Cranberry Mandarin Coleslaw with Walnuts and Kale

Last week when we were shopping in Whole Foods, I was hungry and needed a little snack so I took a peek to see what was on their salad bar. I saw a very interesting coleslaw with mandarin oranges, cranberries, kale, pecans, and cashews. There’s wasn’t a label to tell me the name and ingredients of the salad. So I asked one of the gals working in that department if she knew what was in the salad, but she couldn’t find a name or label. She did give me a sample, and oh my gosh, it was so incredibly delicious that I purchased some to snack on.

What’s funny is that I’m not a big fan of kale, but I loved how it tasted in the coleslaw. I’m really glad that I’ve found a way to incorporate this very nutritious vegetable into my diet.

Last night I was craving cabbage (that happens to me a lot) and so I decided to make a coleslaw similar to the one I had in Whole Foods. I didn’t have any cashews on hand, so I used walnuts. The salad in Whole Foods didn’t have mandarin orange juice in the coleslaw that I could taste, but I wanted my salad to taste even fruitier so I added the juice to sweeten it up.

I also used a balsamic vinaigrette instead of oil and vinegar. I love oil and vinegar but I wanted to see how it would taste with balsamic vinaigrette. It was great! I also wanted to make a festive looking dish, so I decorated with extra mandarin oranges. Here’s how it looked when I was done:

Cranberry Mandarin Coleslaw with Walnuts and Kale (Inspired by a salad I tried on Whole Foods’ Salad bar)

Ingredients:

• green cabbage, shredded
• kale, cut into small pieces
• celery, (half stalk) diced
• carrots, shredded
• cranberries, dried
• unsweetened mandarin oranges and the juice (2 four oz. cans)
• walnut pieces
• balsamic vinaigrette (you can substitute oil and vinegar)
• Optional: purple cabbage, shredded (This would add another pretty color to the plate and would taste great too!)

Instructions:

1. Clean the cabbage, kale, carrots, and celery
2. Shred the cabbage and carrots
3. Cut the kale into small pieces and dice the celery.
4. Put all of the above vegetable into a large bowl, and then add a can of mandarin oranges and its juice, the dried cranberries, and walnuts.
5. Drizzle the mandarin orange juice from both cans over the coleslaw.
6. Then, drizzle some balsamic vinaigrette over the salad and toss.
7. Put the coleslaw on a large serving dish and then decorate around the salad with the mandarin oranges from the second can.

This salad not only makes a festive dish for the holidays, but it also is extremely healthy. If you’re concerned about filling up too much on starches and desserts, take a nice sized helping of this salad to help fill you up and satisfy your sweet tooth. If you’re watching your carbs closely, instead of using cranberries and oranges, use berries instead. It’s such a delicious salad that I’m going to make this again and again. In fact, I think I’ll have some right now as a matter of fact. How ’bout you?