So, we have been making quite a variety of Kale salads lately.  They are hearty and hardy and we make them the night before we need them.  They travel well and are delicious.

 

I have been learning so much from watching how other people do things.  There may be some kind of a lesson in that but anyway, here’s the latest news.  If you buy a whole head of kale, you can remove the leaves from the hard stems by gripping the stem with one hand the the leaf with the other and just pulling.  Cool!  Once you do that, wash and dry in your salad spinner.  Then chop to your desired size.  I like it fairly small

Here’s the second thing I have recently learned (from instagram actually) in order to make the kale a little more supple and easier to eat, it needs to be massaged.  I kid you not!  So, for one head, approximately six cups, put it in a large bowl and squeeze the juice from one lime on it, then sprinkle 2 TBLSP. olive oil on it.  THEN massage it.  Really!  get all of that juice and oil into the folds and then let it sit.

chop some cilantro to make 1/2 cup once it’s chopped.  Add to your bowl.

Dice half of an orange or yellow pepper, one bunch of green onions, 1/2 cup (ish) of snap peas if you have them and add to your bowl.  Then add 1/2 cup frozen corn and 1/2 cup diced cucumber, 3/4 cup cooked quinoa, 1/2 cup dried cranberries
add 1 TBLSP. maple syrup, salt and pepper to taste, juice from 1/2 lime, another TBLSP. olive oil, grated ginger the size of your ring fingernail (just to make it interesting)
toss all of these ingredients well and divide into containers for tomorrow’s lunch OR set it in the fridge for two to three hours before serving it to your friends for lunch.

To this recipe you can also add roasted vegetables. If I think about it a couple of hours in advance, I will roast squash and sweet potato, diced and tossed in olive oil, (The squash needs 10 minutes in the microwave before baking it for an hour with the sweet potato.  It takes longer to cook than the sweet potato) let it cool and then add it to the salad mixture. The addition of roasted vegetables makes this salad an even more hearty and delicious meal. Last week I added a piece of oven roasted salmon and sent it with Becky for her lunch. It was very yummy.