Cranberry Apple Kale Slaw

Cranberry Apple Kale Slaw is a sweet and hardy salad. I love the juicy sweetness the apple and cranberries bring to this delicious fresh slaw. It is fantastic to make in large batches, you can store it in the fridge to enjoy through the week. It is also a really nice slaw to serve during the holiday season because of the beautiful red and green colours.

Make-Ahead Mason Jar Salads Virtual Cooking Class

We all want to eat a healthy lunch but often there isn’t enough time to eat our lunch between meetings let alone make a healthy lunch then eat it. Lunch hour is more like 20 minutes at best for most of us. It is really hard to make something healthy and have time to eat it mindfully in 20 minutes. That is why I like to make my lunches in advance. My favourite make-ahead lunch is salads.

During this online cooking class, we make Black Bean Quinoa Salad and this Cranberry Apple Kale Slaw. Both of these salads are really hardy and store well in the fridge so you can make them on Sunday night and enjoy them Monday-Thursday. To make it fun, you can store them in mason jars!

This class is created to run over the lunch hour so at the end everyone has a healthy lunch to eat. We make both salads together live from start to finish, no prep is needed before the class starts. Learn more about my Team-Building Virtual Cooking Classes here and email info@jesselanewellness.com for details and pricing.

Fresh Cranberry Apple Kale Slaw Recipe

dairy-free & vegetarian

Prep time: 15 minutes |  Serving Size: 4 – 6

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of kale, shredded or grated, 7 cups
• 1 apple, shredded or grated
• ½ cup dried cranberries

Honey Dijon Dressing

• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp honey
• Himalayan salt to taste

Directions

1. Whisk Honey Dijon Dressing ingredients together.
2. Place the kale in a large bowl and pour dressing on top. Massage into the kale for 1-3 minutes.
3. Sprinkle with apple and cranberries and enjoy.

Why Massage Kale?

Often people don’t like kale because it is too tough. Kale has thicker and stronger cell walls than other lettuce varieties. This makes it perfect for a salad that will sit in the fridge for a few days because it doesn’t wilt as easily. Giving kale a little TCL or a nice massage helps break down the cellulose structure of the kale making it softer, easier to chew, and easier to digest. If you plan to let your salad sit for a few days in the fridge, I don’t recommend massaging it because it will wilt more quickly. However, if you are enjoying your Cranberry Apple Kale Slaw right away, give it a little spa day first.

Health Benefits of Kale

Kale is so popular right now because it is bursting with health benefits! It is a rich source of antioxidants, including Vitamin C and A, which lower the risk of cancer.

• Antioxidants are compounds found in foods, usually colourful foods, that fight free radicals in your body. Free radicals can cause harm and you don’t want that! If there are too many in your body it can lead to diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Your body has its own antioxidant defences to keep free radicals in check. However, when free radicals outnumber antioxidants, it can lead to a state called oxidative stress. When you are in a state of oxidative stress for a long time, it can damage your DNA could lead to cell death or cancer. It also ages you more quickly.
• Vitamin C contributes to immune defence by supporting various cellular functions of both the innate and adaptive immune systems. It is also amazing and triggers your body’s collagen production. Collagen plays so many roles in your overall health, namely keeping your joints healthy and supporting strong hair, skin and nails.
• Vitamin A is great for vision and carotenoids that act like sunglasses by filtering UV light and preventing damage to the eyes.

This recipe is originally from my cookbook Healthy Fresh Salads

Before I became a Holistic Nutritionist, I worked as a Civil Engineer. Buying lunch every day would not only cost a lot of money but would also be detrimental to my health, so I always packed a salad for lunch. I literally ate a salad every day for the 7 years I worked as an engineer, that works out to roughly 1,700 salads!!!

Very quickly, I had to get creative with the salads I was making because I could not eat the same salad every day for 1,700 days!

I started playing with what I was putting in my salads and the types of dressing I was using. Changing up the greens, varying the veggies, and experimenting with different proteins. I created thin oil-based dressings and thick and creamy dressings (which are my personal favourite). I also started adding starches like brown rice and roasted sweet potatoes to my salads.

Not every salad was a winner, but after 7 years of salad making, I got pretty good at creating delicious and filling combinations. I’m excited to share those salads with you today in my cookbook Healthy Fresh Salads.

The salads in my cookbook are created by my and other Holistic Nutritionists. The Cranberry Apple Kale Slaw shared here was originally created by Suzanne Eden. Buy my cookbook for only $8!