Kale Corn 'n' Ham Hot Salad

Yes, I'm still eating kale.  Just not posting the daily doings.  But, here is an easy summer dinner.

• Kale - 1+ cup, ripped up to bite size. Microwave on dinner plate, 2 minutes. 
• Corn on cob - 1 ear.  Microwave 4 minutes, cut the kernals off the ear and put on the kale.
• Add 1 tsp butter, cut up to the corn/kale.
• Ham 'steak' - 1 slice.  MIcrowave 1 minute. Cut up and put on the kale, corn mixutre.
  

Serve with ground pepper (1 tsp) and splash of Worcestershire sauce (1 tsp).

Enjoy!

Rated a 4.68 on the Kale Scale.

Thanksgiving Kale

Worked out this recipe using "legal" FODMAP foods - someone at the Thanksgiving table experiencing SIBO. I googled appropriate recipes, and dressings and from there cobbled this together. I relented and used a sweetener in the dressing, to keep it palatable to the rest of the people at dinner. If I was making it just for me, I would have left out the sweetener and also would have added something like yogurt in the dressing. Now, it's possible to do that with SIBO, but yogurt that you make yourself - that was more than I wanted to try for this meal!  The salad is delicious!!! I made enough for 10 servings at 6.5 oz each. The nutrition count is for one serving.


Ingredients, all organic:

• Kale, 2 bunches - about 285 grams when cut up
• Carrots, shredded - a bag. Was 284 grams.
• Yellow sweet pepper
• Purple grapes
• Pineapple, fresh. Use 3/4 of the pineapple in salad. Rest in dressing.
• Oranges, fresh (2). Use 1.5 in salad; the rest in dressing.
• Lime, fresh - juice it.
• Olive Oil
• Agave nectar
• Orange juice (from the 1/2 orange)
• Ginger root, fresh; grated..
• Lemon juice
• Filberts, ground - about 75 of them to get 1-2 tsp per serving.

Make Salad

• In a huge bowl, cut up the kale into fine strips. Leave out the heavy stems. Massage the kale for 2 minutes.
• Add the shredded carrots, and mix in.
• Dice yellow pepper and add.
• Cut the grapes in half and add. Mix in.
• Peel and core the pineapple, dice 3/4 and add to the salad. Mix in.
• Peel, segment the orange, chop up. Add.
• Mix all of this up, toss.

Dressing

• Put olive oil in a bowl
• Juice 1 lime. Add to oil.
• Juice 1/2 orange, and add of OJ as needed to get 2 oz. Add to oil.
• Add bit of lemon juice (dash to 1 tsp)
• Add 3 tsp agave nectar (or honey) to oil.
• Grate raw ginger - you'll use about 1 tsp and use the rest for something else. Add to oil.
• Put remaining 1/4 pineapple in a blender.
• Add the olive oil mix with fruit juices and sweetener.
• Add the grated ginger.
• Add 9 sprigs of cilantro - just the leaves. (about 1 Tbsp)

Put dressing on the salad, toss.

Serve with a topping of about 1-2 tsp ground nuts.

Rated a 4.78 on the Kale Scale.

Pear Parmesan Kale Salad

A simple salad and convenient side for a salmon steak. Quite tasty!

Toss as desired:

1+ Cup Kale, ripped to bite size pieces
1 pear, cored, diced - unpeeled
2 tbsp toasted almond slivers
3 tbsp grated parmesan
2 tbsp fig balsamic vinegar dressing


Enjoy!

Rated a 4.7 on the Kale Scale.

Kale with Dressed Garbanzo Beans and Peach

This was an odd combination to start with, but ended up being pretty tasty!  I had made "Lemony Garbanzo Beans" earlier in the day with a recipe from the Nutrition Action Health Newsletter. This recipe I will present first and then the kale salad.


