enJOY it

Yes another. (here's the first one.)

Sometimes you order a salad at a restaurant and it's just a pile of mixed greens with some vinegarette and shredded carrots and you're like…. "hmmmmmm." Other times, out comes an amazing plate of FOOD and you spend half your meal dissecting it and asking the server for more information about the dressing.

Last Friday night, Paul and went to Kettner Exchange and had the latter experience.

This is our take on their killer kale salad.

You'll need :

• 1 head flowering kale (also called red kale and shown above)
• 2 T grapeseed oil
• lemon juice from 1/2 of a juicy lemon
• 1 t sugar
• salt & pepper
• about 1/4 cup raisins (golden raisins are ideal because of the color contrast, but my local market didn't have those)
• 1 small apple (any variety, sliced very thin)
• about 1/4 cup slivered almonds (ideally toasted)
• about 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

To make :

Ideally, you'll want to throw that (rinsed and stems removed) red kale in a food processor to chop it up finely. I'm convinced that the tiny pieces of kale are what really make this salad work, but I always think that the smaller you get salad ingredients the better (more flavors on each forkful). Our food processor came with this attachment that worked great (after 5 years of never being used).

If you don't have a food processor (or don't want the hassle of cleaning it after) just chop that kale as finely as possible with a knife.

Mix the grapeseed oil, lemon juice, sugar and salt & pepper (a good amount of each) together in a small bowl.

Pour the dressing onto the kale and mix together with your hands. This is called "massaging the kale" and is totally worth the hassle to coat it well and soften it up a bit. I let it sit for a few hours in the fridge, but this is not a necessary step.

Add the remaining ingredients to the kale and mix well. The grated Parmesean should coat everything, making it taste delicious and hearty. It's possible after tasting, you may want to add a bit more salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

ps : more fairly simple recipes from the archives.