Kale Cashew Salad with Crispy Tofu

This recipe was heavily inspired by Baked By Melissa and the salads she has been sharing online recently. It’s so delicious, crunchy, and flavorful and if you love miso peanut flavor profiles you’ll love this salad.

First I put kale in a food processor to chop it very small. If you have a good chefs knife and can chop the kale up super tiny, that would work too. Then to a bowl, I added the chopped kale, chopped purple cabbage, chopped carrots, a bunch of scallions, toasted cashews, and sesame seeds. This would also be really great with red bell pepper and cucumbers but I don’t love those so I chose not to add them. While putting this together cut up a block of firm tofu and coat it with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, a drizzle of sesame oil, and a hefty spoonful of chili crunch. Bake that on 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, mixing it halfway and turning it up to convection bake if need be. For the dressing I mixed the juice of 1 lemon, 3 tbsp of soy sauce, 3 tbsp olive oil, 2-3 tbsp of rice vinegar (depending how tangy you like it), garlic powder, 2 tbsp of miso paste, 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, and 1/4 cup of olive oil. This dressing is almost identical to Melissa’s from Baked By Melissa and her recipes are so amazing so definitely check them out if you haven’t. To serve I just tossed the salad in the dressing and there was some dressing left over, you don’t need to use all the dressing since it might get soggy. I topped it with the tofu and extra scallions, and this was such an amazing lunch. This would also make a great dinner with some rice to make it more filling!

with love ♥️,

Sydney