Summer Salad w/ Savoury Dressing

It’s official: I am living in Montreal! I moved about a week ago and I have to say, the move went fairly smooth. I think it went so well because I played worst case scenario in my head for about a month before moving. It took a toll on my life for the month that I could have been enjoying my last few weeks in Winnipeg, but when things went wrong during the move, they didn’t really phase me. Nothing was as bad as what I had prepared for in my mind.

What I didn’t properly prepare for is having very few friends/acquaintances in the city. I tried every day to busy myself with a task like getting my student card or going to the pharmacy to get my prescriptions transferred. I must admit though, being away from my friends and family is certainly tough.

Many of my self care techniques involve getting out and being with people from my support system. I’ve spent a lot of time on facetime with friends and family members, or texting with them about the latest reality TV episode, for example. It helps, for sure, but it is not the same as being one on one in person with someone. I do have one tried and true self care technique that I can do almost anywhere: cook. So, guess what I have been doing a lot?

I haven’t created or tested any new recipes, though. I’m mostly using recipes I know well so I can test out how the stove and oven work and get used to my new kitchen. Thankfully I knew that I wouldn’t be creating any new recipes and decided to have a handful of recipes ready to share before I moved. The one I want to share with you today fits my mood today, which is: I miss Winnipeg.

UPDATE: I am back in Winnipeg, and it’s been a couple years since I have eaten at the restaurant discussed below. Check out the Not My Stella’s instagram page for more information on why.

There is a restaurant in Winnipeg (or I guess technically a chain of restaurants) called Stella’s. It has an impressive vegan selection and it’s a great place to meet folks because most people can find something on the menu that they’ll enjoy. Since the restaurant’s significant expansions over the last few years, a lot of people have come to dislike the restaurant (and with fair reason.) But, I still love it. Mostly because it is one of the few places a vegan can go for brunch in Winnipeg and also because some of their dishes have totally become comfort food to me. Needless to say, I would have loved waking up this morning to a Stella’s brunch date with a friend.

When I go to Stella’s, I almost always order the same thing: Mexican Breakfast with marinated tofu as a sub for the veggie patties that have gluten. On the rare occasion that I don’t order breakfast, I order Stella’s House Salad. I love the use of jicama and cabbage, and the dressing is perfect. Over lunch with my brother (who happens to a fantastic cook) we were discussing what might be in the salad dressing. I went home and came up with this recipe.

It’s not exactly the same, but I think I like my version even better! I’m a salty over sweet girl any day, and this salad dressing has just the right amount of savouriness to it. I’ve been putting nutritional yeast and tamari in my salad dressings for years, but I have also been too lazy to blend it. I hate to say it, but you really have to blend this one. It makes all the difference.

Assembling the salad takes a tiny bt of effort, mostly in the grating of the veggies. What I do is grate my carrots and jicama and slice my cabbage in large batches and keep them in containers in the fridge. If I do this, I often double the salad dressing recipe and have salads for lunch all week long! The little bit of prep work will certainly be worth it, I promise.

I hope you enjoy!

5 from 5 votes

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Summer Salad w/ Savoury Dressing

Ingredients

For the Salad Dressing*

• 1/2 cup neutral tasting oil, like canola
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp tamari
• 2 tbsp maple syrup or agave
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 3 cloves of garlic

For the Salad

• 2 cups green leaf lettuce, chopped
• 1/4 cup carrot, grated
• 1/4 cup jicama, grated
• 1/4 cup red cabbage, sliced
• 2 tbsp sunflower seeds
• 2 tbsp savoury salad dressing

Instructions

Salad Dressing

1. All you've got to do is blend this up in a blender or food processor!

For the Salad

1. Toss the green leaf lettuce in about 1/4 cup of the salad dressing. 

2. Top with the carrot, jicama, cabbage, and sunflower seeds.

Recipe Notes

*Makes about 1 cup of salad dressing.