Massaged Kale (Raw Kale Salad)

This is a popular dish around the Frog Holler table. Here are some basic guidelines, but variations abound; the more you make it the more you'll get a "feel" for it!

Ingredients:

Fresh Kale - any variety
Olive Oil
Salt
Chopped walnuts, or toasted sunflower or sesame seeds
Nutritional Yeast
Fresh garlic (stronger) or garlic powder

Strip the kale from the stems and chop leaves finely into ribbons. Place in large bowl with enough olive oil to coat the leaves. Some suggest adding a little salt at this point. Then start massaging! After washing hands :-) take clumps of kale and rub/press/squeeze them. The color will deepen and some juice may be released. Keep massaging (2-5 minutes) until all the leaves are darker green and uniformly soft.

Pour off any liquid that may have been released - you can save it for cooking or stock (remember it's salted!).

Taste massaged kale for saltiness and add more salt if needed along with the nuts/seeds, nutri-yeast and garlic. Stir and let salad sit a few minutes for flavors to blend.

Kale is a nutritional powerhouse, and some say that massaging the raw kale makes the vitamins and minerals available without destroying valuable enzymes that are often lost in the cooking process.

The photo shows one of our variations that also includes massaged cabbage and some chopped radishes. For other variations on this curiously delicious dish, go to these excellent blogs: Cookus Interruptus , and Daily Unadventures in Cooking.