Monday, July 12, 2010

Crunchy-Crispy Kale & Fennel Salad

It's a fact that kale is one of the most nutritious foods you can eat - it provides both a high level of nutrition AND a high level of satiation/satisfaction for very few calories. Raw kale provides a powerhouse punch of Vitamin A and Vitamin C, as well as carotenoids and chlorophylls.  Want to make your body happy? Make this delicious salad - you can make up a big batch of it and it will keep in the refrigerator for several days!

Ingredients:
  • 1 large bunch lacinato or dino kale (remove stem & chiffonade to 1/8", give a few coarse cross-chops)
  • 1/2 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced & cut into 1" pieces
  • 1/2 large red onion, finely sliced and coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 large fennel bulb (or 1 small - to your taste!), thinly sliced & coarsely chopped
  • 1/4-1/2 c Meyer lemon juice
  • fresh rosemary & oregano to taste, finely minced
  • 2-5 cloves garlic, pressed or very finely minced
  • 1/4 c capers, rinsed & coarsely chopped
  • 1/4 c pitted kalamata or nicoise olives, coarsely chopped (optional)
  • extra virgin olive oil to taste
  • fresh ground black pepper to taste
Instructions:
Really, all the work here is in chopping up the vegetables.  Once you have the vegetables in the bowl, add a small handful of coarsely chopped capers (rinsed!) and olives.  Drizzle with the lemon and olive oil, toss to coat, add chopped herbs and pepper to taste.  If you are storing it in the fridge, remember to toss it every so often to move veggies down to the small puddle of dressing in the bottom of the bowl.  This salad keeps very well for several days and is very satisfying!

A quick visit to a nutritional calculator provided a rough estimate that this entire salad is about 600 calories - less if you use less than 4 Tb olive oil!

This post is currently featured guest post on Dog Island Farm!

2 comments:

Chile said...

There is a variation on raw kale salad you might be interested in trying. After chiffonading the kale, grab handfuls and squeeze in your fists quickly. Work your way through all of it in the bowl. This softens it and makes it almost seem cooked. Proceed with rest of recipe.

Sounds weird, tastes good.

Jenn said...

That's exactly what I do - I mix it with my hands, but I think I forgot to put that in this recipe (but did put it in the Dog Island Farm version).