April 13, 2013

KALE SALAD (a 1 banana difficulty level)



This is blog post 100 (triple digits!) & I'm going to have to dedicate this post to Rudy.

Recently I met some neighbors who are into gardening. I mean, REALLY into gardening. In fact, one is a Texas Master Gardener. They decided to give me some of their extra kale not too long ago.


Other than throwing a small bit of Kale into a smoothie, I really had never used Kale for anything. I decided to embrace the monkey mantra of 'easily making great tasting food' and start with a simple Kale salad. Basically I made my standard Spinach Salad, but with Kale instead of Spinach. It turned out quite tasty!

The hardest part of this recipe is cutting the stems out of the leaves, but that is pretty simple.

Here's the 'anymonkeycan' version of a Kale salad:

WHAT YOU NEED:
Kale (cut to bite size pieces)
Purple Onion (sliced thinly)
Avocado (sliced)
Cheese (shredded - Stella Fontinella)
Trail Mix or Mixed Nuts
Kosher Salt & Ground Black Pepper to taste
Balsamic Vinegar

WHAT YOU DO:
1. Prep the Kale leaves by cutting away the stem & then chopping the leaves into bite size pieces.
The progression is from Left to Right:
1. Place Kale leaf on cutting board with stem away from you
2. Fold leaf in half along the stem                                          
3. Draw your knife along the leafy part & stem                      
4. Discard the stem & chop up the remaingin leaf                  

2. Massage the Kale leaves for about 3 minutes to soften them. They'll turn a deeper green.
Pre Massage
Post massage (deeper green)
Pre                                      Post

3. Build your salad





4. Drizzle with Balsamic Vinegar & Enjoy!

And there you have a Kale Salad that 'anymonkeycan' do!

Until next time...
Your favorite neighborweb monkey!