Last summer, I learned from my pal, award-winning blogger
Erica Green that you can eat kale raw as a salad, like spinach,
lettuce and cabbage. Both Safeway and Whole Foods carried kale but once we
moved to France, I couldn't find it. I figured out the name in French:
"chou frisé” and asked at the marché if they sold this. They said it would
be available in the winter. Just two weeks ago, to my joy and rapture, I saw
bouquets of kale near the cauliflower and grabbed a couple of bunches and
developed the following recipe:
The "Raw Kale & Egg
Salad" Salad
Salad (for one big serving in a spacious bowl): Fresh Kale
Salad with vine-ripened cherry tomatoes halved or quartered, sunflower seeds,
sesame seeds, crumbled walnuts, sprinkling of turmeric, pepper & fleur de sel
Dressing(in a mug or small bowl): Mix of olive oil, walnut
oil and sesame oil, ½ tsp smooth Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, flax seeds,
sesame seeds
Egg Salad (perpared in a separate, small bowl): Two boiled
eggs chopped, ½ tsp mustard, 1 tsp mayo, dash black pepper.
Remove the kale leaves from the thicker stem areas, rip or
cut into bite-size pieces, and add dressing. Then scoop on the egg mixture,
garnish with black pepper and chives if you have them! (I didn’t in the
picture.)
If you are not crazy about say turmeric or walnuts, then
just leave them out! You can also add avocado to this salad, which adds creaminess along with the egg salad. The combination of kale, egg and nuts in this salad makes for a crunchy, hearty
salad with a nice balance of protein and complex carbohydrates, while the dressing, mustard and mayo ingredients give it creaminess and the balsamic vinegar give it some acidic pop.
Freshness Tip: If the kale looks a bit weary because it hasn’t
been misted by water, as was the case with mine, wash it and put it in a
plastic bag or sealable salad spinner or saleable glass pyrex bowl, somewhat
damp, so that it’ll spring back to life after a few hours in the fridge.
Bon Appetit!
