Lately everyone is talking about kale salad. My niece Holden, who is always on the cutting edge of food trends, has been making it for months. Her dad talks about how good it is. My friend Kathy has been making kale salad that includes edamame and garbanzo beans. I did a web search and found dozens of recipes.
There's every good reason to eat kale. It is rich in calcium (important for someone who has sworn off calcium supplements) and antioxidants. It can lower cholesterol and contains more vitamins than you can shake a stick at. Some of kale's nutrients are lost in the cooking process, so I decided to give kale salad a try.
I'm slow to adopt new recipes, preferring to stick with the tried and true. Most of the recipes for kale salad had too many ingredients for my taste. Being a lover of simple food, I wanted to try raw kale without a lot of other ingredients. I decided to make my favorite cole slaw using kale instead of cabbage. Why not? Both vegetables are members of the brassica family, along with broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Kale just happens to be the most nutritious of the lot.
First I removed the central stems of a bunch of kale. After stacking up the leaves I shredded them into fine strips, about 3/8 wide, as I would cabbage. Then I chopped the strips into even smaller pieces.
My usual cole slaw dressing is easy to make. This time I made it with fresh lemon juice instead of cider vinegar as a nod to many of the recipes I found on line. Tossed with the chopped kale it lends shine and variations to the beautiful green composition. (See my post "This One's For Grant-O," June 20, 2011 for a description of the dressing.)
Served with cold baked beans and a sliced tomato the kale slaw was delicious. Dennis said he prefers it to cooked kale. Kale lacks the crispness of cabbage but the taste is just as good.
There's every good reason to eat kale. It is rich in calcium (important for someone who has sworn off calcium supplements) and antioxidants. It can lower cholesterol and contains more vitamins than you can shake a stick at. Some of kale's nutrients are lost in the cooking process, so I decided to give kale salad a try.
I'm slow to adopt new recipes, preferring to stick with the tried and true. Most of the recipes for kale salad had too many ingredients for my taste. Being a lover of simple food, I wanted to try raw kale without a lot of other ingredients. I decided to make my favorite cole slaw using kale instead of cabbage. Why not? Both vegetables are members of the brassica family, along with broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Kale just happens to be the most nutritious of the lot.
First I removed the central stems of a bunch of kale. After stacking up the leaves I shredded them into fine strips, about 3/8 wide, as I would cabbage. Then I chopped the strips into even smaller pieces.
My usual cole slaw dressing is easy to make. This time I made it with fresh lemon juice instead of cider vinegar as a nod to many of the recipes I found on line. Tossed with the chopped kale it lends shine and variations to the beautiful green composition. (See my post "This One's For Grant-O," June 20, 2011 for a description of the dressing.)
Served with cold baked beans and a sliced tomato the kale slaw was delicious. Dennis said he prefers it to cooked kale. Kale lacks the crispness of cabbage but the taste is just as good.
It was just another simple supper, but upgraded. For me, cole slaw has been redefined. It's a new trick I look forward to performing again, but next time I may give the slaw a little crunch by adding toasted nuts or croutons.
2 comments:
Sometimes kale can be too darned chewy! What's your trick to finding chewable kale?
My experience is limited, so I can't say I have a trick. I chopped the kale into little bits, first one direction and then the other, so maybe that was the key. It isn't crisp like cabbage, that's for sure, probably because of a lower moisture content.
Post a Comment