curry me home tonight.

i went to a farmer's market this weekend and got to taste some awesome local food. it's the last of the season for my favorite fruit, the fuji apples, and i was fortunate enough to get a handful of them. i'm hoping that there'll be some more next weekend as those apples were unbelievably sweet! another interesting thing i got to try was a raw kale salad from one of the organic/vegan food trucks. it was basically kale, grated raw sweet potato, flavored brown rice, and a curry dressing. i didn't really care for brown rice at the time so i basically just got a bunch of leaves, some shreds of potato, and the dressing for about six bucks. geez...talk about a rip off. :/

i can't really complain too much...i did opt out of the rice. but what made the purchase a little bit worth while was the awesome curry dressing that it had on it. i decided to try and replicate it, and snazzed up the kale to make it a little bit more interesting. i took ispiration from the raw project as a starting base. :)

 
Savory Curry Dressing
(makes approx 1 1/2 cup of dressing)

5 pieces of baby carrots
2-3 sprigs of flat leaf parsley
1-2 tsp curry powder (measure to taste)
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper (i used a three pepper medley grinder, about 5 turns)
1/4 tsp onion powder
1-2 pinches of kosher salt
1/2-1 tsp minced ginger (measure to taste)
1 tsp honey
2 tsp tahini (i used joyvu brand)
2 tbsp plus 1 tsp lime juice (i used the bottled kind)
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/8 cup coconut milk (not canned)
1/4 cup olive oil

place all ingredients in a food processor/grinder and process until oils are well blended and the carrots are chopped fine. refrigerate for one hour before serving.

note: the dressing does get a bit thick in the fridge. let stand at room temperature for about thirty minutes before serving. you could probably serve this a little bit warm too! :D

and the verdict? damn good, if i say so myself. i like the curry taste a little stronger so i went with the full two teaspoons. it was exactly what i was looking for. and the kale salad mix was definitely more to my liking. it was basically just a whole single bunch of kale, chopped up. then i added an entire package of pre-made broccoli slaw and some left over romain that was getting close to the core. crunchy and lots of interesting texture. i do find, tho, that the kale has to soak the dressing first so that it'll soften it up a bit. and that a little dressing goes a long way.

oh, and that yogurt and lime DO NOT MIX. yeas, i know it would curdle, but i didn't think about it while i was in my "mad scientist" mode. although, right before it curdled, the taste of it was awesome! next time (if i wanted a yogurt based dressing) i'd take out the tahini and lime juice, sub half a cup of honey greek yogurt, and see what that tastes like. yay for healthy salads!