Want to make a simple, luscious kale salad with only a few ingredients?
Post updated 3/9/2023
Check out the recipe below. It features curly green kale, olive oil, lemon juice, and seasoning. It's so tasty, even those who usually skip eating a salad will cheer about it.
Prepare this color-rich dish for lunch, brunch, or serve it with bowls of soup to those gathered round your dinner table.
See ways to add additional plant-based protein to the dish and reap big health and flavor rewards.
Kale is part of the cruciferous vegetable family, a plant that grows even through the cold weather months.
It is a healing, inexpensive leafy green that shines in a winter salad.
Kale is rich in Vitamin A, an important element for eye and bone health. This vitamin helps boost the immune system as well.
Kale is a good source of Vitamin C, helpful during cold and flu season.
Kale contains Vitamin K, important for blood clotting and bone building.
It contains Folate, a B vitamin that's key for proper brain development.
It also contains other nutrients including Lutein and zeaxanthin, that give kale its deep, dark green color.
Massaged Kale the Crowd's All Here Salad
Although there are several varieties of kale, I suggest using curly green kale. It's the most common variety, and is heartiest, most fibrous, and best suited to being tenderized (massaged).
Ingredients:
2 bunches curly green kale (about 24 stalks)
2-3 fresh squeezed lemons or about 4 Tablespoons of juice
2 Tablespoons cold-pressed extra
virgin olive oil
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Optional: salt-free all-purpose mixed seasoning, salt free adobo seasoning, apple cider vinegar, and Dijon mustard
What to Do:
1. Wash hands well and dry. Clean kale, remove stems, and tear kale into small pieces. How to Clean Kale Video from Fresh Farm/Food Prints shows you tips for doing that.
Place cleaned, destemmed torn kale pieces into a large salad bowl. Waste not by cutting up stems and putting them into foods you roast, bake, or slow cook for a long time.
2. Roll up your sleeves and squeeze, toss, and turn (massage) kale
with oil and lemon juice, until it’s well coated and looks deep dark green. It
will feel soft and tender, after about 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add a pinch of salt, pepper, and optional seasonings near the end of the massage process. You might like to include Dijon mustard (1 teaspoon) and apple cider vinegar (1 teaspoon) to the mix to add rich, lively notes to the flavor.
4. The kale is done when it's glossy and slightly reduced in volume. That’s exactly what you’re going
for.
5. Add extra salad ingredients now. The photo at the top of this post includes butternut squash, carrots, beets, red pepper, and onion.
Use staples on hand to embellish the salad. Pears, red cabbage, olives, cooked brown rice, lentils, peas, cashews, and slivered almonds are calling me.
6. Get creative and add extras to make this salad uniquely your own.
This recipe serves 4-6 people, and is a fun salad to serve at a party.
Store leftover salad in the refrigerator. Add it to stews, soups, casseroles, or drain and serve on a hummus sandwich on whole grain bread or roll.
Massaged kale will keep for 3-4 days in the fridge.
Please let me know whether you've ever made a massaged kale salad in the comments section below.
You'd be surprised to find people who ordinarily wouldn't eat kale on a bet rave about its good taste, when it is prepared this way.
If you haven't massaged kale before, did this post tempt you to try it?
When you make this salad and see how easy it is to put together, please let me hear about that too!
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