Recipes : Kale and Quinoa Salad featuring the Kale Massage
Kale Salad
There is something you should know about me, I don’t eat vegetables! As a kid, my Mom would try to feed them to me and I spit them out. I never took a liking to them as I grew older. My palate has changed over the years which is a good thing. I was a mac and cheese kid all the way. When my Mom would cook I preferred to have mac and cheese over just about anything she put on the table. She would give me the option if I wasn’t going to eat her dinner I could make my own mac and cheese. I even asked to have it on Thanksgiving! My Dad claims he is allergic to anything green so you can guess where I got it from!
Last month I chose Bonjour Kale as the book club selection. My first thought (sorry Kristen) was I was about to read a book about vegetables and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that… But for those of you that read it’s so much more than that. Kristen got me thinking about kale and how I needed to give it another try. Throughout the book Kristen shares recipes using kale. Introducing the Kale massage was a game changer as I had no idea that would change the taste and consistency of the vegetable.
For those of you who don’t know what the Kale Massage is, it’s a way to soften the leaves a bit and make it much easier to chew and digest. Kristen shared these images with me in English and in French breaking down the kale massage.
courtesy of Lucy Williams of Boundary and Thorn
Last October I was in Paris and my friends invited me over for baguette, cheese, and wine. If you didn’t know this may be my favorite meal so of course, I said yes! When I arrived my friend’s husband had laid out quinoa and was making a salad. I am not sure how my face looked but I was trying to hide my disappointment of trading cheese and baguette for quinoa. My friend arrived late from work and was carrying the cheese so my face regained a bit of color. Thomas created a quinoa salad bowl with avocado, grapes, lettuce, nuts, and a vinaigrette dressing. I didn’t expect to like it at all and well the truth is I haven’t stopped thinking about how good this was! I prefer the quinoa that they used from Paris. I happen to think cooking it at home smells like cooked broccoli.
When I was creating a kale salad to introduce the kale massage for the blog I immediately thought of this salad recipe but swapped out lettuce for kale.
The ingredients:
kale
avocado
grapes/ I would even prefer cranberries or raisins
nuts (these are from trader joes the sweet and spicy ones)
quinoa
lemon
olive oil
salt/pepper
Directions:
Rinse off the kale and break into pieces. Follow the instructions for the kale massage. I put about half a lemon and olive oil with salt in a large bowl. I massage for about two minutes. This is a game changer. Trust me!
You can mix in the rest of the ingredients how you like them. The dressing from the kale should hold enough flavor for the bowl. I really like lemon so I would probably squeeze an additional wedge over everything.
If you have made a recipe with Kale from Bonjour Kale or were inspired by the book I would love to hear from you! Please comment below or send me an email at [email protected]
The Kale Massage directions in French below
In French courtesy of Boundary and Thorn by Lucy Williams
Leave a comment