Last week when I posted my farmshare haul, I asked for guidance on kale. All I ever do is overcook it into chips. About a year ago I used it in burgers (2/3 meat and 1/3 kale) and they were supermoist, but you know, tasted like kale.
A decade ago I used it in a risotto, but my last risotto reminded me that it was a special occasion food, not something to whip up on a Tuesday night. So when I put up the post asking for kale ideas, I got some reasonable responses on the Facebook. Most folks were like, "use garlic, cook hard." And then Alison was all super-enthusiastic, and wrote a brief love letter to kale. And one of the things she mentioned was kale salad. I had heard of massaged kale salad, but I've heard of a lot of things I'm not interested in. Kale is tough and bitter, and seems to have a bad attitude, so why would I eat it raw?
BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME.
Damnit, kale salad, why do you have to make me look so foolish? I've made two kale salads in the past week - we've eaten two big fluffy heads of curly kale in the past week. There was a time over the long weekend when we were deciding to finally leave the house, and maybe it was 5 pm, and maybe I was still in my jammies, and I was standing in the living room taking a fork to a giant serving bowl full of kale salad. This is now how I roll. Kale salad keeps me from getting dressed.
Let's discuss in depth.
First, if you're thinking to yourself, Kale is a drag and I like romaine lettuce just fine, why use this instead? Let me 'splain. Kale is exponentially better for you than the other vegetables.
I have a hard time choosing sources for nutritional information, because some of it is a little tinfoil-hatty. So if you think one of these sources is particularly flaky, let me know, but whenever I'm searching for info on the nutrients in a particular food, I'm turned off by references to nutrients I've never heard of, and I'm often reminded of an episode of Christina Cooks where she told us carrots were good for male sexual health, you know, because they're hard. I'm not making this shit up. I don't trust a word that woman says.
I digress. You know the ANDI scores? Pretty sure it's just a marketing tool... it's posted all over Whole Foods and you have to pay to get a complete list of scores. Basically, they divide the nutritional content of a food by it's calories. Kale wins. By far. Kale has a score of 1000, while blueberries, which tend to get called a "superfood" get a 130. Romaine gets a 389. Kale wins.
The World's Healthiest Foods says a lot of nice things about kale, including that it's "one of the healthiest vegetables around," (I've heard it referred to as *the* healthiest) and that it "only takes" 200 calories of kale to get more fiber than the average American adult gets in a day. 200 calories of kale is about 5 and half cups. Good luck with that. See if you have time to do the laundry and goof off on the interwebs when you're done chewing.
Nutrition Data gives it 5 stars for "optimum health," shows that you get more than a day's worth of vitamins C and A from a serving, and says that it's strongly anti-inflammatory with a low glycemic load.
So, in summary, we should eat more kale. And kale salad is the answer.
Kale isn't something you want to just put in your mouth. Excuse me - kale isn't something *I* want to just put in my mouth. It's tough. It's bitter. You have to be nice to it. You have to massage it. You can tell just looking at kale that it's not ready to be eaten raw - it has that blue-grayish water-resistant thing going on that collards have.
Start with a serious heap of kale. I took a whole bunch (maybe 10 leaves?) and stripped the centers out. This is pretty easy by hand, but you could use a knife if you were so inclined. The stems go to the stock bag, and the leaves become salad.
So take the leaves and give them a chopping. Make the leaves bite-sized.
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| There is no safe way to photograph yourself using a chef's knife. |
Throw them in a bowl and add the juice of one lemon.
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| I used the whole lemon. Half is pictured here, you know, for art's sake. |
And kind of a lot of salt.
And work the kale with your hands. Pretend you're making dough or meatloaf. Squeeze it, twist it, tear it, rub it. Rub the salt and lemon into the leaves. Do this for a minute or two, until the kale starts to darken and get tender. You'll know. Suddenly your full bowl of kale will be only half full.
It doesn't look aggressive anymore, it looks like lettuce.
At this point, you can throw it in the fridge, and doctor it up when you're ready to eat. The longer it sits, the more tender it gets. Or you can finish dressing it now, and put it in the fridge. Whatever. The first time I made it, I dressed it completely and let it sit, and the second time I just did lemon and salt up front, the rest later. Choose your own adventure.
To make the feta dressing, I added red pepper flakes to a good bit of feta.
And then I mixed in some apple cider vinegar and olive oil.
Coated the kale with that and gave it another minute massage with the dressing. Then I sprinkled on a few bigger chunks of feta.
The second time, I did the lemon/salt thing and let it sit, then later added a quick mustard vinaigrette with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and mustard powder. I topped the second one with cherry tomatoes, chunks of avocado and a little bit of bacon.
Both times it made about four hearty servings. And it keeps in the fridge, dressed (not with avocado), so you can make it in advance for the week and it'll just sit there, ready for you to eat it in your jammies.
print recipe
Kale Salad with Feta Dressing
Tender kale salad with zesty lemon and feta
Ingredients
- 1 bunch kale
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup feta (divided)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Instructions
Remove kale stems and chop into bite-sized pieces.Put in a large mixing bowl with lemon and salt. Fresh lemon juice is pretty fantastic here. Work the kale with your hands for a minute or two, massaging the juice and salt into the leaves. When the kale darkens and wilts, you're all set. Put the feta in a small bowl, reserving about a tablespoon. Set that tabelspoon aside. Add red pepper to the bowl, and vinegar. Slowly stream in olive oil, whisking, until combined. Pour dressing onto salad. Rub it into the leaves for another full minute. Top with reserved feta, stir, and refrigerate for at least an hour, up to a week.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4 servingsprint recipe
Kale Salad with Bacon and Avocado
Creamy avocado and crispy bacon complement the tender kale.
Ingredients
- 1 bunch kale
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 avocado
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
- 10 cherry tomatoes
Instructions
Remove kale stems and chop into bite-sized pieces.Put in a large mixing bowl with lemon and salt. Fresh lemon juice is pretty fantastic here. Work the kale with your hands for a minute or two, massaging the juice and salt into the leaves. When the kale darkens and wilts, you're all set. Whisk together vinegar, olive oil and dry mustard. Pour dressing onto salad. Rub it into the leaves for another full minute. Top with tomatoes, cut in half. Leave in the fridge for at least an hour, up to a week. When ready to serve, crumble bacon on top and finish with diced avocado.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4 servings