Kale & Cherry Salad with Crispy Brown Rice

I just whipped this little salad up with some fresh ingredients I had in the fridge and some left over brown rice. Lately I have been toasting cold, cooked rice with a little olive oil, salt & pepper. The rice gets crispy and it gives an amazing texture to whatever I add it to, especially salads. Please give it a try as it will add a lot of depth to this simple, summer salad! 

Ingredients (this makes two lunch size salads): 

1 bunch of kale, stems removed and sliced thin

fresh summer cherries, pitted and sliced

about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of cooked brown rice

about 1/3 cup of roasted sunflower seeds

a little bit of crumbled feta (I used vegan VioLife feta)

your favorite lemon vinaigrette (or make your own - I did!)

olive oil, salt & pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450

Spread the cooked rice on a lined baking sheet and drizzle with about 1 tsp of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 15 min, checking every 5 minutes to stir and make sure it doesn't burn at the end. Bake it for as long as you like - if you like it really crispy leave it in there longer...it's your salad!

Clean, stem and slice the kale. Drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil, maybe 1/2 tsp, and a pinch of salt. Massage the kale with your hands for a minute or two. Massaging kale helps to make it tender, which make it easier to chew and digest (I also prefer the texture). 

Add the kale, pitted & sliced cherries, and sunflower seeds to a salad bowl. Drizzle with vinaigrette and stir to combine. 

Once the rice is cooked to your preferred crispiness, place on the bottom of a salad plate. Top with the kale mixture. Add the crumbled feta, if using. Serve with a piece of crusty bread. Enjoy!

Easy Vinaigrette:

I NEVER measure when making salad dressing, it's so hard to mess up!  A mixture of these ingredients, always turns out great. I don't use a lot of oil anymore when making salad dressings, so you can just omit it if you like. Because this salad is on the small size, if I were to measure I would be using tablespoons and teaspoons - you don't need much more than that! 

Olive oil

Vinegar (I would use apple cider or champagne in this recipe)

Dijon

Lemon juice

Maple syrup or honey

Mix that all together and see how it turns out :)