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If you’ve ever dined at the Veggie Grill, you may have already tasted their “All Hail Kale” salad. It’s ridiculously delicious.
In fact, it’s the kind of salad you’d serve to people who claim they don’t like salad.
They’d eat their words. And then, more salad.
Since we don’t dine out very often, I’ve been determined to create a “copycat” recipe to mimic the flavors found in this dish. Luckily, my job was pretty easy, since the original recipe is already posted online. However, now that I know what’s in their Papaya Ginger salad dressing, I’m not so thrilled. (Over 3 cups of canola oil!)
For the following healthier version, I drastically reduced the oil and upgraded the ingredients. The resulting dressing is downright addictive, and certainly rivals the original!
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Papaya Ginger Dressing
Makes 1.5 cups
Adapted from this recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup papaya chunks
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 ounce fresh ginger, peeled
2 Tablespoons coconut vinegar
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup water, or more to thin
Directions:
In a high-speed blender, combine all of the ingredients and blend until completely smooth and silky.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup papaya chunks
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 1/4 ounce fresh ginger , peeled
- 2 Tablespoons coconut vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 cup water , or more to thin
Instructions
- In a high-speed blender, combine all of the ingredients and blend until completely smooth and silky.
- Massage into kale leaves, and serve!
- Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 371, Fat: 18g, Carbohydrates: 56g
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To prepare the salad, you’ll need:
1 bunch curly green kale
Papaya Mango Salsa, from Trader Joe’s (or any salsa of choice)
Maple Glazed Walnuts (<–recipe link)
Papaya Ginger Dressing (recipe above)
Shredded cabbage (optional)
Remove the kale leaves from the stems, and wash and dry thoroughly. In a medium bowl, toss the shredded cabbage in a bit of the Papaya Ginger dressing, and coat well. Set aside.
The Veggie Grill tops their salad with a homemade Corn Salsa, but when I saw that Trader Joe’s carried a Papaya-based salsa, I knew it would be perfect over this salad. Plus, it saves me a step in the preparation process. To prepare the store-bought salsa, all I do is rinse it well– to remove as many additives as possible.
This salsa adds a great spicy “kick” to the sweet salad dressing.
Top the kale leaves with a bit of Ginger Papaya dressing, then use your hands to massage the dressing well into the leaves. The kale will soften and wilt as you go!
Transfer the massaged kale to a serving plate, top with marinated cabbage, salsa and Maple Glazed Walnuts, then serve!
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I hope you enjoy this salad as much I we do!
While this dish is technically mis-combined, you can easily remedy that by removing the walnuts and adding some ripe avocado slices, instead. (Remember, avocado is a fruit and fruits can combine with leafy greens!)
Reader Feedback: Have you ever tried to re-create your favorite restaurant meals at home?
The dressing is amazing! It is my new favorite go to for any salad as well as fresh fruit.
You left out the most important ingredient, quinoa
I hate papaya, so I’m not sure why I decided to make this salad. I’m really glad that I did, however, because it’s DELICIOUS! I wasn’t really following the directions very well for some reason, so I bought the wrong salsa. It was from Trader Joe’s, but it was a mango/pineapple salsa. And still not sure if the salsa was supposed to be the extent of the papaya, but I added big chunks of it below the salsa and the dressing. I’m not saying that I would eat papaya alone, but with that dressing….
I have tried this recipe before. . . . oh my . . . . I could practically drink it. . and it is so healthy and simple. I make it all the time and EVERYONE loves it, vegan or not!
This was AMAZING!! I followed the recipe exactly except I used the Trader Joes Pineapple Mango Salsa and apple cider vinegar. I really liked the marinated cabbage and glazed walnuts. My entire family loved it and asked for seconds. I will have make more next time. Thanks for making me look like a gourmet chef!!
I make this recipe all the time with mango instead of papaya, no sugar or sweetener of any kind and 1/4 the oil called for in the original recipe and it’s delicious. I often add cubes of steamed tempeh to make it even heartier for dinner. I use apple cider vinegar and any type of kale works fine…….a combination is nice.
I just stumbled on your website today and I am totally impressed with your unique recipes and your overall vision! I am so looking forward to trying one of your recipes out for dinner tomorrow. Also, I was wondering if there is a huge difference in using quinoa pasta or brown rice pasta as opposed to regular grain pasta taste-wise. I know I wouldn’t mind but my fiancée is a picky eater. He’s warmed up to vegan alternatives since we’ve been together, but we don’t generally avoid gluten. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes 🙂
I’m guessing I could substitute mango for the papaya and it would still be wonderful? Have you tried the mango? Thanks!
Meg, I don’t know you but I’m in love with you after this!
A few months ago I became addicted to Veggie Grill’s All Hale Kale Salad but NOW I can easily afford to be addicted to it (Since I get to have one or two a day for 4 days straight now).
When I was running around buying ingredients I found out that Trader Joe’s stopped making their Papaya, Mango Salsa and replaced it with their new Tropical Salsa which is Pineapple and Mango based; so I went with it since I had a Pineapple at home and I modified this by adding a 1/2 cup in the blender with the Papaya and I chopped up the rest of the Papaya and added it to the rinsed off Salsa. Since I’ve literally made 6 or 7 of these salads in the past 4 days I’ve mixed up the toppings (Maple Glazed Pecans (instead of Walnuts, due ot availability) Chicken is okay, Love chopped up hard boiled eggs, Avocado is awesome, Mushrooms work great too and going to try Red Onion’s tonight). In summary it was easily as good, if not better, as the original salad made by the Veggie Grill no matter which configuration of toppings I used.
While shopping for ingredients, Ralphs had a sale on a Peach/Mango Salsa so in my next Salad Dressing I’m going to replace the 1/2 cup of Papaya with Peaches and I’m going to try 1/2 cup of Mango as well: I’ll check back in with the results…
To update my previous post:
As previously mentioned, since the Peach/Mango salsa was on sale I bought a few then when I made the dressing I added a healthy 1/2 Cup of chopped up Peaches and a healthy 1/2 Cup of chopped up Mango’s and let me simply say it is different in an equally as good way. Another thing I did was made a Corn on the Cob, cut off a bunch of Corn and mix it into the Salsa (since they don’t have Corn) huge bonus….
So what I’ll do in the future is keep my eyes open for other store bough Salsa creations and adjust the Dressing for the Fruit’s in the Salsa: As long as I like the Fruit’s used in the Salsa then the Salad should be just as good with those Fruits.
*** Maple Glazed Walnuts or Pecans *** :
These are hard to find in stores and when I did find them they were $19.99 a pound. However Raw Walnuts or Pecans are about $7 a pound where I live, sure Maple Syrup is expensive but you can still make the 1st Batch for under $19.99 (then your next several batches are only $7 a pound) and it only takes about 5 min to make them. The only problem here is NOT eating them all while they’re cooling down.
Simply throw:
2 Cups of Nuts
1/3 Cup of Maple Syrup
1/8 teaspoon of Salt
into a non-stick skillet that’s over Medium High heat and keep stirring as the Nuts get toasted and the Maple Syrup starts to thicken (I’ve been going till I “Just” start to smell a burnt smell) about 3 to 5 minutes: then dump them onto a Cookie Sheet to cool (Try not to eat them all while they’re cooling).
From experience my 1st time, Pay close attention when the Maple starts to thicken, because if you stop stirring they will start smoking bad and they will retain a charred burnt taste …lol they do still taste good though (just not as good)