Rating: 5 out of 5.

This Kale Salad is bright and creamy, and acts as the perfect accompaniment to spicy and flavor rich Sri Lankan curries. Some say it acts as a pallet cleanser between bites! The combination of raw kale, raw parsley, and raw coconut gives any meal a solid nutritional boost packed with anti-oxidants, digestive benefits, heart and metabolic benefits, and the list goes on.

Traditionally this salad is made using Gotu Kola (Pennyworth Leaves), which are hard to come by in the US. If you are luck enough to grow your own, use two cups of Gotu Kola in the recipe below instead of Kale and Parsley.

Sri Lankan Kale Salad - Gotu Kola Sambol

  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Persons: 6
  • Difficulty: Easy

  • Ingredients
  • 1 cup freshly grated coconut or pre-separated coconut flesh sometimes found at Whole Foods
  • 1 cup curly kale, washed and finely chopped
  • 1 cup curly parsley, washed and finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup red onion finely diced
  • 1/2 cup tomatoes diced
  • 2 limes, juiced
  • 6 thai chilis or 3 serrano chilis
  • Salt to taste
  1. Instructions
  2. Crack the coconut open and grate. Alternately, if using pre-separated coconut flesh chunks, put in food processor and pulse for 30-60 seconds to create a coarse mixture.
  3. Finely chop the kale, parsley, and chilis. The finer the chop, the better. I typically go over the chopped greens with a knife 10-15 times to get a fine chop.
  4. Combine grated coconut and all ingredients. Grab yourself some food gloves and go at it – mix, squeeze, and break apart to maximize flavor infusion.
  5. Add salt to taste and serve. Gotu Kola Sambol can be frozen for 3 months, or refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Where to Get the Ingredients

  • Coconuts – Whole Foods, Marianos, Jewel, pretty much any asian grocery store. Make sure you are buying the hard nut (usually light brown and “furry”) and not the “young coconut” that is meant for drinking (usually wrapped in plastic).

Selecting the right Coconut

Good coconuts are usually available in the US. Most a products from Mexico. But you will have to do that thing weird people do that the grocery store to make sure you are getting a good nut. Shake! you should hear water splashing inside. The coconut should have some weight to it. The shell is almost always even in thickness between coconuts. The difference in weight comes from the meat on the inside. Also, coconuts that are too “young” wont work well, as they have wet mushy meat and very little of it. Splash and weight will save you!

Cracking Coconuts Open

Crack the coconut open – ideally into two halves. This can be tricky, but back at home, my family would take the back of a heavy knife and knock firmly around the “equator” of the coconut till cracks eventually form. Then pry the two halves apart making sure to catch the liquid that will spill out. The liquid is drinkable, so save and sip it if you like. If you don’t manage to get two even halves, you may need to get creative when shaving the coconut meat from the shell – watch your hands!

Shaving the Coconut

Traditionally, we shave the coconut flesh off the inside of the shell using a coconut grater. I usually try to get the most out of each coconut. Its ok to get a little bit of brown bits from the shell into the coconut shavings.

There are the old school fixed shavers that I’ve grown up around in the village, or the more modern hand cranked grater that I personally use today. The hand crank as well as a hand held scraper option are available from Amazon (photos and links below).

Traditional scraper – you sit on the base and shave the coconut into the bowl
This is the exact one from Sri Lanka that I use. It has to be mounted to a table, but easily tucks away after use – Available at Amazon
This is another option. I have never used one of these, but I assume it requires a bit more elbow grease to get the job done – Available at Amazon