This post is dedicated to my friends at Phoenix Medical Solutions for providing me with this rental scooter which has made it possible for me to be somewhat useful in the past 2 weeks.

If you’re in the marketing world and want to cast me in a Hoveround-esq commercial for the Roll-a-Bout, have your people call my people.

The scooter isn’t a miracle cure and I can’t stay on it for long periods of time (and the GS likes to yell BEEP, BEEP, BEEP any time I’m backing up on it), but it has given me access to my hands/arms in the kitchen. And it’s better than crutches because my splint weighs approximately 50 pounds.

So my thought was- let’s ease back in to cooking with a salad! Easy! Until you keep reading and realize this is the most high maintenance salad of all. But stay with me.

I ate a version of this on a trip to Virginia Beach in December and loved it, so I told myself I had to recreate!

Power Salad w/ Carrot & Ginger Dressing

3 cups kale, torn and massaged

3 cups baby spinach (I tore this up a little too)

1 cup roasted chickpeas

1 cup cooked quinoa

2 tomatoes, diced

4 tbs sunflower seeds

1 cup shelled edamame

2 heads broccoli, roasted

for the dressing

1 1/2 cups baby carrots

1 clove garlic

1/2 inch ginger, peeled

1 tsp sesame oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar

water

salt and pepper to taste

This requires a lot of advanced prep if you want all of the salad ingredients to be chilled for serving. I roasted the chickpeas, broccoli, and carrots at 375 with a little olive oil, salt and pepper for about 20-25 minutes.

While these are roasting, cook the quinoa according to package directions. Don’t forget to check to see whether it needs to be rinsed before cooking.

The quinoa, broccoli and chickpeas can go into the fridge. The carrots can go into your blender or food processor.

Add the garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and rice vinegar to the food processor. If you’ve never bought ginger before, you’ll find it in the produce section. It needs to be peeled before using, and once it’s peeled you can wrap it in plastic and keep it in the freezer until the end of time. I just shaved off a couple small pieces (it’s strong so start conservatively) and added it to the dressing. Blend until all the carrots are completely chopped.

Also- if you loathe the taste of cooked carrots, you can probably make this dressing with them raw. I just wanted to bring out a little more of that sweet flavor and also soften them up a little to blend.

Taste it to make sure your garlic and ginger amounts are okay, then slowly add water to thin it out. This still ended up being much thicker than traditional salad dressing- almost more like a puree. But it still spreads out okay if you shake up the salad. Once the dressing is done, refrigerate it.

When you’re ready to assemble the salad, tear up the kale and spinach.

Chop the tomatoes and defrost the edamame. You can buy pre-shelled edamame in the freezer section, and then cook it for slightly less time so that it’s defrosted but not hot. You could also do this with frozen broccoli instead of roasting fresh broccoli!

Throw all your goodies in the bowl, then add the dressing and shake shake shake.

This salad is INSANELY flavorful and eats like a meal because there’s so much stuff in it. In this form it’s completely vegan, but still packs a lot of protein.

The GS has been cooking for me and I’m trying to convince him to guest blog. Stay tuned!