love.life.eat
a relentless pursuit of the perfect home + dish
addicted to kale: kale + apple + coconut + meyer lemon salad
If I were a woman of leisure, I would fawn over kale photographs all day long. I would dust parmesan over massaged kale and stare at the leaves as they crisped and curled in the oven. Possibly I would even lie supine with a bowl of purple and red kale mixed with pasta resting on my chest whilst channel surfing.
I suppose I’m a kale addict. So much so that I’ve devoted a Pinterest board to my beloved cruciferous green. Friends have urged me to consider a kale cookbook. Funny how I grew up believing iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing constituted a salad, and now a day doesn’t go by when I don’t consume kale in some fashion. Whether it’s tossed in my pasta with truffled cheese and cracked pepper or juiced with spinach and tart apples or simply shoveled raw in my mouth, there are so many ways you can enjoy one of the healthiest greens going.
Many have asked me how I massage kale, and to be candid I adore raw kale so much I don’t do it anymore. However, you can tenderize the green by washing it, removing the leaves from the veins and rubbing it in your palms with some olive oil and sea salt. Doing so yields a less fibrous kale. However, I’ve found that with the right flavor combinations, one doesn’t need to massage their kale.
After having been inspired by a salad served up in a Whole Foods in Santa Monica, I decided to re-create the salad at home.
INGREDIENTS
3 cups of chopped kale
1 honey crisp apple, chopped
2 tbsp unsweetened, flaked coconut
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tbsp meyer lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
DIRECTIONS
In the bottle of a wooden bowl, whisk the olive oil and lemon. While I realize that the oil to acid ratio is 3:1, I don’t care. My recipe calls for a 2:1 and the salad was delicious. Now that you’ve tossed the oil and acid, cover the chopped apples in the mixture so they don’t brown.
Add the kale, coconut, salt and pepper. Toss + serve!
This looks like something my 8-year-old son would eat! Thank you for all of these great kale recipes. I ate a ton of kale when I was pregnant and nursing. It is very high in vitamin K and vitamin K is becoming very popular in the alternative/natural health world. I am also going to make this one: salad.http://blog.freepeople.com/2012/02/kitchen-confidential-charred-fennel-and-carrot-salad/
This is delicious, I just had it at Whole Foods in San Diego, searched for the recipe and yours is just as DELICIOUS. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
Thanks, Mariza! This is SO DELICIOUS. I was also beyond impressed with the Whole Foods out in California — the folks in the shop are so much more inventive with kale than NY.