wild spring kale salad with tahini miso dressing. homemade healthy

Wild edibles are popping up everywhere, from juicy chickweed to bitter dandelion to sticky cleavers. Miner's lettuce is sprouting from the moist shade of trees; a delicious and refreshing snack to come upon on a hike. All we have ready to harvest is kale, a flat-leaf red russian variety that is so sweet and tender right now. Eating it raw in a salad has been my go-to lunch almost every day this early spring.

Mixing the kale with the freshly picked wild edibles is a fun variety of flavors and textures, and the combo packs dense nutrients into a delicious meal. Wild foods contain more phytonutrients and minerals than the modern cultivated varieties, as much of the nutrition has been bred out for other traits, like drought-resistance, size, taste, color, and shelf life. An article written by one of my UC Berkeley professors, Katherine Milton, argues that the prevalence of wild foods in the hunter-gatherer diet of our Homo sapien ancestors protected them from diseases of affluence: type II diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc. that are so widespread today. These foods are different than our tame apples and spinach. Very different. 



Agriculture is overwhelmingly our main source of food these days, and we rely on a detached industrialized system to tell us what to eat and that's its safe. Foraging, for me, is a way to regain trust and intuition within the natural world. It teaches me to trust those around me, who say I can eat this or that, and to trust myself, when no one is around. Trusting that what i'm putting in my body as something safe and nutritious, without the USDA decreeing it so. And when is it safe and delicious, I feel empowered within the industrial foodscape of dependence and nurtured by the unadulterated natural landscape. Its primal, and it feels so good. 

Plus, you don't have to spend so much time planting and watering and tending to these plants--they're just there waiting to be thrown into this salad! The spring is a wonderful season for tender wild greens, so pop outside and look at the ground, and you will probably see something you can throw in. Make sure you know how to identify these plants from a good ID book or from a reliable friend (trust!). Once you know a few, you'll start seeing food everywhere in our daily landscapes. 

You can make a wonderfully substantial salad with just wild greens, or you can mix them with lettuce kale, as I do here. Since we only have kale and some other greens growing right now, I've been forced to find creative ways to eat them, and this salad sure is a treat. A healthy treat of course! Pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries add nuttiness and sweet bites amongst the bitter and fibrous greens. I threw in some dandelion flowers for color and extra fun, and you can add other wild flowers as well. A lovely ode to spring and its lush green goodness. Enjoy it while it lasts!

wild spring kale salad with tahini miso dressing


Ingredients

1 big bunch of tender kale 

Big handful of wild greens: chickweed, plantain, miner's lettuce,     dandelion leaves and/or flowers, cleavers, red clover, sorrel,       watercress, lamb's quarters, orach, chicory, nettles, purslane,     salad burnet, or anything else you know you can eat.

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup red onion, diced finely

edible flowers: dandelion, calendula, nasturtiums, chive flowers,     clover flowers.

Dressing:

1 tbsp red miso paste
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp tahini
2 tsp honey
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil or sunflower oil
Salt and pepper to taste


Method

Chop the kale in thin strips, cutting off the stems if you like. I prefer chopping the stem finely for a nice extra crunch. Wash and chop wild greens, slicing thinner for the more bitter greens, like dandelion and chicory. Put all the greens in a big bowl.

Chop the red onion, and along with the cranberries and pumpkin seeds, toss with the greens. 

For the dressing, mix the miso, mustard, tahini, honey, and vinegar together until well combined. I like to put it in a half pint jar with the top and shake to combine. Drizzle the oil in while whisking. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Add half the dressing to the salad and toss until well. Taste to see if you need more, and if not, store the extra dressing in the fridge for another day. Top salad with edible flowers.