Happy National Kale Day!
In all honesty, I had no idea this was even a “thing” until I woke up this morning and saw it all over twitter.
We love kale and all of the amazing health benefits it provides. It’s a super versatile super food.
Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore and had the privilege of meeting Mr. Kale himself – Brad of Brad’s Raw Kale Chips.
Total food nerd moment 🙂
I’ve featured kale in several recipes on this blog in addition to the one I’m sharing today! I use it in everything from salads, soups and sautees to smoothies and frittatas.
To celebrate National Kale Day, try one of these recipes, the *new* salad below, or one of the others on the National Kale Day website:
- Taste the Rainbow Kale Salad
- Upgraded Kale Waldorf Salad
- Mediterranean Chickpea and Sundried Tomato Kale Salad
- Mini Kale & Mushroom Breakfast Frittatas
- Peachy Keen Kale Salad
- Tuscan Bean Soup (scroll to the bottom of the page next to the picture of the soup)
- Caribbean Island Breeze Smoothie
Kale leaves after being pulled off of the pretty purple stems
I was on Facebook the other day and was intrigued by the headline, “The Recipe That Will Make You Fall In Love With Kale All Over Again” on MindBodyGreen’s page.
Being the kale lover that I am, I had to click on it.
Reading through the ingredient list piqued my interest, so Bill and I made it for dinner using the purple kale that we had in our fridge. I’m so glad we did!
The lemon juice broke down the bitterness of the kale (as it always does!), and the combo of the sweetness from the dates, complex flavors of the curry powder, bite of the ginger, tanginess of the tahini and crunch of the pumpkin seeds was a real mouth party!
Salad Ingredients
- 1 big bunch of kale (any variety), thinly chopped (about 5 cups)
Dressing Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons tahini (usually in the international section of the grocery store)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon ginger root, peeled and grated
- 3 Medjool dates, pit removed and soaked in hot water for 10 minutes to soften them
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 cup water
- pinch of cayenne pepper
We topped ours with some raw pumpkin seeds for an extra crunch 🙂
Click here for the full recipe from MindBodyGreen!
Ingredients for the salad. This is the best (and cheapest!) tahini we’ve found. We bought it at a Mediterranean grocery store/cafe nearby called Cedar Cafe