Massaged Kale Salad

 

I think fellow foodie Genevieve (AKA The Daughter) may have been the first person to mention massaged kale salad to me. As a masseuse and fan of kale I was intrigued, so when a friend gave me a beautiful bouquet of two varieties of kale from her garden I knew I had to try it.

I looked online to get started then made up my own recipe. There looks to be endless variations to this amazingly tasty and healthful salad. I plan to make it a staple around here. It's one of those meals that is even better the next day as lunch.

Ingredients;

Salad

1 to 2 bunches of kale, washed,dried, stemmed and chopped

2 carrots grated

1 lemon, juiced

1 to 2 tsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Dressing

1 lemon, juiced

1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

1 clove of garlic finely minced

1/4 cup olive oil

The kind of kale you use will make a difference in how chewy your salad turns out.

For a softer texture use black( AKA dinosaur) kale or Russian kale, for a chewier salad use curly leaf kale or purple kale. We use some of each which was fun.

When I first described this dish to my favorite sous chef and sink master (AKA Bob) he was very skeptical.

Start by washing and stemming your chosen kale.

This is the black or dino kale.

Then dry it and chop or rip it into bit size pieces.

This is the curly leaf kale.

Squeeze in the juice of one lemon.

Next add a little olive oil and salt.

With both hand massage the kale, yep, get in there and work those greens.

You will feel the kale begin to soften.

Add the two grated carrots.

Set this aside and make the dressing.

In a small bowl, squeeze that lemon, add the garlic and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard.
Mix together thoroughly.
Slowly whisk in the 1/4 cup olive oil.

Pour onto the salad and toss thoroughly.
Now it is ready to serve.We had it with polenta. And Bob pronounced it very good !!

I had it for lunch the next day. It was even better.

There are so many way to change this up, use sesame oil and tamari for the dressing or balsamic vinegar and infused olive oil. Add nuts, seeds, cooked beans or grains, other shredded veggies or thin slices of fruit, crumbed feta cheese or grated Parmesan.
I'll post my variation as they occur.

Massaging a green vegetable made me giggle ;-)