Kale Salad with Broccoli, Apple and Orange Dressing
Kale Salad
I made a typical winter salad, a kale salad with mostly seasonal ingredients. Paired with grilled chicken or any type of grilled meat and you have a nice filling lunch. Kale was not a basic vegetable in my kitchen for a long time. And with good reason. Kale was completely unknown in Hungary. My grandmother and my mother have never used it. I’ve tasted kale first on one of my trips abroad. It is very popular in the Netherlands. Kale is the main ingredients of a typical Dutch staple, called ‘stamppot’. It is kale mixed with mashed potato. It could be side dish but for the Dutch it is a main course when paired with sausage.
Peak Kale Season
Kale thrives in wintertime. It can survive in temperatures as low as -15 C and becomes sweeter after heavy frost. Kale is a member of the cabbage family. But the hard, green leaves don’t form a head. It’s one of the richest vegetable sources of calcium. Kale contains iron, magnesium and potassium. And it is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, fiber and carotenoids. It contains 45 different flavonoids with a variety of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Two big palms of kale provide 13 times more vitamin K than the daily recommendation of this vitamin. Vitamin K is important for healthy blood coagulation and maintaining bone mass. It’s a very healthy vegetable but not everybody can tolerate raw kale, it’s difficult to digest for some people. And it can cause bloating.
Tip!
Set aside the stem of the broccoli and use later to make broccoli ‘rice’ or stock.
Massage the Kale!
There are so many ways to eat kale. I made a raw kale salad now. The green leaves with big thick stem are hard. The stem is edible, but it is not delicious. First of all, wash and dry the kale. Then remove the stems from each leave. Chop the leaves into small pieces and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. (It’s possible to buy cleaned, chopped kale to save time.) Grease your hands with olive oil. Rub chopped kale with your fingers for some minutes, until leaves begin to tenderize. This massage gives the kale a silky texture. After the massage you are ready to prepare the salad.
Lunch Salads:
Kale Salad with Broccoli, Apple and Orange Dressing
Ingredients
Salad
- 150 gram kale this is the net chopped quantity
- 80 gram broccoli florets cut small florets
- 50 gram celery root cut julienne
- 50 gram red onion finely cut
- 2 big carrots cut julienne
- ½ apple cut matchsticks
- 50 gram pistachio roasted
- 3 pinches salt
Orange Dressing
- 50 ml fresh orange juice
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1½ tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp sumac
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
Instructions
- Make the vinaigrette first. Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl.
- If you bought whole kale leaves, wash and dry them. Then remove the stems from each leave. Chop the leaves into small pieces. Skip this step if you bought cleaned, chopped kale.
- Put cleaned, chopped kale into big bowl and sprinkle with 3 pinches of salt. Grease your hands with olive oil. Rub kale with your fingers for some minutes, until leaves begin to tenderize.
- Cut the broccoli to small florets.
- Cut the carrots and celery root to julienne.
- Cut apple to matchsticks and cut the red onion finely.
- Mix all of them gently in the big bowl.
- Pour the orange vinaigrette to the salad and stir gently.
- Let it rest for 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle with roasted pistachio before serve. Enjoy!