Lemony Garbanzo Beans

• Make the dressing with 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice, 2 Tbsp Tahini, and 2 Tbsp plain non-fat yogurt.
• Add herbs of your choosing. I used 2 tsp fresh chopped chives.
• The actual recipe called for 2 Tbsp of olive oil, but I left that out.
• Mix the dressing with a drained 15 oz can Garbanzo Beans
• Makes 3 servings

 Kale Salad with Dressed Garbanzo Beans and Peach

• Mix together in a big bowl and then serve:
• 1 serving of Lemony Garbanzo Beans
• 1.5 cups kale, cut in smaller than bite-size pieces
• 1 peach, cut up with skin left on
• 1 Tbsp of Cindy's Kitchen Pomegranate Vinaigrette (oil-free)
• Top with 2 Tbsp of chopped fine toasted, no salt almonds 

 Rated a 4.59 on the Kale Scale.

Watermelon Kale Salad with Walnuts

A summer salad with fresh watermelon. Very tasty!

Mix, toss, layer - whatever you want - put these ingredients together:

1.3 cups Kale, cut to small, but not fine size pieces
1 cup+ of watermelon balls (about 20 or so)
1 pear, cored and diced. (Leave the peel intact)
1 oz walnut pieces
2 tbsp of Tangerine Vinaigrette Dressing (Cindy's Kitchen)

Serve and enjoy!!

Rated a 4.6 on the Kale Scale

Papaya and Olive Kale Salad

Another hot day; another simple salad!  Very tasty!!


Toss together, layer, or otherwise put in a bowl and mix
1+ cup kale, ripped to bitesize pieces
1 papaya, seeded, diced (no peel)
2 tbsp olives, sliced
2 tbps tangerine vinaigrette dressing (Cindy's Kitchen)

Top with 
1 tsp of dukkah (egyptian nut topping)

Enjoy!

Rated a 4.64 on the Kale Scale.

Pineapple 'n Apricot Kale Salad

Hot day calls for simple salad. Quite tasty. I really like the Tangerine Vinaigrette Dressing from Cindy's Kitchen from Whole Foods.

Toss, layer or otherwise pile in a bowl and mix up:
1+ cup of Kale, ripped up to bite size pieces
2/3 cup pineapple, freshly cut, cubed
1 apricot, chopped up
2 Tbsp Cindy's Kitchen Tangerine Vinaigrette Dressing

Top with 

1 tsp of sesame seeds

Enjoy!

Rated a 4.6 on the Kale Scale.

Spicy Bean and Quinoa Kale Salad with Mole Viniagrette

The basic recipe comes out of Cooking Light. Supposed to serve on Spinach. I used Kale, of course, and this was delicious!

Recipe is to serve 6. The nutrition count is for 1 serving with 1+ cup of Kale, ripped to bite size pieces.

Mole Viniagrette: Combine, whisk, mix up and set aside
1 tsp grated orange peel
3/4 tsp unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground sinnamon
2 Tbsp orange juice
1.5 tsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp adobo sauce from canned chiplote chiles in adobo sauce
     Add last, slowly, mix it all up
     2 Tbsp olive oil

Combine in large bowl, toss
3 cups cooked quinoa, at room temperature
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, roasted
1/4 cup cilantro, fresh, chopped up
2 green onions, sliced
1-2 chiles from the canned chipolte chiles, sliced thin
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

After the quinoa items are all mixed together ADD
the Mole Viniagrette and toss to coat.

Serve 
1 and 2/3 cups of mixture on top of 1+ cups of kale, ripped to bite size


Rated a 4.68 on the Kale Scale

Good Sam Kale

A trip to the doc's office isn't complete without lunch at Good Sam's Courtyard Cafe.  They have a great salad bar that includes kale, spinach and other greens. So I got my cup of kale in a salad today with  spinach, lettuce, coucous/raisins/pistachio/turmeric, walnuts, cherry tomatoes, sunflower seeds, carrots, with oil and balsamic vinegar.  It was really pretty good!  No nutritional count for this one.

Rated a 4.75 on the Kale Scale.

Dayton Diva's Kale Salad

This recipe came from the self-proclaimed Dayton Diva, Evonne Foshee - one of the members of the Amity-Dayton Cohort/Ford Family Foundation Leadership Institute. We had a potluck meeting, she brought the salad,  everyone enjoyed it so much, we got the recipe.

