Everyone, meet kale broccoli bowl. Kale broccoli bowl, meet everyone. I’m going to introduce you to coconut curry hot chocolate later this week. But I thought I’d get this introduction out of the way, first.

Sunday nights are a time for reflection, and usually, this involves thinking about what I ate during the past weekend. I like to indulge on weekends, with as many cookies and sweets as my heart desires. So sometimes, I bring it down a notch on Sunday nights and go with a healthier option. Tonight, this kale broccoli bowl fit the bill.

Grapefruit and avocado are two of my favorite things, and crispy chickpeas also rank highly. I think chickpeas taste best when they’re roasted and crunchy, and combined with the perfect amount of salt and seasoning. The ones in this recipe have a dash of spicy cayenne and soy sauce, which gives them a kick.

Toward the end of making this salad, I realized that this song was playing on my Spotify. It seemed kind of ironic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2ppnw_VowY

Feel free to add your own soundtrack. And enjoy!

Kale Broccoli Bowl with Roasted Chickpeas (slightly adapted from Half Baked Harvest)

Ingredients

Lemon Tahini Dressing
2 tablespoons tahini (sesame seed paste)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce or tamari
juice + zest from 1 lemon (use only half of the zest)
2 cloves garlic, grated
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
salt + pepper, to taste

Kale Bowl
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
2 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce or tamari
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 cups Tuscan kale, roughly torn
2 cups fresh broccoli florets
1/4 head purple cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup fresh parley + cilantro, roughly chopped
hemp seeds + chia seeds, for topping
2 red grapefruits, segmented
2 ripe, but firm avocados, sliced or chopped

Directions

Lemon Tahini Dressing: Add all the ingredients to a bowl and whisk until combined. Taste and adjust salt + pepper to your liking. Alternately you can add the ingredients to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. The dressing can be made a week in advance and stored in the fridge until ready to use.

Kale Bowl: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Spread the chickpeas out on a towel and dry them completely. Add the chickpeas and coconut to a baking sheet and toss with the soy sauce, sesame oil and cayenne pepper. Toss well to evenly coat. Roast for 20 minutes and then stir the chickpeas around and roast another 10 minutes or until the chickpeas are browned and the coconut is dark brown. Remove from the oven. Save any leftovers for snacking on later.

Add the kale to a large bowl and drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil and a big pinch of salt. Using your hands, massage the kale for 2-3 minutes until the kale is well coated and has slightly softened. To the bowl add the broccoli, cabbage, parsley and cilantro. Toss well. Add the dressing and continue to toss until all the veggies are coated. Add the grapefruit segments and avocado. Gently toss to combine. At this point, you can cover and store the salad in the fridge for up to 24 hours or continue on with the recipe.Divide the salad into bowls. Top with the crunchy coconut chickpeas and a sprinkle of chia + hemp seeds.