Massaged Kale Salad

Hi all!

I have yet to post any recipes or specifically food posts, so I thought where better to start than with a kale salad!

Kale can be kind of a scary vegetable. I know I didn't know what to do with it when I first encountered it. However, I have learned to love this leafy green for all its glory!

Behold the beauty of kale!

One of the most important things to do when eating kale, especially raw, is to massage it. What? you say, MASSAGE it? Like a day at the spa? Well almost.

Essentially, all you do is add some sort of dressing on your washed and de-stemmed kale and work it around in your hands for a minute or so, making sure to squeeze the kale and really work the dressing in. Here's a longer post about how to do this and why. 

You can do this with any dressing that you are planning on using on your salad or simply oil, vinegar, or lemon juice. I have also made wonderful massaged kale just by using avocado or hummus. By massaging the kale it takes the bitterness away and makes it much less chewy and dense. It also absorbs the dressing or whatever else you use really nicely, adding a burst of flavor. 

Once you've massaged your kale you are ready to go! Add anything you are in the mood for to make a wonderful salad. Not sure what to add? Try my very meticulous and careful method...

...pull everything out of the fridge and work from there! 

For my salad I added cucumber, onion, mushrooms, kalamata olives, arugula, and parsley. For my dressing as well as what I used to massage my kale I used tahini sauce mixed with some vinegar (I used the vinegar from the olives) to make it a bit more liquidy. 

I ended up with this beautiful salad!

Massaged kale is also great as a side to any entree you are having (steamed kale would be tasty too) and I love adding grains like quinoa to it to make a bulkier salad. Eating salads like this during the summer is awesome. They are quick and easy and don't require any cooking. Since you can make them however you want they are also great when you have a bunch of produce you need to use in your fridge.

There are many many kale salad recipes out there as well as lots of different ways to prepare this awesome vegetable, so if you are looking for inspiration check some of them out! 

Do you have any favorite kale recipes?