Thursday, August 25, 2011

Crunchy Kale Salad - a recipe post

After having a few particularly delicious kale salads at various restaurants, I was dying to try one of my own. I posted on Facebook that if any of my friends knew of some great kale recipes, they should send them my way.

My friend Brianna recommnded her mom's kale salad recipe, and after looking it over I made some minor tweaks to fit my tastebuds and was off to the store!


What you'll need: kale (I went with Trader Joe's already chopped and cleaned kale), red pepper flakes (all I had on hand was my South African Smoke spice/rub which did the job just fine), cayenne pepper, olive oil, one whole lemon, and two cloves of garlic (or more - depending on what you like!)




1. You'll want to start with your desired amount of kale. I used about a third of the 10 oz bag that I purchased and that was satisfactory for two people. I was informed prior to making this that it's important to thoroughly wash your kale before consumption as it can contain parasites. Since I bought it from a reputable establishment and there were no known recalls or problems with kale at the time, I just washed it quickly in my colander. Also, the kale I had purchased was a pre-cut and pre-rinsed one.

2. It's important to cut the stiff spines off the kale. There are spines on almost every piece you will see, the the ones that require chopping will be very apparent. So chop off the large, stiff stalks and chop your kale into 1-1.5 in. strips. I just kind of went over the kale with my knife a few times and it made it into satisfactory sized pieces.


3. Chop your garlic. I minced two cloves and tossed them in a bowl on top of the kale like so:

4. Slice and juice your lemon. I love fresh-squeezed lemon in a salad dressing! Delicious.

5. Add olive oil to thoroughly coat the salad. You can honestly add as much or as little as you want, just make sure each leaf is coated. I free poured it until it felt right.

6. Not pictured: 1/2 tsp. of red pepper flakes and a few dashes of cayenne pepper. The pepper flakes I currently owned did not have nearly enough heat for my taste, hence the cayenne. 

7. Also not pictured: a handful of parmesan cheese. This really binds the dressing and coats the salad with delicious flavor. You can do shredded, but I had the kind that says it's grated but it's really like a powder. I added a small handful of that and it worked wonders with the rest of the ingredients.

Now, you can stop there if you're so inclined. But at another friends suggestion, I added some sliced avocado. The combination of the crunchy kale and the creamy avocado really made the salad a big hit for me.



8. We sliced up half of an avocado and mixed it in with the salad.

9. Give the salad a THOROUGH stir/toss/mix, whichever you do. Sprinkle with a small amount of salt to taste and voila!


Enjoy! Check back later for more recipes! I'll be doing a few more things with kale over the next few days!


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