Massaged Kale Salad

Massaged Kale Salad

 

I read a review of a restaurant's Massaged Kale Salad online and wondered what in the world this is.  I had never heard of a "massaged salad" so Googled it.  I read several recipes on various websites, combined them all and made my own this week.

 

The various online recipes called for different versions of kale like dinosaur kale and black kale.  I used Kroger Kale - what was available to me without much research! 

 

I understand from Mary that Russian Kale is delicious fresh.  I don't normally think of kale as something I would eat raw.

 

But a massaged kale salad is raw, and is very tasty.

This will be a staple recipe in my house.

 

You start by washing and trimming the stems off of a large bunch of kale.  Then cut the kale into 2 inch pieces (bite-sized pieces).

 

Place them in a large bowl and sprinkle on Kosher salt and the juice of an entire lemon.

 

 

 

Then massage the kale with your hands vigorously for 3 minutes.

The salt and lemon juice will start to wilt the kale.

 

Then add in olive oil and massage for another 2 minutes.

(I think this is a great job for a junior chef who might be hanging around the kitchen wanting to help mom).

 

Then toss in fruit and raw seeds or nuts.

Diced apple and mango were the most recommended fruits.

Raw sunflower seeds and pepitas were recommended as well.

 

I went with apple and pepitas for this salad.

After the photo I decided to mix in the apple so that it wouldn't turn brown on me.  I wanted to save the leftovers in the fridge because it will apparently keep for several days.

The kale is very lemony, but I like it a lot.  A chunk of apple with a piece of kale cuts the lemon flavor down.  I think this is a great way to serve this super nutritious veggie!

 



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Enjoy!

 

 

Kale, Kale, Kale

It's been well over a month since I posted a new recipe.

 

Unfortunately for you, I have two kale recipes to share in this post.

 

I love kale though, but I'm still learning how to cook it. 

Thought I'd share two recipes that worked well for us.

I'll admit up front I was having camera issues so not the best photos, oh well.

 

This first is one of those funny-titled ones from the Abs Diet Cookbook.

 

 

Kale, Kale, The Gang's All Here
This very simple recipe was delicious.  I'll certainly make it again and again.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan and cook minced garlic for 1 minute.

Add chopped kale and saute for 5 minutes until wilted.  



 

Add one can of rinsed & drained cannellini or navy beans. 

Add to the kale and garlic and heat through.

Season with salt & pepper, and drizzle on more olive oil if you want.

 

 

Blurry, but yummy.

 

 

The second kale recipe comes from my new cookbook Chloe's Kitchen. 

I love this cookbook!  I'm actually reading it cover to cover right now.

 

 

 

Garlicky Greens

 

Very similar to the above recipe, this one has a kick to it, and no beans.

 

Heat olive oil in a frying pan and stir in kale, heating until wilted, about 5 minutes.  Add lots of minced garlic and cook for another minute.  Remove from heat and toss with lemon juice and red pepper flakes.  Serve immediately. 

 

 

Delish!

(Ok, that might be pushing it, but really not bad!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eat Your Veggies!

Chickpea and Tofu Mild Curry

Chickpea and Tofu Mild Curry

 

I have never made curry from scratch, so I was excited to try this mild curry from the You Are What You Eat cookbook that I've used so much.

 

There are a lot of ingredients to this dish, but most of them I already had in the fridge, pantry, or cabinet.

 

I started by cooking onions in olive oil for 10 minutes until they were very tender.

(there's a theme, I'm venturing out and cooking with onions more and more these days)

 

Then I added in drained/cubed tofu, chickpeas, fresh cilantro, diced carrots, spices, and water. 

I brought it to a boil, then covered it and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

While it was simmering I boiled a large pot of salted water and cooked a pound of shredded kale for about 4 minutes until it was good and tender.

 

I added in dissolved cornstarch and miso that I had dissolved with a little bit of the curry liquid, and let the curry cook another few minutes.



 

I drained the kale and placed it on a platter, topping it with the curry and some fresh cilantro.

 

 

I served the curry with rice and warmed naan.

 

The flavors are very mild and might need a little more salt during the cooking process.

But everyone liked it and it made for a nice change of pace!

 

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आप का खाना स्वादिष्ट हो

(Hindi for "Bon Appetit!")



Linguine with Tuscan Kale

Linguine with Tuscan Kale

 

A few days ago I shared a recipe from Chef Gregory, and this is another one of his.

