I’m not a person who craves vegetables. I crave good bread and ice cream and chocolate and cheese and carnitas and fresh fruit and pretty much anything but vegetables. I eat my fair share of vegetables because I know it’s the right thing to do, but the only time that I actually crave them is after a few days of unhealthy eating when my body tells me I need to lighten things up a bit. And sometimes I lighten things up a bit by combining vegetables with bacon, blue cheese, and roasted chicken. Sue me.
When I was in Iowa recently, my brother whipped up a dressing, tossed it with a huge bowl of kale and called it a salad. It was super simple and totally amazing. The day after my brother made this salad, I ate a heaping serving of leftovers for lunch. This might not sound like earth-shattering information, but if you saw the overflowing cheese drawer and the abundance of good bread at my parents’ house, you would understand that this is sacrilege. I willingly and intentionally filled up some of the space in my stomach with kale when I could have filled it with Milton Creamery Prairie Breeze. I crave this salad. Hopefully you will, too.
Kale Salad with Tahini-Lemon Dressing
Inspired by my brother, Bobby
- Kale
- Tahini
- Lemon juice
- Olive oil
- Garlic
- Red pepper flakes
- Salt
- Pepper
I am lazy when it comes to greens. I love kale, but I rarely buy it because, even though I know better, I always think that it takes a lot of work to prepare. This salad is the solution to my problem because the only work required is a little rinsing, tearing, chopping, squeezing, and whisking. In about 10 minutes you have a tasty salad, although it’s best after you let it rest for a while. Plus, unlike most green salads, you can prepare a big batch, dress it and eat it for a couple days because kale is tough stuff and doesn’t immediately turn into mush. My brother told me that this salad is his and his girlfriend’s current go-to dish to bring to potlucks, so if you have any summer parties coming up, keep this in mind.
My sister-in-law just gave me the details about a similar salad that she makes, so be on the lookout for a second kale salad recipe.
Is that a side of pineapple or butter? Just curious.
It’s pineapple. I’d have to eat many, many more bowls of kale to justify a side of butter.
ok, this is one way to use up a 20 foot row of curly purple kale, also your chips technique too. thanks kirsten!
The chips are awesome aren’t they!? They’re easily as addicting as potato chips, popcorn,m&m’s but you don’t feel nearly as guilty popping them in your mouth everytime you walk by them!! And I’m still laughing at the thought of a “side of butter” – yay! Oh, and yes, this salad was wonderful!
does the dressing get rid of that weird kale aftertaste?
I’ve never been aware of a weird kale aftertaste.
Yum! Just made this last night for some friends and it was a hit. Very good!
[...] eat. I used some in a chicken and biscuits I made for Brian and mixed some in a dressing I made for More Cheese More Chocolate’s kale salad. It’s great used as a spread on sandwiches because it’s so mellow. It stores easily in [...]
[...] courtesy of Kirsten at morecheesemorechocolate.com [...]
[...] purchases of beets, kale and eggplant home. I immediately made More Cheese More Chocolate’s Tahini-Lemon Kale salad. It’s currently chilling over night. I saved a little extra kale out so I can put it in my [...]
What kind of shelf life does the dressing have?
I’m not really sure as I tend to eat it all within a few days. I’d guess a week or so.