Kale can be a tough green to love. It is naturally bitter, and the leaves can become quite coarse if they are picked too late in life. Have you evertried to serve kale to your family and been left holding a full bowl? Well, I've been experimenting with my homegrown kale this week.
I readily admit that my family doesn't love kale, but earlier this month I decided to plant an abundance of kale seeds in my little kitchen garden. Alas, those seeds now seem to be multiplying overnight, and I am enjoying a plethora of kale. A few days ago I was trying to figure out how to tackle the abundance andrecalled a reference to "massaged kale" that I had read somewhere. I didn't bother to find that reference I just decided to rub a bunch of kale leaves between my palms. Much to my delight, the raw kale softened within seconds. It also changed color. On that day, I simply decided to roll the leaves up into a cigar shape and then slice them crosswise into strips. (This is basically called a chiffonade.) I added the massaged kale to a chickpea salad that day. I was mighty impressed and ate more than my fair share of that salad for lunch.
This morning, I picked a big bunch of kale and decided to make Cynthia Lair's Massaged Kale Salad with Apples and Gorgonzola. I had all of the ingredients on hand and watched Cynthia's fabulous video before I got started. Cynthia basically cuts her deveined kale into strips, sprinkles it with sea salt, and then massages the leaves in a big bowl for a whole two minutes. She then adds apples, onions, sunflower seeds, apple cider vinegar, olive oil and a final flourish of blue cheese.
I tweaked the recipe a bit. I followedCynthia'stechnique exactly, but I substituted dried cherries, scallions and pine nuts. I must say this is without a doubt my new favorite kale salad! Sublime! The kale softened and lost all of its bitterness during the "massage session" and the cheese added a rich delicious counterpoint. When I tasted the kale BEFORE adding the vinegar and oil, I thought that it was too salty, but somehow the flavors balanced out and the saltiness didn't seem overpowering in the end.
So, if you want to learn to love your kale, give it a full bodymassage!
Photos by Melissa A. Trainer
--Melissa A. Trainer
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