Quick and EASY Kale and Bean Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Our garden this year is BURSTING with kale. Next year, I will plant like half as much... Luckily I have been able to trade it out for some other veggies from friends and family. In the mean time, I have been trying to work as much of it into our meals as I can without burnout. I've sauteed and added it into pastas but my favorite way to enjoy it has been in salads. Since kale is pretty hardy, you can mix up a salad (dressing and all) and it will keep for the week. This week, I worked up a tasty version with chickpeas, black beans, walnuts, dried cranberries, carrots and sunflower seeds. I mixed it up with a pomegranate vinaigrette and it is super tasty, filling and healthy!  

  Pomegranate Vinaigrette: 1/2 cup pomegranate juice 1/4 cup oil 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper


Pintrest / Instagram / Twitter

How does your garden grow?

I've always enjoyed gardening and growing my own food. It's so rewarding to till up the dirt and plant seeds or little sprouts and watch them grow and feed you and your family. I love being able to have my own organic produce all summer long. I always try and choose what I know will be happy in my yard along with what I know my family will like. This is what our garden looked like:

Mostly weeds, some bricks that were given to us that we are using to build other planters, and some green onions that have hung in there since last year that are in dire need of a trim.    After an hour, we had this:

We are going to tackle the weeds you see in the yard surrounding the bed. That's a whole other battle!

We decided to do a couple of basil plants. They love sun and should do well. I love adding fresh basil to pasta dishes or whipping up basil pesto. We also have cucumbers and a bunch of kale. I'm on a huge kale kick lately. I have never attempted to grow it before, but I'm hopeful that it will thrive and provide us with lots! At the end next to the trellis, we put a few tomato plants. Those usually do well and provide us with more than enough tomatoes for the summer.

What do you like to grow?

Pintrest / Instagram / Twitter