This summer I had a great Kale Salad made by bride Casey for her wedding. It was massaged kale and had quoina in it and was very, very good.
Upon receiving a bumper crop of kale from my colleague John, I put together this Kale salad inspired by her creation.
Here’s the recipe:
Bring 1.75 c. water to boil and add 1 c. quoina. Turn heat to low and cook until done, approximately 20 minutes.
Clean and remove the stems from a whole lot of kale. 2-3 bunches from the store, or a huge bowl’s worth from your garden.
Put the cleaned and stemmed kale in a bowl and add 1 t salt. Set a timer for five minutes and squeeze the kale in your hands. Nothing will happen at first, but by the end of the five minutes, the kale will have nicely broken down. Squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the kale and transfer your kale to a cutting board.
Clean out the bowl, discarding the salty kale juice, then finely chop the kale and return to the bowl.
Grate two carrots on top of the kale.
Cook 2-3 (or possibly 4?) rashers bacon, drain and cool. The chop into small pieces and add to the bowl.
Put those on top of the kale and carrots.
When the quoina is done, add it to the bowl.
Mix up a curry vinaigrette. In a separate bowl add 1/4 c. oil, 1/4 c white vinegar, 1 clove garlic, minced, 1 T packed light brown sugar, 1 T minced fresh chives, 1/2 t. curry powder and 1/2 t soy sauce. Mix until combined.
Pour over the salad in the bowl and toss everything to combine. Good cold, also probably good warm.
Kale. Hmm. I'm not sure if I like kale. Does it have a strong flavor?
A friend of mine recently had a food sensitivity test done that basically said he's sensitive to everything, including iceberg lettuce. And he has a bunch of food allergies too. I'm side-eyeing the whole thing very hard.
Kale is a hearty green, but I'd say it's the texture, more than the flavor that is strong. If you want to dip your toe in, I would try Dinosaur Kale, which I think is a bit milder.
And don't even get me started about food sensitivities…
I love kale. And with bacon and quinoa to boot. Yum!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe.