New Pi Eats

Food that makes you Feel Good: Summer Kale Salad

08 Jul 2011 5 Comments

by New Pi Eats in Party Food, Sides, Snacks Tags: delicious kale, feta, fresh kale, kale salad, lacinato, lemony salad, mediterranean, pine nuts, raw kale, summer salad

Occasionally, the stove is just really unappealing – on a sweltering summer day, you don’t want to go near it. This is the recipe for that day.

While kale is hailed as a superfood, packed with nutrients, the truth is that eating kale just makes me feel good. That’s good enough for me.

This is ideal potluck food – very quick to prepare, and a little marinating time is good for it. Local kale is in at New Pi from our friends at Grinnell Heritage Farm, so summer’s begun!

I’d always eaten my kale cooked – sautéed mostly, as in this popular post here. Eating lunch at a friend’s house a spring ago, she casually chopped kale while we chatted. I watched her season and kind of squish the kale for a bit with her fingers in a bowl, and then she sat down for a cup of tea. It was so simple. And then, after tea, lunch was ready (with roasted vegetables from the oven and some brown rice off the stove – classic, simple, beautiful food. I could eat that most every day and feel pretty good).

Inspired by Melanie, I made up this Mediterranean riff on her fresh kale salad. On a hot summer day when your appetite’s just not there, it can stand alone for a light lunch, or be a beautiful side any day.

My no-fuss method for stripping kale leaves.

Allie’s Summer Kale Salad

all ingredients to taste:

Strip kale leaves from stems (I grip the stem with my right hand and with my left hand I loosely pinch the stem and pull down to strip the leaves. You can also slice along the stem, or include the stem if you chop it finely). Roughly roll leaves up into manageable sections for chopping and slice finely into ribbons, a rough chiffonade.

In a bowl, drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over kale, season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat fully.

Let it sit for about 20 minutes, though it could certainly be eaten right away if you’d like the kale to stay sort of crunchy. Marinating in the olive oil, lemon, and salt softens it to a nice texture that would fool you into thinking it’d been cooked.

The olive oil soaks in, so you may want to dress it with a bit more. Sprinkle with toasted pine nuts. Use a vegetable peeler to shave the feta in, toss, and garnish with lemon if you’d like. Enjoy!