Sunday, September 02, 2012

(K)onquering KALE!!!

Long time readers (ok...anyone who was with me last year) will remember that Kale is the bane of my CSA existence.  So you will be surprised to hear that twice now I have VOLUNTARILY chosen kale as my extra-item-of-choice while at the market.  

Say, whaaaa??

Turns out I created (and by created I mean people have probably been preparing it this way for years, I just finally caught on) a flipping delicious recipe for kale slaw that I figured I would share with you fine people should you too find yourself stuck with a bunch on hand.  In fact, this recipe is SO good, that you might even seek out kale...I know...go figure.

Anyway, first you get some kale.  Either voluntarily or by being bequeathed large amounts of it in your CSA box.  Then take a very yellow picture of the kale to make it seem as unappetizing as possible:


Cut the kale off the stems and send them for a spin in the salad spinner:
Dry off the kale and chop it into fine slaw:


Take a handful of nuts of any kind (I used sliced almonds) and throw them in a small pan on medium high heat and swirl around with a silicone spatula until they JUUUUUST start to get fragrant and then take them off the heat.  The heat of the pan will continue to toast them to perfection:


Grab your bacon from the freezer [side note: for YEARS (and yes, I feel shame about this) I did not cook bacon because I usually only needed a little bit and then the rest would go stank in my fridge.  Just this past spring (I'm quick, you know) I realized I could roll up leftover, uncooked pieces individually in parchment paper and then only take out what I needed.  GENIUS, I tell you]:


Cook two slices of bacon (Yes, there are four here.  Yes, I fully admit to cooking up two extra slices to nosh on):


Let the bacon cool and chop up (2) slices:

Add bacon (just the 2 slices) back to the fat in the pan along with a large handful of raisins and cook on medium high for a minute until the raisins plump a bit [side note: if you DO make more than 2 slices of bacon, make sure to pour off the excess bacon fat...you only need the fat of 2 slices here]:

Add in your kale - it will be a HUGE mound but will cook down quickly:


Toss kale and bacon and raisins until kale has cooked down 1/2 way and looks tender:


Turn off heat and add in toasted nuts:


Julienne a medium sized, firm/tart apple and add that to the mix:



Make 3-2-1-1* vinaigrette by whisking together 3 TBS Olive Oil, 2 TBS Apple Cider Vinegar, 1 TBS mustard and 1tsp honey:


Pour vinaigrette over warm slaw and toss:

Serve it up warm or, even better, toss it in the fridge and let all of the flavors meld together and then eat it with every meal for the next two days:


Delicious Kale Slaw

Ok, ok...so the last thing anyone ever wants is a 50 bazillion step process to make a simple slaw that includes things like "now go get the fill-in-the-blank-ingredient from the tree you planted last summer in preparation for this moment".  I get it that this sounds like a lot of work.  But the reality is there are really only a few steps: 1) Process your kale 2) toast some nuts 3) make some bacon 3a) eat some bacon 4) julienne an apple 5) make a vinaigrette 6) toss it all together.  If you can wrap your mind around that, than you should be golden and this shouldn't overwhelm you at all.

Ingredients:
Bunch of Kale
Handful of toasted nuts
Medium apple - julienned
Two slices of cooked bacon, crumbled or chopped
Handful of raisins
3-2-1-1-mustard vinaigrette*




2 comments:

  1. This looks awesome. I love kale. We'll definitely have to try this. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. I will SO be making this! I just need to hunt for kale!! YUM!

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