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Friday, June 14, 2013

New Rage: Kale Salad

Kale salad seems to be the new rage. Or is it just me who has seen recipes pop up all over the place? I went to Wholefoods the other day and saw this strange rather healthy looking dark green salad. I thought about buying it for about one second. You know I am on a bit of a diet since I put on 10 pounds while traveling in Germany. Naturally, that salad had a price tag that we couldn't afford. We have a friend who refers to Wholefoods Market as "Whole Paycheck. Well right now my doll store is in the dumps - it's more like I have NO paycheck. So purchasing this rather expensive salad on a whim was out of question.




I thought, hey, why not try make some Kale Salad ourselves? I had seen some recipes in the newspaper. We just happened to have quite a bit of Kale growing in our new raised beds that we built over Spring break.

 Kale is actually very easy to grow. It's sort of like a weed. The only problem is that the kids don't want to eat it. I have put it in soups with sausage before or cooked it down and added some bacon to it. Not exactly slimming. But it seemed to be the only way to make that stuff palatable. Or so I thought.

I just couldn't imagine how one could eat such rough chewy leaves without cooking them. But  you can. And they are quite good! I hope you try out this recipe. You'll be amazed!


4 cups shredded raw kale leaves (all the thick stems removed, I left some medium sized ones on)
3/4 cup grated carrots
1 avocado, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup diced onion, preferably a sweet onion
2-3 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds

The dressing:
2 Tablespoons tahini
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
3 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice and some zest
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2-3 pinches cayenne pepper
salt and pepper

I made a bit more dressing since it made the salad a bit softer and broke down the Kale better.

It's also best to make this salad a day ahead and massage it a bit with your hands as you mix it. It's best if you let it sit in the fridge over night.

We ate it up so fast I never even took a photo of the finished salad...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Yum! I used to use kale in salad all the time for about a year, then got bored of it and switched to spinach. I should go back to kale again! I don't see the point in plain old lettuce, I'd rather use something nutritious! Your dressing sounds great!

germandolls said...

Yes, it is. I have used it on other salads, too. It is sooooooo good!