Thought you'd never eat kale in a salad??? Shoot - maybe you thought you'd never eat it again after that traumatic Thanksgiving at Grandmas...or maybe you just have never had kale at all! Dark leafy greens can be bitter and frightening when you don't know what to do with them, so lets take the fear out of all those veggies we've never tried by making some healthy, wholesome, and cleansing foods from those scary greens mom's love!
Salad Fixings you'll need:
1 large bunch curly green leaf kale (largest bunch you can find)
**(any veggies of choice for salad makings or use the recommendations below):
1 yellow bell pepper (or 1/2 yellow and 1/2 red)
1/8 - 1/4 inch slice red onion
1/2 stalk celery finely chopped
1 carrot peeled and shredded finely with hand (cheese) grater
1/4 of a ripe avocado
1/2 tsp of finely chopped ginger
1/8 tsp of finely chopped raw garlic
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar*
1/2 lemon
(this salad is great with any veggies and other toppings: chopped tomatoes, raw corn chopped off the cob, shredded raw golden beets, sprouts, and pinenuts. Add fresh herbs such as cilantro or basil to change the flavor. Have fun - just use this technique to wilt the kale. Darker dinosaur kale can also be used, but the leaves will not wilt as much.)
Directions:
Rinse and chop all above veggies and set aside on cutting board
Get the largest bunch of kale you can find (in the end it will only be equal to half the size you see)
De-vein each leave by holding the leaf ends together and pull the long stem out of the center (this takes the bitterness out)
Rinse and dry the kale (salad spinner helpful) - tear the leaves into smaller more mouth manageable pieces
Place your kale in a large mixing bowl and add the 1/2 tbsp olive oil - ready to get your hands dirty?
Massage the kale leaves for approximately 1 minute. You'll see the kale become more supple and shrink substantially in size.
Once the kale is broken down from your loving massage, chop the quarter of the your avocado into the kale and massage again, distributing and pressing the avo into the leaves.
Add all of the additional chopped veggies (including the ginger and garlic)
Squeeze 1/2 a lemon and add the 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar to the salad, season with pepper and dulse**, mix well
save extras as it only gets better with time in the fridge!
*apple cider vinegar is loaded with potassium and helps to leach the calcium from veggies making it easier for your body to assimilate these nutrients. It's also great for aiding digestion since it's enzymatically rich! ACV can be used as a health tonic to eliminate toxic wastes from the body: 1 to 2 tbsp with 4 to 8 oz of water, hot as tea, with a small amount of local honey if available or agave as an alternative.
**dulse is a seaweed. It has negligible amounts of sodium and can be used in many recipes as an alternative to salt. Dulse is high in iodine which is a mineral we used to get in abundance, however due to refinement of food and depletion in soil, iodine is no longer readily available and usually requires some supplementation.
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