While we love pasta in our house, I had no idea how this recipe would go over.

That's a lot of kale and a lot of onion. 

I just wasn't sure.

 

But, it was a hit! 

We had some leftovers, but not much.  I'll certainly make this dish again someday.

 

 

You start by cooking chopped onion and garlic in olive oil until transparent. 



 

Then you add in the thinly sliced kale and let it wilt with the onions and garlic for 5 minutes.

 

I was lucky that Mary and Mike had just given us some beautiful greens from their organic garden.  This kale was delicious!!

 



 

 

Then you add in vegetable stock and cook for 20 minutes, letting the stock reduce.

 

Season with salt and pepper, then toss with hot linguine and Parmesan cheese.

 Deliziosa!

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Buon Appetito!

 

 

Penne and the Jets

Penne and the Jets

David Zinczenko has some great recipes, with even greater recipe names, in his cookbook - The Abs Diet Cookbook that my friend John loaned me.

Penne and the Jets calls for spinach, but I used chopped fresh kale instead and no one was the wiser.

I started by cooking penne according to the package directions.

While it was cooking I heated olive oil in a large skillet and sauteed garlic.  Then I added my kale and let it cook until it started to wilt.  Kale takes more time to cook than spinach I've found, so I just let it sit for a few minutes and wilt away.

**I have "no tomatoes please" eaters in my house.  Normally at this point you would add in chopped sun-dried tomatoes to cook with your greens, but you'll see I added them in later.**
 

Once the greens have wilted, you remove it from the heat and toss in your remaining ingredients:  fresh parsley and basil, kalamata olives, chickpeas and feta or Parmesan if you are using it.

 

Here is the version we placed on the table, for everyone to doctor up with Parmesan or crumbled Feta.

 

And here's my version with heated, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, which really make the dish in my opinion!

Everyone loved it and we'll definitely make again and again!

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Buon Appetito!

Super Green Kale Soup

Super Green Kale Soup

You want a really, really healthy soup?  That also tastes pretty good?

And is good heated up the next day?  And can be frozen for later?

Then I have the soup for you.

I found this recipe in the You Are What You Eat cookbook by Gillian McKeith.

I thought it was really good, given all the nutrition packed in a bowlful.  The boys were lukewarm about it, but they ate it just fine.  I'll certainly put it in rotation with other soups!

You start by heating just a little olive oil in a pan and cooking sliced onions and garlic.

Then you add peeled and chopped turnips and cook for another few minutes, letting them soften.

Then you add boiling broth and let the soup simmer for 10 minutes or so.

Then you add sliced zucchini...

 ...and chopped kale, and let it cook for another 5 minutes until all of the vegetables are tender.

Then you remove the soup from the heat and allow it to cool before putting it in a blender or food processor.  I used my handy handheld blender directly in the soup pot instead.  I made sure my big slices of zucchini were good and soft before I started.

 Re-warm, and serve!

The original recipe suggests garnishing with fresh dill.  I used raw sunflower seeds instead, and it gave the soup a nice crunch.

Good, and so good for you!



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Enjoy!



Blended Mango Salad Smoothie

Blended Mango Salad Smoothie

I saw this recipe in the book Eat to Live and thought it sounded like a great way to get some extra greens in, assuming it was tasty.

This is a great smoothie (or "blended salad" as Dr. Fuhrman calls it)!

We loved the texture, and it's actually pretty sweet.

I've made it a couple of times now - it's a great time of year when mangoes are plentiful and inexpensive!

I peeled and sliced up a mango and added it to the blender, along with 1 cup of chopped kale.

I blended it well, then added half of the romaine, and blended again.

Then I added 1/4 c of milk or milk alternative (almond milk, or soy milk, or rice milk...) and the rest of the romaine and blended it one final time.

It's thick and sweet, and really good.

I would recommend chilling it in the glass or the blender for a few minutes though - it tastes especially good cold.

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Enjoy!

Adzuki Bean Stew

Gillian McKeith's

Adzuki Bean Stew

When I found this recipe in one of Gillian McKeith's cookbooks, I decided to try it even though I wasn't thinking it would be a family favorite.

Japanese adzuki beans, butternut squash, leeks, and kale.  What do you think?

Surprisingly, it was a hit.  David has mentioned a couple of times that he liked it a lot.

