Sunday 9 February 2014

Massaged Red Kale Winter Salad with Toasted Cumin-Lemon Vinaigrette



I know that we've already done a massaged kale salad before on the blog before but they are so versatile and beneficial that another one won't hurt. On its own, kale can be a little bitter and chewy. By massaging it for a few minutes, you will break down its cellular structure so that it turns into a delicate salad leaf. To help break down the kale, use a pinch of salt and a bit of extra virgin olive oil (you could use avocado in place of oil if you prefer). The salt will help extract a bit of water from the kale as well which will not only extract most of the bitterness but season it too. Then you can add whatever you like to it. Here I added cabbage, grated carrot, seeded cucumber, halved grape tomatoes, chickpeas and scallions.

For the dressing, I toasted less than a tsp of cumin seeds in a dry pan then ground them with a little salt and pepper in a mortar and pestle. Then I added about a tbsp fresh lemon juice and maybe just a little more extra virgin olive oil. Toasting the cumin before grinding it brings out the flavour so much. Usually in a salad dressing I would use more oil to acid (usually 3:1) but by doing almost 1:1 here it keeps the flavour bright and sharp.

Little tricks like this make eating healthy fun, easy and tasty! I hope you give this a try. 




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