Family, Friends, Farms and Food

What do you do with all that kale in your CSA share or brought home from your local farmer’s market? Make a salad!

Kale is a wonder vegetable. It’s good in smoothies (thank you, Husband), steamed or sautéed with garlic, or eaten raw in a salad. Kale salad is our new favorite salad. Even Bon Appétit Magazine had a kale & shredded brussel sprout salad featured a few years ago. GASP! I know, not many people like brussel sprouts. We happen to be a family of brussel sprout lovers. When my daughter Kate was young she used to ask to eat them raw by the handful. Since brussel sprouts aren’t in season right now you’re off the hook. However, the salad recipe below includes the brussel sprouts as a variation.

Making your own salad dressing is so easy and so much better for you than the overprocessed, high fructose corn syrup junk at the market. It takes 5 minutes to make and you can buy a fancy bottle to keep it in. All you need is a little acid (lemon juice or vinegar), olive oil, herbs, and that’s it! I also like to add Maine Coast Sea Veg Seasoning to my dressings as a replacement for sea salt. It adds a subtle flavor, but more importantly it is a source of iodine. Iodine is helpful for an underactive thyroid like mine and since most of us use pure sea salt instead of Morton’s Iodized Table Salt we simply don’t have enough iodine in our diet. So go ahead and make your own dressing. Experiment with different herbs and flavored olive oils. Use the juice of an orange. Add blueberries or raspberries. It’s all good.

The lemony dressing  used on this salad is light and delicious. You can use it for any green salad or a summer pasta salad.

Kale Salad

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 large bunch of Tuscan kale, cut away the hard center vein and sliced into chiffonade style pieces
• ⅓C pumpkin seeds (or chopped almonds, pumpkin, toasted pine nuts)
• ½C finely grated Pecorino Romano/Parmesan cheese blend
• Fall season variation: 1 quart or 10 ounces of brussel sprouts, slice or shredded chiffonade style

Dressing Ingredients:

• 1-2 lemons juiced (about ¼C)
• 1T fresh basil, minced or 1t dried basil
• 1T Dijon mustard
• ½C  EVOO
• ¼t Sea Veg
• ¼t freshly ground pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced

Directions: Combine all dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk until thick. Adjust seasonings. Put the chiffonade kale, pumpkin seed, and cheese in a bowl. Add the dressing and toss until coated. This salad doesn’t wilt and actually gets better if you leave it a few minutes before serving. Before serving, sprinkle a few more pumpkin seeds on top.

In case you need more ideas on how to prepare kale look no further than HERE.