Grounding Portobello Sausage Salad Bowl with a Creamy Balsamic Dressing

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Mmm just the smell of onions, mushrooms and garlic frying in the pan is enough reason make this meal! This grounding portobello sausage salad bowl with creamy balsamic dressing is a perfect Spring dinner!

I used vegan sausages but you could easily use whatever sausage you prefer:) I also think any kind of mushroom would work, I just happened to have portobello’s and love their chewy meaty texture. 

And let’s talk a little bit about the dressing shall we? I haven’t made a balsamic dressing for a long time as I overdid it with balsamic years ago, but am glad I veered from my classic lemon tahini. A salad isn’t a tasty meal without a beautifully balanced tasty dressing, am I right?! You’ll want to use this dressing with all of your salads so I recommend making a double batch.

PORTOBELLO SAUSAGE SALAD 

WHAT YOU NEED

  • 4 small red onions
  • 2 large portobello mushrooms
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 zucchinis
  • 1 bunch of kale (or any dark leafy green)
  • 4 vegan sausages (or regular!)
  • 2 tbsp of hemp hearts
  • 1 apple
  • juice of 1 lime

FOR THE DRESSING

  • 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 cup of veganaise (or regular mayo)
  • 1/4 cup of hemp or olive oil
  • 3-4 cloves of black fermented garlic (found at Save-On-Foods) **
  • Salt and pepper

WHAT TO DO

  1. Start by de-stemming the kale and chopping it up into bit size pieces. Drizzle 1 tsp of quality oil and the juice of the lime and message the kale for 5 minutes. This will drastically improve the digestibility of the kale:) Skip this step if you are using a lighter green like spinach.
  2. Chop the onion, mushroom and press the garlic. 
  3. Heat a large pan (I prefer my cast iron) and saute the onions, mushrooms and garlic. Remember not to add salt until the mushrooms are soft!! Otherwise they will turn out rubbery and won’t cook down. 
  4. I used my spiralizer for the zucchini but you could chop it into thin small pieces. You could even make zoodles if you want to be fancy:)
  5. Time to make the dressing, you can add everything into a mason jar and give it a good shake, or just use your high speed blender to combine.
  6. Now chop up the vegan sausages and add them into the onion, mushroom garlic mix and cook until warmed and a little crispy on the outside.
  7. Once your mushroom sausage mixture looks done, it’s time to combine all the ingredients. It’s best if you add the zucchini, kale to the warm sausage mushroom mixture, drizzle with dressing and then stir. The warm veggies will help soften the kale even more and allow the dressing to really sink into all the ingredients.
  8. Garnish with a chopped up apple and hemp hearts.
  9. ENJOY!