Honey and Smoked Paprika battle it out in this Warm Ginger Beet Kale Salad with Walnuts. Simple to make, this salad combines onions, ginger, garlic, kale, and beetroot, topped with walnuts for texture and garnished with parsley.
I blame my love of beets on my mom! When I was young growing up in Sri Lanka, my mom would sometimes make beet “mallung”, and other times, beetroot curry. “Mallung” usually means a “mix-up” and my mom’s beet “mallung” was a delicious mix-up of shredded (unsweetened) coconut, finely diced onions, garlic, ginger, beetroot (along with its leaves), whatever greens she could get her hands on, and a smorgasbord of spices. Such a simple list of ingredients that she, somehow, managed to turn into something so totally scrumptious! My mom’s beetroot curry was a delicious and spicy mix of a few simple ingredients like coconut milk, diced tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, and spices. My sister and I would lick our plates clean when my mom served her beetroot curry.
When I came to the US, I would often make my version of my mom’s beet mallung and always eat it with a sliced boiled egg. When cold weather hits, my craving for beets kicks in. I know, you must be thinking, “who in their right mind would crave beets?”, but foods of my youth have a powerful hold on me. For times like those, I whip up some beet curry or a Warm Ginger Beet Kale Salad with Walnuts – inspired by my mom’s beet mallung.
Warm Ginger Beet Kale Salad with Walnuts
This Warm Ginger Beet Kale Salad with Walnuts is super easy to whip up. Unlike my mom’s beet mallung, this doesn’t have any exotic spices in it. Just a bit of honey (to amp up beet’s natural sweetness), smoked paprika (to balance off the sweetness), onions, ginger, garlic, kale, and beetroot – leaves and all! Before serving, I added in some walnuts for texture and garnished with a bit of parsley.
If you happen to love beets as much as I do, I am sure you will enjoy this delicious, warm salad. My daughter loved this so much, she licked her bowl clean!
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 4 cups kale
- 2 beetroots, the bulbs peeled and diced and the leaves washed and chopped
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Add olive oil to a pan along with the onion and cook onion, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes.
- Add in the chopped garlic and sauté about a minute
- Add in the chopped beetroot and cook for about 7-9 more minutes, stirring frequently, until beets are tender.
- Add in the kale and sauté until kale wilts.
- Add in the honey, ginger, smoked paprika, and sauté for about a minute more.
- Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle walnuts over salad, and garnish with parsley before enjoying.
Notes
Home Chef Tip: If you aren't a fan of walnuts, you can just omit them from the recipe, or choose a different variety like pecans.
We hope you love this Warm Ginger Beet Kale Salad with Walnuts recipe from SoFabFood Contributor, Shashi from Runnin Sri Lankan, as much as we do. If you enjoyed this delicious recipe, be sure to visit our Salad Section for more like it. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter so that you never miss a single recipe, and for daily recipe inspiration, like us on Facebook and follow us on Pinterest. Enjoy!
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