Kale

First of all I’d like to wish everyone a blessed Good Friday and a meaningful Easter season. We joined in one of the not-so-everyday gifts of our faith last night and kicked off the Triduum with a Holy Thursday service at our church. It’s always a touching reminder of our roots.

Now back to the kale
I know. I hear ya. I was never a fan either.
I tried it steamed…I’d rather have chard.
I tried putting it in soup… not my thing.
I even tried tossing in olive oil and roasting…still didn’t do it for me

I had pretty much decided that I was just not a kale fan.

THEN while Rich and I were in Corvallis, OR for the boys’ high school state basketball tournament we happened upon the First Alternative Co-op.
We were hungry, they had a fabulous deli…it was perfect. We grabbed several new things to try out and one of the employees recommended the kale salad. What the heck, I’ve never been one to avoid beating my head against a wall so we tried some.

Let me tell you. I am a kale convert. This stuff was really good (as was everything we got there. If you are ever in town go check it out for sure. They lean toward Greek stuff but there is quite a variety). Upon our return there were a few things that we had tried that I wanted to look up recipes for including the kale and avocado salad.

I found a recipe online that is really close at the happyfoody website . The coolest thing about this page is the video they have. Make sure you watch that. What makes this salad work is smooshing the kale with your hands to sort of break it down. I used this recipe with a few small changes. I double the tomato and avocado ( I smoosh half of the avo the way it says to and chop the other half cause I like avo chunks) . I also add onion… either red or small green and pine nuts.




In the interest of disclosure I have to say that Rich and I love it, D was just ok with it. He thought it was a little hard to chew still. Maybe making it a little ahead would help with that.

And as for everyday gifts…. This dish is layered in them.

A huge shout out to Pam and Tom for sharing the love and bringing us avocado, lemons and tangelos while we were camping in Cardiff. Good friends and good food… gifts don’t get any better than that.

The gift of finding that gem of a store.
The gift of being reminded of that whole state tournament awesome weekend.
All sitting there in my favorite bowl…. Oh and ha even my favorite seed catalog there next to it.

Life is good :)

ETA:  I'm adding a link to a printable version of the recipe for ya here