Kale Salad

Avocado Kale Salad This is a staple in our home. This recipe was initially inspired during a lunch with @MamaGena in NYC at Plum, a lovely place on the Lower East Side. From there, the recipe evolved over the past 18 months to this. I make it every week – sometimes twice. Ingredients:

• 1 Head of Kale – I use the big leafy kale, though you might want to use Black (Dinosaur) or the Purple (Red) – sometimes I mix it up. Derib the Kale. This is important. I use a boning knife and run it done the rib and separate the Kale away from it. I then bunch up the leaves into a ball and finely slice them – this is called Chiffonade.

• 1 Avocado – mash this over the shredded kale finely with your fingers until the Kale is completely coated. This has the effect of adding a good oil, and softens the tough Kale leaves. This combination of avocado and fine chiffionade makes this dish easy on the teeth.

• 1/3 C Extra Virgin Olive oil – pour over the mixture
• Juice from 1 Meyers Lemon, strained – pour over mixture
• 2 teaspoons Sea Salt (more/less to your taste, I love the crunch it adds)

• 3/4 Cup Green Olives – your choice here, we get bright green ones from Whole Foods. I have seen recipes calling for very fancy (and expensive) ones from Peru – whatever you like will be perfect

• 1/2 Cup Raw Goat Cheese (Cheddar), finely shredded on top or cubed and mixed inside, your choice. If you don’t eat cheese, leave it out. I have replace this with Enoki Mushrooms to get a similar visual effect.

• 1 cubed Avocado – add this in last.

Mix softly so as not to crush the avocado, but to blend in the oil and juice thoroughly. Refrigerate and serve. This feeds two nicely with big portions. You can go crazy with garnish if you like. In this example I used sprouts and pine nuts and shredded the goat cheese on the top. As always, if you make this, let me know how it went. Til we eat again, Mark PS. I have made this recipe with a Kale mixture from the Farmers Market that had light green, dark green, red and purple kale (small leaves). This provided a colorful alternative to the Kale Salad you see above.