Kale Salad Recipe

This recipe comes from my blog entry Green Is Gorgeous.  I gave my friends this recipe back in 2005 and 2006 - in the dark days before Kale Salad was all the rage!

What you will need: 

1 bunch of kale

1 large ripe tomato

Dressing: 

lemon or Meyer lemon (or lime if you can't get lemons)
olive oil
good quality salt
ground cayenne 

Use the softest kale you can find at the market.  If it is a small bunch or if you are entertaining several guests, use 2 or 3. Sometimes dinosaur kale is softer than curly kale, and sometimes vice-versa. If you can find "siberian kale" it is usually super tender.  You can tell by giving it a squeeze.  There are usually a few different types of kale to choose from, so if curly kale is too hard, try one of the other varieties.

Cut any thick portions of stem out of the leaves and then rinse them well (more mature kale will have fatter stems than younger plants)  Chop the kale into fairly small pieces. 

Put the chopped kale into your salad bowl and add the dressing ingredients as follows: 

Olive oil is the main ingredient - don't skimp - this is what prevents the salad from being dry and chewy.

Use enough to make salad nice and moist.  I use at least a half cup on a large bunch of kale, but start with what you think won't be too much, because when you start to massage the kale, if it seems dry you can always add more.  

One pinch of cayenne pepper (or more if you like it piquant!)
Juice of 1/4 (more or less, to taste) of a lemon, or meyer lemon (or lime)
Salt to taste (use good quality natural salts like Real Salt or Himalayan Pink Salt rather than commercial processed salts)

"Massage" (squeeze) the dressing into your kale. Use very strong squeezing/squishing to break down the kale so it is tender (squeeze the heck out of it).

Additions:
I always add plenty of tomatoes. A good trick to know is that if your dressing is coming out a little too sour, you can squeeze a few pieces of tomato in with the kale to balance it out.   Then toss in the rest.

I like it simple, but there are other additions people like for variety - (any or all of them) include red onions, green onions, cucumber, red bell peppers, mild chili peppers, and even shredded beets or shredded carrots

I have gone into a lot of detail here, but don’t be fooled - it only takes about 7 minutes to make this yummy salad. 

NEED THE COOKING TOOLS?
Unprocessed mineral salt
Serving Bowl