It’s easy to get stuck in the same old salad routine. It’s time to add some pizzaz to your greens with this crunchy, cheesy kale salad recipe. Kale can be difficult for some people to introduce into their diet. It’s high fiber, which is great for your health, but it’s difficult to chew; it also has a strong, bitter taste. This recipe calls for a technique called massaging. It’s exactly how it sounds. With clean hands, squeeze and squish the kale with your dressing. This does two things. One is that manually squeezing physically helps to break the fiber in the leaves, making the kale more tender. The acidity of the dressing will also help with this. The crushing also impacts the flavor, making the kale less bitter while maintaining its nutrition. You can use this technique on all sorts of bitter greens in your salad. Try this technique with arugula, mustard greens, chard or collards.
Ingredients:
6 to 8 leaves of kale, remove the stems
1/3 cup roasted almonds, chopped
1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/3 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
¼ cup olive oil
Juice of 1 small lemon
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tsp dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Wash and pat dry the kale and cut into bite-size pieces, then add to a large salad bowl. In a smaller bowl make the dressing by whisking together the lemon juice, olive oil, mustard and garlic salt and pepper.
Add the dressing to the kale and, with clean hands, massage the dressing into the greens. In a small pan, toast the panko crumbs until they start to brown, about 2 to 3 minutes over medium heat. Stir around the panko so that it doesn’t burn. If your almonds are not roasted, you can chop them up and toast them with the panko crumbs. Top the kale with the toast panko, almonds and parmesan cheese and serve. Make four servings.
Nutrition facts:
Serving size: 1.5 to 2 cups
Calories: 226; Fat: 22g; Carbs: 10.6g; Fiber: 4.5g; Protein: 8g; Sodium: 339.8mg
Recipe adapted from: Crunchy Parmesan Kale Salad – Something Nutritious (somethingnutritiousblog.com)
