My record of liking Trader Joe's prepared salad kits is pretty low. Heck, it might even be zero. (I didn't go through the archives to check.) This is one of the more successful ones.
It has serious crunch to it, what with the raw carrot, cabbage, and broccoli-stalk shreds. In fact, it takes so much chewing that Nina said she was starting to feel distinctly "bovine" while eating it. (To the best of my knowledge, however, she did not regurgitate any of it for re-chewing later.)
I got very little flavor enhancement from either the pumpkin seeds or the apricot bits. I wish the latter had been a lot more prominent.
I was kinda meh about the tahini-orange dressing (too much tahini, not enough orange), but Nina thought it was one of the nicest kit dressings TJ's has put out.
Will I buy it again?
No--but it's close. I was happy to finish off, by myself, the three servings that were left after Nina and I had the first two with a dinner. But I already eat a ton of brassica vegetables, and I like them better in other forms.
The thing with alllll of these shredded kale based salads is that you have to must massage and rub the dressing into the greens! Like with your hands and really squash it all together and let it sit at least half and hour or an hour before eating (it’s even better the next day) so the greens become more tender.
ReplyDeleteI wasn’t thrilled with the flavor combo here- something too sweet about the apricots and it felt shy on the pumpkin seeds. Not a repurchase for me since i have stuff on hand to make a tasty salad all the time.
Ttrockwood