Kale Salad

(true story ... when I typed that title, it aut0-filled in 'Ke$ha & Lund' ... who does Blogger think we are?)

Back to my point .... KALE SALAD.

Are you into it?

I am. Seriously. Game changer. (Life changer seems dramatic, but may, in fact, be true).

I first heard of this mysterious "kale salad" from Erik's mom and our sister-in-law who had lunch at Unforked in OP. (Photo courtesy of The Making of a Foodie).


I didn't know I liked kale until it started showing up in our Door to Door Organics box. (Braised kale and spaghetti and tuscan kale chips are some of our favorites - see right hand side of the blog for recipes). I was kind of afraid to eat it raw, though, due to the - let's be polite - digestive issues. Ahem.

Anyway ... they raved about the salad and it sounded so simple: kale, parmesan, pine nuts, panko and a lemony vinaigrette. My sister-in-law, Darla, started making it at home and then I asked her to bring it to our Christmas dinner. Her version was a little different - she added roasted red peppers and balsamic vinaigrette - and it was good. So. Good.

But ... here is the really great part ... I ate the leftover salad for about 4 days and it was PERFECT. Already dressed the first day and then I didn't do anything else to it. The kale continue to wilt a little bit, but was still crunchy even 4 days later. This is truly about the only way I can take salad for lunch at work without having to make it each morning. Because, let's face it, Never Happening.

I attempted it on my own over our New Year's weekend and the result was OK, but could be improved. (To be fair, we were working within the limitations of the Ozark kitchen). I sort of used a technique I found in this video from Girl's Gone Child (scroll down and watch the video). Cutting the kale pretty small and kind of massaging in the dressing worked well for the salad the first night, but it wasn't as good leftover, which is really the beauty of kale salad.

Since then I've made it two or three times and my basic formula is:
- 1 head of curly leaf green kale or Dinosaur/Lacinato kale. Wash and dry thoroughly. Cut out ribs/stems and slice kale into fat ribbons, then roughly chop, so you end up with about 1 inch pieces of kale.
- 1 red pepper, roasted over gas flame on stove. I find this to be a huge pain in the ass, but I love the flavor and the jarred just doesn't cut it. Chop/slice roasted red pepper.
- 3-4 carrots, either diced or cut into ribbons with carrot peeler
- handful of grated parmesan cheese
- balsamic vinaigrette (I just mix a smidge of dijon mustard, a little olive oil, a little balsamic and salt and pepper. Probably less than 1/4 cup for the whole salad.)
- I skip the panko and nuts because I don't think they last well beyond the first day, but by all means add them if you want.
- Toss everything together and portion out for several days. Will probably make 3-4 servings depending on amount of kale.

It is super good. You could use any ingredients that don't soggy or aren't too wet (like cucumbers/celery would get weird, I think).

Share the recipe you come up with!!