I've long been a fan of Heidi Swanson's natural food blog, 101 Cookbooks. Simply put: she cooks the way I cook at home so I've always related to her in that way. We also both currently call the Bay Area home and, apparently, love raw kale salads.
I was a vegetarian for fifteen years and then, one day out of the blue, started selectively eating meat. Something funny happens to your cooking habits when, throughout the majority of your adult years, you never prepared meat or seafood at home. The truth is that I'm just not as comfortable handling raw meat or fish and am really not as adept at preparing it as I am my wide range of vegetarian recipes. So I rely on lots of big salads, egg dishes, whole grains, and the occasional chicken or salmon recipe. And after today, lots of raw kale salads.
The dressing for this salad contains ingredients that you probably already have on hand at home: good olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic, and pecorino cheese (or paremsan works, too). When massaged into regularly stiff kale and allowed to sit for 10-15 minutes, the greens soften and turn into a delicious, bright healthy salad.
Season-less, filing, and nourishing. Heidi calls for toasted and torn brown bread for this recipe but treats it as optional, so I decided to leave it out and opted for a slice of crusty baguette to accompany my salad instead. You can make all sorts of adaptations with the recipe, adding in toasted walnuts of currants or sliced avocado and cabbage. Treat it as your blank canvas, or enjoy it as is. You can't go wrong either way.
Get the recipe: Raw Tuscan Kale Salad at 101 Cookbooks
Related: Kale Salad with Apricots, Avocado, and Parmesan
(Image: Megan Gordon)
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this salad is a regular guest at our dinner table. so good. truth.
we love this salad! i usually add extra red pepper flakes!
mollycorinne.wordpress.com
I have all those things! Totally making this for dinner. Maybe I'll add some canellini beans too.
I made one for Thanksgiving dinner and it was a big hit. I put dried cranberries and sunflower seeds.
I was planning on making this for lunch today, without a recipe. Excited to see that my idea in theory should be good in reality as well. (And I appreciate the tip on letting it sit first.)
I too love raw kale salads and they make a regular appearance on our dinner table. They are great as a side or the main dish with an egg or grilled protein on top. Delicious.
This sounds amazing but calls out for a few smashed anchovies at the bottom of the bowl.
I love kale in all its varieties, but I do not find raw kale of any sort palatable! It makes me sad, these salads get such good reviews and I cannot eat it. I'm not crazy about anything raw except fruit, so I'm sure that's part of the issue for me.
Charlotte, I did not think I would like this either. Make sure you try all of the varieties of kale because there really is a difference in taste and texture. Another thing that improves the texture is to apply lemon juice and massage the kale first as a sort of tenderizer. Of course you could always make a salad with cooked kale, but if there is hope, try that tip first.
If you can't find lacinato kale - and I often can't - and aren't a fan of straight-up raw curly kale, you could chop it and blanch it for a minute or so in boiling water, drain well, and then toss with the dressing and let it sit. It's cooked at that point, but still has plenty of chew and brilliant colour.
you guys are funny with your repeating posts:
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-kale-salad-with-pecorin-58862
I switched pecans for breadcrumbs and it was such a good idea!