Her recipe goes like this:

1 chopped up bag of kale chopped more
1 apple diced
1 handful of dried cherries chopped or a handful of cranberries chopped or some of both
1 hand full of chopped candied walnuts or pecans or as I often use some salted sunflower seeds.

optional...
add some chopped broccoli slaw and chop it up finer or finely chopped cabbage slaw.
raspberry poppy seed dressing or make your own with a little balsamic some creamy dressing of some kind and some poppy seeds and some sugar or sweetener.
As you can see you can be creative here an add and subtract as you wish give me any ideas that you had at all incorporated them into my recipe I'm always looking for something new and exciting.

Here is my interpretation, for a potluck to serve 12:

• Kale. I didn't have a bag. I had two huge bunches of organic kale. I chopped up 1/2 a bunch or about 6-8 big leaves of curly green kale and it turned into about 6 cups of finely chopped kale. I "chopped" using my kitchen shears. Seeing the mound of kale, I stopped chopping.

• 2 Apples and 2-3 tsp of Lemon Juice.  After getting the ingredients in the bowl and mixed up, it seemed to want another apple, thus I used 2. After chopping/dicing apple with my Pampered Chef Chopper and putting on top of kale, I sprinkled with the lemon juice to keep it from turning brown.

• Dried Cranberries, sweetened only with apple juice. I didn't chop these, just tossed them in whole. After about 1 cup, it seemed to be enough.

• Almonds, roasted, unsalted, no sweetener. Chopped up fine with the PChef Chopper. 2/3 C.

• Broccoli Slaw. Bought a package at grocery, and used about 1/2 of it. volume wise it seemed like 1.5 cups. I chopped it up finer, with PChef Chopper.

• Dressing.  A couple Tbsp of Light Mayo tossed on the salad. A couple Tbsp of greek non-fat yogurt (plain), tossed in salad. And 1/2 cup or so of Dannon Light'n'Fit Vanilla yogurt.  My intention was to moisten the ingredients, and not slather them up with dressing. Mix it all in.

Make the salad in a huge bowl, and keep stirring or tossing with a huge meat fork, salad tongs, whatever. Once it's all combined and mixed up, load up the serving bowl.

Enjoy!  The picture, from Christmas Dinner, shows it was a hit.

Rated a  4.85 on the Kale Scale.

Fresh Fruit on Steamed Kale

A side salad to go with a bit of salmon. Very nice!


Microwave with steamer top for 2 minutes
1+ cup of Kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Place on top of the bed of steamed kale
1 peach, cut up
2 kiwi fruits, peeled and cut up

Dust the top with
1/2 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp unsweetened coconut, shredded (Bob's Red Mill)

Serve and enjoy!

 Rated a 4.5 on the Kale Scale

Steamed Kale Salad

I call this a salad because everything but the Kale was fresh, not cooked, I tossed it all together, and gave is a dash of salad dressing.  Pretty good, nice and quick.  The fresh pineapple salsa is made at Whole Foods and sold in the fruits and vegetable area in their cold case.

Steam
1+ cup Kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Add, and mix up or toss
7 grape tomatoes, halved
6 green olives, castelvetrano, halved
1/4 cup pineapple jalapeno salsa, Whole Foods
2 tsp feta cheese, crumbles
1/3 cup pineapple, cut up
2 tsp fig balsamic vinegar

Serve with
1 tbsp of dukkah, dusting on the top


Rated a 4.69 on the Kale Scale.

Purple Kale Citrus Salad

Wanted a quick side salad to go with salmon.  I used organic purple kale. Deep purple.

Toss, layer or mix up, then serve:

1 cup Kale, ripped to bite size pieces
2/3 cup pineapple chunks, cut up
1 clementine, peeled, halve the segments

Serve with 2 Tbsp Fig Balsamic Vinaigrette

Rated a 4.45 on the Kale Scale.

Warm Sweet Potato Quinoa Salad

I was on the hunt for a "mexican salad" for a potluck, and found this. Turns out this warm salad works perfectly paired with a bed of kale.

