Vegan Leafy Greens with BBQ Walnut Crumble (Gluten-free, Raw)

One of my goals for the remainder of my detox (21 more days) is to eat only raw food as much as possible.

Yesterday, I made this beautiful salad for lunch…

And is was sooooooooooooo good!!! I’m amazed at how FLAVORFUL raw food is. I think when we cook the nutrients and vitamins out of our food, we also cook a lot of the flavor out of it. Don’t let the long ingredient list scare you off – many of the ingredients are probably already in your cupboard.

I found the original recipe on rawfoodrecipes.com and altered it just slightly based on a single serving and what I had on hand. Here’s my version…

Yields 1 salad (with extra mayo/dressing)

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Vegan Leafy Greens with BBQ Walnut Crumble

(Gluten-free, Raw)

Ingredients:

Bed of Veggies:

• 1 cup chopped kale
• 1 cup chopped spinach (I used baby spinach)
• 1 small to medium carrot, shredded
• ⅛ tsp. celery seed

BBQ Walnut Crumble:

• 2 or 3 sundried tomatoes, soaked for 2 hours, drained, and rinsed
• ½ Tbsp. olive oil
• ½ Tbsp. water
• ½ tsp. maple syrup
• ½ tsp. apple cider vinegar
• ½ tsp. smoked paprika
• ¼ tsp. chili powder
• ⅛ tsp. ground chipotle
• ⅛ tsp. salt
• ¾ cups raw walnuts
• 1 green onion, chopped

Mayo/Dressing:

• ⅓ cup raw cashews, soaked for 1 hour, drained, and rinsed
• ⅓ cup raw sunflower seeds, soaked for 4 hours, drained, and rinsed
• ¼ cup water
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. maple syrup
• ¾ tsp. salt (If you’re using salted cashews or seeds, you may not need any salt at all.)

Instructions

STEP 1:
Wash and dry your kale and spinach with a salad spinner, then form a bed of greens on a plate. Top with shredded carrots and sprinkled celery seed.

STEP 2:
For the barbecue walnut crumble, in a food processor, place sundried tomatoes, olive oil, water, maple syrup, vinegar, paprika, chili powder, chipotle, and salt. Process until a smooth paste forms. Add walnuts and pulse to create a crumbly texture.

Add green onion and pulse just a couple of times to combine. Place crumble mixture on top of the bed of veggies (breaking it up with your hands as needed). Top with a teaspoon of raw sunflower seeds, if desired.

STEP 3:
To create the mayo/dressing, add all ingredients to a blender and blend until very smooth. Place a large dollop on top of the salad. Refrigerate the rest for future use. (Before I dug in, I mixed everything on my plate together really well so that the dressing was incorporated throughout.

Otherwise, I have a hard time with the bitter taste of kale on its own.)

The barbecue walnut crumble has a rich, bold, kind of smoky flavor. It’s the whole combination together that really has a wow factor, though. I will definitely make it again. Hubs didn’t get a chance to try it, but I think he would dig it.

Hang on to that extra mayo/dressing – I’ll be finding a use for it in the next day or two ;)