Super Foods Salad

You probably have seen articles in health magazines that talk about “Super Foods”. These are not little produce items sporting a cape and mask, but they do perform a lot of crime fighting in your body. Some Super Foods ward off high cholesterol, others heart disease, and some research supports that Super Foods can prevent cancers. Most of these foods I tend to eat on a daily basis; tea, oats, tomatoes, and yogurt. Others, not so much. So I decided to make this Super Food Salad to increase my consumption of some of the other ones. Not only is it good for your internal fighting machine, it’s filling and had a variety of tastes and textures. Serve it as a main course for lunch sometime soon! 

Makes: 4 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes      Total Time: 15 minutes

4 cups packed kale
2 cups cooked quinoa or wheat berries *
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 carrot, shredded with a grater
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
2 tbs sunflower seeds

Dressing:
2 lemons, zest and juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbs honey
1 tbs maple syrup

• For Dressing: Combine zest and juice of both lemons, honey, and maple syrup in a small bowl. Whisk in the olive oil until the dressing is well blended. Set aside.
• Remove the stems from the kale with a knife and chop the kale into small, bite-sized pieces. Halve the cherry tomatoes if you with and combine all of the salad ingredients in large bowl except for the sunflower seeds. Add the dressing and mix together really well so that everything is incorporated. Add the sunflower seeds over top to serve.

* You can find precooked wheat berries and sometimes quinoa in the salad bar section of Whole Foods or in the freezer section at some health food stores. It saves a lot of time to purchase wheat berries precooked.