Raw Kale with Avocado, Orange, Purple Onion & Citrus Vinaigrette

I love kale in almost all forms. I've had a leeeettle trouble appreciating it in its raw glory... but this salad is as close to yummy as I think raw kale can get. This is basically a rip-off of the Whole Foods salad bar kale salad, but with avocado & Bragg's, because that's how Stefania likes hers, as well as orange and lemon, because we've got backyard citrus trees threatening to bury us alive with ripe fruits. I winged the vinaigrette, and it ended up tying the whole thing together spectacularly. Be sure to make the vinaigrette first, so you can pour it on the salad immediately - the avocado won't get a chance to brown, and the citrus will marinate the kale.


Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: None! But it does need to sit in the fridge for an hour or so.
Number of Ingredients: 8


1 lemon
1 orange
1 bunch dinosaur or lacinato kale
2 small or medium avocados
1/2 a small purple onion
Olive oil
Bragg's Liquid Amino Acids
Honey


Citrus Vinaigrette

Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Juice of 1/2 an orange (reserve other half for salad)
1 tbsp Bragg's Liquid Amino Acids (or less, or none)
3-4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey (or more to taste)

Juice the citrus into a bowl, reserving the orange rind.  Whisk in the honey, then half the Bragg's. Bragg's is funky - similar to soy sauce in taste, but more yeasty and tangy. It's an acquired taste. Best to use half a tablespoon to start, then slowly add more if you're liking the funkiness. Add a bit more citrus or honey to mellow out the funkiness if it's not your bag, or just omit the Bragg's entirely. Slowly whisk in the oil to emulsify, then set aside.



Kale Salad with Avocado, Orange and Purple Onion


Trim kale from woody stalks and wash, dry well, and rough chop into bite sized chunks. Dice the reserved 1/2 orange (a large dice is fine), and toss into kale. Dice the flesh of 2 avocados and add to the heap. Slice the purple onion into thin half moons and toss those in as well. Mix the whole thing together with most of the vinaigrette - reserving about a tablespoon for later - then chill, covered, in the fridge for about an hour.

When ready to serve, uncover and toss again. You can drain off the juice at the bottom of the bowl, but it actually tastes pretty good. Drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of vinaigrette, and the zest of the reserved 1/2 orange. So pretty! (Zest makes everything look better).

Enjoy the salad, as well as a sense of superiority over those who have not had raw kale today. Just kidding! Kind of.

Cavolo Nero

Cavolo Nero, cooking.

It just sounds, delicious, doesn't it? Say it out loud:

Cavolo Nero.

Black kale.

So fancy! And so easy to cook. I made it with my friend Jen, straight out of Suzanne Goin's Lucques cookbook, and I'll never deviate from her recipe - it is perfection. It's really just olive oil-braised kale... but richly seasoned with fresh rosemary and black pepper, and spiked with chilies d'Arbol.  It's unlike anything I've ever had. It's taken my love affair with kale to a whole new level.

Make it as a side dish. Toss with with pasta. Pair it with eggs. Serve it on bread with a tangy cheese. However you serve it, it will make kale disciples out of even the most ardent kale-haters (see: Hazel).


Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins
Number of Ingredients: 6

2 bunches dinosaur kale, trimmed from stalks
1 cup olive oil
1 sprig rosemary
2 chiles d'Arbol, crumbled (I found them in the Mexican spice area of Safeway)
1 cup (about 1 medium) onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup garlic, thinly sliced

Set a large pot of water to boil.

Trim the kale from the woody stalks and rinse them well. When the water boils, blanch the kale until just limp, about 60 seconds, and remove to towels to dry.

In in a large pot or Dutch oven, heat 1/2 cup of the oil with the rosemary sprig and chilies, allowing them to sizzle for about a minute. Turned the heat to medium/low and add the onion. Season with salt and pepper and cook for a couple of minutes, until it begins to soften, then add the garlic. Cook gently until the onion starts to color slightly, 5-7 minutes. Add the kale and 2 or 3 more tablespoons of olive oil and stir to coat. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Turn heat to low and, stirring often, cook approximately 30 minutes, until the kale begins to darken and get crisp at the edges. (To achieve crisping, Suzanne Goin recommends that you alternately turn the heat way up, so the kale sizzles, then back down again, so it braises.)

Check for seasoning again, then devour, then write to me to tell me how much you love this dish. I dare you not to love it.

Cavolo Nero, cooked.

When Life Gives You Pumpkins...

... Make Shortcut Pumpkin Curry!

The pumpkins we didn't carve for Halloween ended up staying on our front porch through Thanksgiving. When the Christmas decorations came out, I decided to put the pumpkins to good use with a spicy, creamy vegetable curry. I have made my own curry before, but didn't have all the spices on hand to do it this time around, so I took a shortcut, and used a Trader Joe's simmer sauce that had been languishing in the cupboard for a couple of months. Just between you and me? The jarred, shortcut curry was every bit as flavorful, and much less time consuming, as the homemade version.