Even Brennan ate a bowl, and asked for more. 

In the cookbook, the opening line for this recipe is, "If you want to lose weight, this is the dish for you."  Well, OK!

The author is from the UK, and I believe some of their vegetables may be different from ours in terms of size.  So, I am modifying this recipe so that it is truly more of a stew than a vegetable side dish.  In addition, I was out of kale so we didn't include it.  David said it's good without it.  I think you could probably go either way.

This recipe cooks in 40 minutes or so, but the chopping takes quite awhile.  I find butternut squash peeling and chopping a chore in itself.  So, plan ahead.

The adzuki bean dates back to 4000 BC. In Eastern Asian cultures it is usually boiled and sweetened with sugar to make a red bean paste and used in many different ways. This was my first time working with this bean. Following the recipe directions, I soaked the beans overnight in cold water before making my dish.

I rinsed my soaked beans well and placed them in a large saucepan with water and boiled them for 15 minutes. The author states that it's necessary to boil the beans hard for those 15 minutes to remove any toxins.

Back up, what???

A quick search online and I see that many dried beans have toxins that can be removed by boiling them. OK, just to be safe - don't skip this step!

While my beans were boiling, I cut up a small butternut squash, 3 carrots, and the white and light green parts of a well-washed leek.

I rinsed and drained the boiled beans and returned them to the pot with fresh water and vegetable bouillon, and allowed it to boil again.

Then I added my vegetables and some spices and cooked the soup for another 15 minutes.  If you were going to add kale, you would do so at the end of this time and let it cook for just a few more minutes until it was tender. 

Surprisingly good!

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どうぞめしあがれ

(Bon Appetit in Japanese!)

Spicy Baked Beans with Kale

Spicy Baked Beans with Kale

I went through my recipes looking for more that included kale, and stumbled upon this one from Dr. Barnard, whose recipes I tend to like for their simplicity.

I wasn't sure if we would like it or not, but my boys loooooove Baked Beans so I thought I'd give it a try.

We usually use Bush's Vegetarian, and I always get the large can because they are so liked around our house.

I thought I'd try this recipe and see what we thought.

We liked it!

The only change I will make next time is to chop up the kale more than I did.

Now, this isn't a gorgeous dish, but it tastes great.  You get some great nutrition from the kale, without the bitter flavor.  It works beautifully with the baked beans.

I modified the original recipe slightly and followed his simple version. 

You place all the ingredients in a baking dish and bake at 350* for 30 minutes. 

The ingredients included 20 oz baked beans, 6 c chopped kale, garlic powder, cumin, thyme, onion powder, maple syrup, and black pepper.  You can add chopped chipotle peppers for more heat.

Once it's cooked down, you have a great, mildly spicy flavor.

Again I'll chop the kale even more next time to keep from getting larger leaves and stalks.

Regardless - everyone ate up this recipe and enjoyed the leftovers the next night.

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Enjoy!

Pasta with Kale and Walnut Pesto

Pasta with Kale and Walnut Pesto

I saw this recipe in Real Simple Magazine awhile back and ripped it out. 

I had a bunch of kale on hand and we love pesto, so I decided to make this last week for my pasta lover, Brennan.

I'm new to cooking with kale, but have been trying some new recipes, including the Yummy Greens I posted recently.  I love a recipe that uses ingredients I already have in the house!

I toasted walnuts on a baking sheet in the oven for 8 minutes then chopped them up.

While the nuts were heating up, I boiled a large pot of salted water and then cooked my kale for about 30 seconds until it turned bright green.

Then I scooped the kale out of the water and drained it, leaving the water too cook the pasta.

After it drains, you have to take paper towels and really get all the water out so your pesto isn't watery. 

That's better

You put the kale, Parmesan (or pecorino) cheese, garlic clove, most of the walnuts, and Kosher salt and pepper in the food processor and finely chop it, streaming olive oil in through the tube.

You then drain your boiled pasta, reserving a little bit of the cooking water, and put everything back into the empty pot - the pesto, the drained pasta and about 1/4 c of the reserved pasta water, and combine well.

Transfer to a serving bowl and topped with the remaining chopped, toasted walnuts.

 

Kale has a distinctive flavor, and I think the garlic, pasta, walnuts, and cheese really improve the flavor.  This is a great dish warmed up the next day for lunch as well!

Double click to print as a 5x7 recipe card.

Buon appetito!