RECIPES

Articles tagged as kale (view all)

Delicata Squash and Kale Salad with Urfa Biber

11 November, 2014 0 comments Leave a comment

No picture of the finished salad here. The pictures did a disservice to the delectable salad. So here's a picture of the pre-roasted delicata squash. It's one of the easiest squashes to prepare. It cuts easily and the seeds are easy to remove. In fact, that grapefruit spoon there is usually used to remove squash seeds, not to eat grapefruit. This is a quick easy salad to prepare. Eat it as a main course or an accompaniment. Serves 4-6 as a salad or 3 as a main course.

1 large delicata squash
2 tablespoons olive or avocado oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup

(please click on the recipe title for the whole recipe)

Winter Squash Soup with Kale and Sausage

14 October, 2014 0 comments Leave a comment

This is a very vegan-friendly soup, so if you want to omit the dairy and sausage, go for it, the soup won't suffer. I used squash from the very delightful Whistling Train Farm and sausage from the wonderful Skagit River Ranch. The amounts below are loose. This is not a precise exercise in baking, where amounts must be just so or the whole thing is ruined. This soup is easy and gorgeous; the orange is bright, the bright green, olive oil slicked kale contrasts sharply, and the crumbled browned sausage brings it all together.  I'd love to post a higher resolution, larger shot of this soup, but Shopify doesn't allow that. 

(Click title for the rest of the recipe.)

Kale with Avocado and Apple

24 March, 2014 0 comments Leave a comment

Kale Salad with Avocado and Apple
1 bunch kale (I prefer Lacinato or Dino kale)
1 avocado
1 small apple (or ½ a large one), cut into matchsticks
juice of ½ lemon
1 tablespoons light vinegar (I like champagne vinegar)
salt and pepper to taste

Remove the center stems from the kale leaves (if the leaves are larger than 8”). Wash them and dry them in a salad spinner.  Slice the leaves crosswise into ¼ - ½ inch strips.  Put them into a large-ish salad bowl.  Here’s where you get to get messy.  Cut the avocado into 1” chunks and put them in the bowl with the kale.  Now make sure that when you washed your hands before you started this, you washed the backs of your hands and under your nails.  If you didn’t, go do it now. 

With your fingertips, mash the avocado into the leaves of kale.  You’re done when each leaf has been coated and there are few distinct bits of avocado left.  The rubbing of the leaves helps to tenderize them and makes them, to me at least, far more palatable.

Now add the apple, half of the lemon juice and a teaspoon of the vinegar.  Toss. Add ¼ teaspoon pepper and ½ teaspoon salt.  Toss & taste.  Add more pepper and acid (lemon juice and vinegar) as needed. 

Travel Disasters and Comfort Food

28 January, 2014 0 comments Leave a comment

We left Friday morning for Michigan for a memorial service.  The weekend felt complicated and loving and surreal, as various times.  When we look back at it, our return home was a comedy of errors.  At the time it felt as if a train was headed for us.  There was the cactus juice that squirted into my beloved's eye as he attempted to take a cutting, then the soap he washed his eye with (and with which he gave himself a bit of a chemical burn), there was the flat tire on the way to the airport in 9 degree weather, there was my missing knife that appeared (I'd searched for it for weeks, to no avail) at airport security, and there was the gastro-intestinal misery my poor boy experienced upon our return (he has a direct link from his nerves to his tummy).  But we made it through the slings and arrows and were thankful for our return to warm beds and for our resilience.  

Last night we wanted a comforting meal, one that would give us warmth and nutrition, vegetables and protein.  Below, you'll find the meal I put together.  Make it some night when you want a meal to restore you. You can use already cooked chicken if you want to speed up the process.

Ras el Hanout Chicken with Rice and Vegetables

1 medium or large onion, chopped
2-3 tablespoons minced garlic 
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1/3 cup chopped carrot
1 cup julienned kale
1/2 cup peas
4 chicken thighs
2 1/2 - 3 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons ras el hanout
3/4 cups rice (I prefer basmati, but use what you like)

Heat the butter or oil in a dutch oven. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 - 15 minutes, until translucent and beginning to brown around the edges. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add carrot and kale and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until the kale starts to wilt.

Sprinkle the chicken with ras el hanout. Push the vegetable mix to the edges of the pan and turn the heat up to medium high. Don't worry if the vegetables brown, but don't let them burn. Lay the chicken in the space in the middle. Brown each side. Add the rice and broth, cover the pan tightly, lower the heat, and leave it alone until the rice has absorbed all of the broth. Add the peas and re-cover until they are cooked. It won't take long. Add broth by the 1/4 cup until the rice is done if the rice isn't yet cooked.

 

And sorry there isn't a more glam picture, but we ate most of it before anyone let me take a picture.