Prep Time: 60 minutes (45 of which is baking time, don't panic!)
Cook Time: 20 minutes (or more, if you want to simmer slower and longer)
Ingredients: 8-10 (depending how many veggies you want to incorporate)

1 small pumpkin
1 small yellow onion
2 large carrots
Veggies of your choice (cauliflower, small waxy potatoes, green beans, chickpeas, broccoli, sweet potatoes, squash, etc.)
1 can coconut milk
1 jar Trader Joe's Thai red curry sauce
1 cups veg stock, or to taste
Cooked brown rice


To roast the pumpkin (a sugar pie pumpkin is best):

Preheat oven to 350. Slice pumpkin in half, and remove guts. Lay pumpkin halves face-down in a baking dish, and pour 2 tbsp water over each. Bake at least 40 minutes, until fork-tender, but not mushy. Remove skin from pumpkin halves and cut into large cubes. Set aside.

In a large, heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven, sautee the onion in 1 tbsp oil, then add veggies. Cook about 5 minutes. Add curry sauce and coconut milk. Simmer on medium/low until veggies are tender, then add pumpkin. Simmer about 10 more minutes. Add stock to thin sauce, or not (I didn't). Serve with hot, cooked brown rice as a main dish, or as a side dish with baked chicken strips, to curry-hating little ingrates who may or may not try a "no thank you bite," then declare it "too spicy!"

Kale Chips

We eat a lot of dark, leafy greens. I crave them. I heart them. Chard, kale, spinach, arugula... we have them almost daily, because at the end of summer and all through the fall and winter, they are easy to grow here in Northern California, and so good for you. Our CSA supplier, Live Earth Farm, must grow them by the ton, because they're in our box for months on end. They're very versatile, and even the girls have developed a taste for them. This is Violet's favorite way to eat kale, and it is so easy to prepare, it's stoopid. When something is this quick, cheap and simple, it makes it really fun to experiment with flavor combinations, because if one doesn't work out, you're only out about 15 minutes and a couple of bucks.

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 8-10 mins
Ingredients:  2 (unless you're gettin crazy, which by all means, you should!)

Preheat oven to 350. Wash kale well, then tear it into bite-sized chunks. Remove the vein towards the bottom, because it won't cook long enough to soften. Spin chunks in the salad spinner, dump out the collected water, then spin them again. Remove to a towel, and dry thoroughly. It's very important that the leaves are completely dry, otherwise they won't crisp up when you bake them. In a large bowl, combine kale with 1 tbsp. oil, and a couple of pinches of seasoning. This is where you can go nuts with the creativity and whatnot.

Olive oil, salt & pepper
Peppercorn chili oil & ground, toasted sesame seeds
Toasted sesame oil, salt & white pepper
Peanut oil, salt and garam masala
Olive oil, smoked paprika, salt & lemon lemon pepper
Do you see where I'm going with this?

Lay the kale chunks on a parchment or foil lined baking sheet. Do not crowd the leaves, otherwise they won't crisp up. Bake for 8-10 minutes, checking frequently for signs of burning (brown edges). If they brown they will take on a slightly bitter taste, but to be perfectly honest, I've burned many a batch of kale chips, and they still taste good to me. After removing chips from the baking sheet, you can eat them as is, or grate lemon zest, salty/sharp cheese, or nutmeg on them. Or dip them in hot sauce. Or crunch them over salads. Or sprinkle over a stir-fry. Or if you're Violet and me, eat the entire batch straight out of the oven, and wash them down with something cold and bubbly (root beer and beer, respectively).

Vegan Mexican Hominy Stew

 

When I threw this soup/stew together on a rainy Sunday evening, I was craving traditional Mexican chicken tortilla soup, but didn't have any chicken, and was way too lazy to go out and get some. As I rummaged through the cupboard,  I discovered I did have a can of hominy, a can of green chilies, some fire-roasted tomatoes, a box of veggie stock... and this dish began to take shape. It would be excellent in a slow-cooker, or made the day (or even morning) before. And if you are so inclined, shredded chicken or chicken meatballs would be fabulous additions. It had all the Mexican flavor I was craving, plus I didn't have to go anywhere in the rain, plus we got to scoop it up with tortilla chips. Win/win/win!


Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Ingredients: 10-15 (optional)

*CSA Items

1 28 oz. can Mexican hominy, drained
1 12 oz. can fire-roasted tomatoes + juice
1 4 oz. can fire-roasted Ortega chilies, drained and chopped
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1tsp. dried oregano
2 large red bell peppers, chopped
2 large carrots*, halved and sliced into half-moons
1 medium yellow onion*, diced
2 monster cloves of garlic, minced
3-5 cups stock
Sour cream, cheddar cheese, cilantro* for garnish

Sautee the onion and garlic 2 minutes, then add carrots, peppers, chilies and spices.  When the veggies have started to go soft, about 5 minutes, dump in tomatoes + juice, and hominy. Add 3 cups stock for a stew-y version, 5 cups for a soup-y version (mine was more stew-y, less soup-y). Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes. Garnish with sour cream, cheddar, a squeeze of lime, cilantro, hot sauce, tortilla chips (obviously), avocado... or eat it in all its vegan glory.