My Foodie Call

Kale is tough.

Tough, fibrous tough and tough in that you need recipe inspiration to know what to do with it.

Kale chips. Many start their kale journey with kale chips. Good approach, but eventually you need to venture out.

Smoothies? Okay if you have a high-speed blender, otherwise the leaves just do not get broken down enough and you are left with chunks. Not good. Nobody wants a blueberry-infused-kale-chunk smoothie. Bleck. The family will divorce you.

Kale salad? Do you eat raw kale in a salad? Chances are if you do, you have discovered that it takes a good hour to chew down one bite.

Unless….

You massage your kale.

Unmassaged kale.

This is “massaged” kale. Yes, use your clean hands and rub the dressing into those fibers.

If you have been eating raw kale, kudos to you, but boy have you been suffering.

Here is  a great recipe for kale rookies that comes with an awesome, sweet dressing to satisfy even the kids in your family.

This dressing is naturally sweetened with dates, raisins and OJ.

Layer the dressing on your salad. Use about half and save the dressing for a later use. It’s that good!

Massaged. Notice how it loses some volume. That’s a good thing.

Add your remaining ingredients and stir.

The longer the dressing sits, the better.

Lightly modified from Raw Food Diet Inspiration here

Kale Dressing:

• 1 Cup of Orange Juice
• 5-6 Dates
• 1/2 raisins
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 strip of celery
• juice of one large lemon
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tea of cayenne pepper
• pinch of sea salt

Pile into your Vitamix or high-speed blender!

The actual salad:

• 1-10 oz package organic kale
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced (go organic if possible)
• 1 red pepper sliced thinly
• 1 green onion, sliced thinly (only 1 if kids are eating. For adults?? Go with 2 or 3.)
• 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

1. Add your kale to a large bowl. Drizzle dressing generously over the greens.
2. Massage those greens! Let this sit as long as possible.
3. Add the rest of your ingredients and mix well.

Love those colors!