My New Favorite Thing

I've been trying to prepare more meals at home so as not to hit my wallet so hard every day as well as to incorporate healthier foods into my diet.

Because of this, I have fallen head over heels for my new favorite thing: a raw Kale Salad!

It's amazing and simple and oh so delicious.  I love using kale for this simple salad, but I recently used red swiss chard instead, and it was a wonderful substitute.  Here's my rough recipe for what I've been making at home.  I do everything to taste and suggest you do so as well.

For the dressing:

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 to 2 garlic cloves depending on how much you enjoy scaring vampires away
• lemon juice (I use juice from the plastic bottle shaped like a lemon, but fresh is better)
• parmesan cheese (I use grated parmesan from the green bottle, but fresh is better)

For the salad:

• A huge bunch of kale

Wash and dry the kale.  Once cleaned, remove the stems.  Cut the kale leaves into small strips.  The more you cut the kale, the more oxygen gets into the leaves and the more the kale "wilts."  This softens the flavor of the kale quite a bit so it's not as bitter.  Put kale into a large mixing bowl.

Prepare the dressing: Mince garlic and crush it with the flat of your knife blade or the back of a spoon.  Put garlic into a shake safe container (I use a small tupperware, but you may have a jar with a lid).  Add olive oil, lemon juice, parmesan cheese.  Put the lid on the container and shake the dickens out of it.

Put dressing over kale and mix well.  Some purists like to mix the salad by hand to "massage" the kale. This softens the texture and taste of the kale even further, but I don't personally do this.  To each their own.

I suggest allowing your salad to sit for a while before serving.  This sitting around time allows the dressing to further enhance the flavor and texture of the kale.

Kale is a super hearty green, so the dressed salad can be refrigerated and enjoyed later that day or served the next.

I have enjoyed eating this kale salad as is with nothing else on it, but I have also done this salad with red swiss chard and topped it off with poached eggs.  

When I made this salad today, I added a diced avocado and quartered artichoke hearts with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar on top.

There are endless ways to dress up this salad, but even at its simplest, this kale salad is delicious and amazingly good for you.

Enjoy!

Photo from "She Knows" website