If you have only ever had raw kale in a salad, you know the problem. It is stiff, it's a bit like rabbit food, and you are still chewing the first bite when everyone else is done with their regular lettuce salad.
My wife Mackenzie makes her kale salad a different way and the first time you have it it's a bit of a lightbulb moment.
Strip the leaves off the stems, because the stems stay tough no matter what you do to them. Then put the leaves in a bowl with a sprinkling of salt and a big glug of olive oil and work them with your hands for a couple of minutes. Squeeze it, scrunch it, be rough with it. You've got to use a bit of energy here, you're trying to really break it down.
The kale turns dark green and silky and shrinks to about half the original volume or even a bit less. That is you breaking down the fibre by hand instead of making your jaw do it later.
Then the dressing. I asked Mac for the recipe and she said she doesn't follow anything specific. She knows the ingredients but just goes by feel. So here is what is in it and roughly how much for one big bunch of kale.
- A quarter cup of olive oil.
- The juice of half a lemon.
- A tablespoon of rice wine vinegar.
- A teaspoon of dijon, which keeps the oil and the lemon from separating.
- A teaspoon of soy sauce.
- A tablespoon or two of nutritional yeast.
- A clove of garlic, grated fine.
- A splash of maple syrup at the end if it tastes too sharp.
Shake everything together. Taste it before you add any more salt, because the soy sauce is already salty.
We will add a little bit of whatever we have around to fill this out. Crushed walnuts, microgreens, chopped bacon, pomegranates. You get the idea.
A lettuce salad is finished the moment you dress it and you better eat it that night. Massaged kale holds. Dress a big bowl tonight and it is honestly better tomorrow, and still good the day after. A lot of the time we will even fry leftovers and have them with our eggs in the morning.
If you make a jar of the dressing while you are at it, the next salad is just a few minutes of work.