Thursday, December 22, 2011

Lemon-Olive Oil Kale Salad

It's the holiday season, and if you're looking for a tasty side-dish that is gluten-free, healthy, and vegetarian...consider Kale salad.


My husband knows that I have a deep love of kale. I buy two bunches a week and cook it up fast with lemon and olive oil, and will it that before I even dig into dinner itself. It's my newest favorite...so I take umbrage with any insult to the b-vitamin packed vegetable. So if you have anyone in your family that think they don't like kale, or even don't know what it is, prove them wrong with this salad! 
I took the recipe from my friend's blog, Laurie's Little Kitchen, and tried it primarily because I'm at home, and I always like to try new gluten-free dishes when I'm around my mom to what works and what doesn't! Hope y'all enjoy this and have a wonderful holiday season! 
Lemon-Olive Oil Kale Salad
modified from laurieslittlekitchen


2 bunches of green or red kale, washed and with the leaves cut of the stem
2 carrots, grated
0.5 cup slivered almonds
1.5 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. olive oil
0.5 tsp. salt
dash of hot sauce to taste
pepper to taste
optional -- zest of 1 lemon 


In your salad bowl, rip up the kale leaves by hand into small to medium size pieces. Add in the olive oil, salt, lemon juice into the bowl. Then use your hands and mix the oil, salt, and lemon juice into the leaves. You want to "massage" the leaves, scrunching them up a little bit, and you'll feel them start to soften. Laurie's blog has a good explanation of how to do it with some pictures.


When it's soft enough for you, add in the grated carrots, slivered almonds, hot sauce, pepper, and zest and mix into the salad with a spoon. 


Enjoy it on the side of a sandwich, pasta, or by itself!   

2 comments:

Giulia Brooks said...

Mita, I've always wanted to try kale, so now I have no excuse! I do a similar recipe with spinach, and add toasted pine nuts. Is there much difference?

Mita said...

Kale is a bit stronger than spinach, so it retains more of a crunch than spinach when you massage it. Also, the flavor complex is different, it's a little more bitter than baby spinach or even regular spinach. Some toasted pine nuts would work really well in this too! I just had almonds on hand :-)

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