Massaged Kale Salad

Ok, as much as I love kale, I must admit I was quite apprehensive when my friend Dinah forwarded me this recipe.  Raw kale is YUCK.  Sautéed, great.  Baked into chips, great.  Boiled in soups and stews, great.  But until now, I would never have even entertained the idea of eating kale raw.

But curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to make a batch of this today (with a baggie of arugula salad in the fridge on stand-by).  And so I take back all my negative preconceptions of raw kale.  This salad is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS.  Did I already say DELICIOUS?

Even the hubs, who was a meat-and-potatoes guy when I met him 13 years ago, ate every single bite I put on his plate.  So thank you, thank you Dinah.

The only changes I made to the original recipe were to 1. omit the cayenne because I don't like spicy, and 2. added a little bit of shaved parmesan because, well, I love cheese.  Oh, and I toasted the pine nuts first.

Massaged Kale Salad
Taken from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 large handful of pine nuts
• 1 large bunch of kale
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• several turns of the black pepper grinder
• freshly-shaved parmesan

Directions:

• Spread the pine nuts on a small baking sheet and toast in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes until it begins to turn light brown.  Remove and set aside.
• Wash and spin-dry the kale, remove the thick middle stem, and chop or tear the leaves into bite-size pieces.
• Place kale, olive oil, lemon juice and salt into a large bowl.  Massage the kale with your hands for a minute until it becomes soft.
• Add avocado, garlic, pepper and pine nuts and toss.
• Top with some freshly-shaved parmesan.

I know pine nuts are very pricey, but I had to try them today per the original recipe.  I'm thinking this salad would be just as yummy with walnuts instead of pine nuts.  Especially since walnuts are 1/4th the price of pine nuts.  ;-)