtight container and freeze. When ready to eat again, let soften on the counter for 10-15
minutes, so you can scoop easily.

Makes ¾ quart – servings sizes depend on you!

Extra Comments:

I like these containers by Tovolo, with a tight-fitting lid, stack-friendly, ice cream tub
Available in (1) Quart and 6 oz. Mini-tubs, set of (4)

Drizzle nice cream with Balsamic Vinegar for special added flavor.