BY KEVIN SEMAGIN
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When I started making this salad, I was living in New York and often struggled to find ingredients I wanted easily in my neighborhood. Back then, I liked to quote “You can find anything in New York,” and add on “If you have the time to look.” The average corner grocery in Bed-Stuy had a limited selection of fresh, healthy, and interesting food.
This recipe resulted from the combination of limited access to produce and exposure to delicious raw kale salads from my good friend Jacob.
At the time, I had been experimenting with the “quick pickle” and saw an opportunity to use it. With a bit of salad inspiration from Jacob, I was determined to make a delicious dish with raw kale that also incorporated a quick pickle, and could be made without an excursion to various markets. This is a simple salad with just the basic additions. There’s tomato, cucumber, apple, avocado, red onion, carrot, and feta. It is very satisfying without any added complexity but could easily be tweaked to fit your tastes. Use the basic kale massaging technique and a quick pickle if you would like with whatever strikes your mood. Chick peas, olives, and a lemon vinaigrette would be a nice twist.
I’m a big fan of this salad and I hope that you like it enough to share with your friends and family.
- 1 very large bunch kale
- 1 large garden cucumber
- 1 medium apple (Honeycrisp or other sweet variety)
- ¼ medium red onion, diced (less is ok if you prefer)
- 1 avocado
- 1 large carrot
- 1 large tomato
- 4 oz. feta (About 1 Cup), crumbled
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Dried basil and oregano
- Mustard
- Salt
- Sugar
- White (or other mild) vinegar
First, the quick pickle.
Peel the cucumber, cut in half and scrape the seeds out with a spoon. Chop into 1/4 inch thick semi circles. Peel, core and slice the apple. Finely dice the red onion. Combine cucumber and apple in a medium bowl and sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of sugar over them. Place the red onion in a small bowl and add a pinch of salt and sugar as well as a dash of balsamic vinegar. Mix the contents of both bowls well and allow to sit while you continue on to the next steps stirring periodically. The quick pickles need to sit at least 15 minutes but up to half an hour is beneficial.
Now the kale...
De-spine your kale and rip or cut into small bite size pieces. In a large bowl, add the kale and about 1 tablespoon of olive oilWith clean hands, massage the kale, gently at first, but don’t be afraid to get a little rough. This will take some time, but make sure to do it thoroughly. Once the texture starts to change, add a splash of balsamic and continue with the massage. When the kale is a noticeably more pleasant texture and tastes a bit more delicious, you are ready to move on to the next step. This might take as long as 10 minutes.