Purple Rainbow Salad with Orange-Ginger Poppy Seed Dressing

I was excited to finally make my first trip to Hoover's Market, which is about an hour away, but I wasn't nearly as excited as when I saw their fresh organic produce section... not to mention their bulk section and all the other healthy goodies! I am lucky to belong to a good local organic co-op which allows me access to a large variety of produce. But at Hoover's, they had all the things I had been wanting and more! I came home with a load of produce, my fridge was almost bulging! This will have to be a once a month trip.

So, on to this salad... Purple is the color of the week! I found some yummy purple kale, purple cabbage and of course beets (saving those for later :) These really are called red, but to the eye they are purple, technicalities bleh! Anyhow, I decided to make a big beautiful salad. This is a true rainbow salad here, red, green, orange, yellow and purple! And what did this yummy salad need, but a new light, sweet citrus dressing! I always loved poppy seed dressings and haven't had one in a long time. And it's been in the back of my mind to make a new healthy version, so here it is with a twist!

Orange-Ginger Poppy Seed Dressing:

1 large fresh orange juiced

1 tsp fresh orange zest

3 dates soaked

1/4 cup of water

1 quarter size piece of peeled ginger

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

4 tbsp flax oil

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp chia seeds

1 tsp poppy seeds

Purple Rainbow Salad:

6 stalks of purple kale

1/4 purple cabbage sliced thin 

1/2 cup of diced purple onion

2 romaine hearts chopped

1 carrot grated

large handful of alfalfa sprouts

tomatoes diced

cucumber diced 

red pepper diced

handful of Japanese "beech" mushrooms (or whatever mushrooms you have)

Directions:

For the dressing, soak your pitted dates in the 1/4 cup of water for about a half hour to soften them a bit ahead of time if you can, it makes it much easier to puree them. If you have a power house blender then you can skip this step. Then add the dates and soak water to the blender, then add the fresh orange juice, zest, ginger, salt, vinegar and oil and blend until you have a smooth liquidy puree. Then stir in the chia and poppy seeds and voila! This makes enough dressing for about 4-6 servings. Store the extra in a mason jar for 3-4 days.

For the salad, de-stem the kale and rip into bite size pieces, add in the romaine, cabbage, grated carrot, and sprouts. You can store it like this for several days to eat out of. When serving add the rest of the ingredients. It makes it easy to grab a quick salad. Or if serving to guests, add all the ingredients, dressing and mix. It will serve around 8 side salad portions. The great thing about salad is that you can use what ever you like and is available.