This recipe is cut in 1/2 from the original. I get about two 1. 3 cup servings - it took that much to provide the proper kale coverage for my liking.

Make quinoa
1/4 cup quinoa
3/4 cup water
Bring to a boil, then simmer til water is absorbed.

Cook sweet potato
1 big sweet potato (about 1/2 to 2/3 lbs. I used one weighing 300 grams).
Peel sweet potato, dice into 1/2 inch pieces. Cover with water, bring to boil; cook til tender about 15 minutes.  Drain well.

Toss the quinoa, and sweet potato with
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1.5 tbsp green onion, chopped fine
2 oz can of sliced olives
1 avocado, diced
1/4 cup mined fresh cilantro
6 cherry tomatoes, halved

Whisk together and mix into the vegetables
4 tbsp lime juice (the juice from 2 fresh limes)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp chipolte chili powder

Serve on a bed of 1 cup steamed kale.

Rated a 4.7 on the Kale Scale.

Sweet Potato Joy with Fresh Kale

The basic recipe started with the Sweet Potato recipe on page 325 of my hard bounc 1975 version of the Joy Of Cooking.  I offer here a variation on that recipe. You can look the original up at the Library - it is very good, and makes a great no-added-sugar addition to any holiday meal. So, too, does my variation... :) 

This is really not a kale recipe exactly, but rather a recipe to which one can apply a cup of kale and carry the kale down the gullet, quite nicely.

One could use this as a side to protein, such as fish, or other.

This recipe makes 3 servings (for me).

Ingredients - all will be divided into two layers.

• 2 sweet potatoes, medium+
• 1 packaged cup of Del Monte pineapple chunks (comes in plastic cup that is really only 7 oz). No added sugar, just pineapple juice.
• 1 pear, cored and diced
• 4 figs, dried, cut up
• 1/2 cup cherries (I used dried bing cherries, but you could use fresh if you want. The nutrition count is for fresh cherries)
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp Ras El Hanout spice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Ingredients - go on top of casserole

• 1/3 cup pineapple juice from the pineapple cup above. 100% juice.
• 1 Tbsp butter, diced and sprinkled over the top

Ingredients for each serving - 1 cup of kale ripped to bite size pieces.

Boil until so tender, the jackets will slip off - about 40 mins. Knife or fork inserts easily when done.

• 2 Sweet potatoes, medium+ in size. Fits in Revereware 3 qt pot with water to cover.  Drain and pour in cold water. When you can hanle them, slip the potato skins or jackets off.

Assemble the casserole in 1 and 1/2 qt casserole dish

• Make two layers starting with sweet potato, then pineapple sprinkled over, then cherries and fig sprinkled over, then cinnamon and ras el hanout, top layer with pecan.
• On the top, sprinkle around the diced butter.
• Pour over the whole casserole, the pineapple juice.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Serve on a bed of fresh kale (1 cup) per serving.  I used purple kale.

 Rated a 4.64 on the Kale Scale.

How well do kale and applesauce go together?

Kale and applesauce go quite well together, surprisingly. Of course you have to use enough applesauce, and toss in a clementine and spices to make it so. I was thinking, how could you fit kale into a dessert when one doesn't use added sugar, and doesn't like to fake out with artificial sweeteners? What I came up with was actually a fruit-ish salad, not really dessert. But, it worked.

I used purple kale; it's what I had. I minced it up with my Pampered Chef food chopper. Made a mess of the cutting board. I used 2 little cups of Mott's applesauce - their Healthy Harvest Granny Smith. I added the little clementine with cinnamon and ras el hanout to make it more palatable.

This recipe is for 1 person. A stronger person than I who really, really likes kale, could perhaps do with less applesauce. Despite the rating, I would do this again, it was a super easy way to get the kale eaten.

Mince
1 cup kale

Put in bowl and mix

1 cup of Mott's applesauce
1/2 the kale

Repeat with rest of applesauce and kale

Add
1 clementine, peeled, with each segment cut in half
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ras el hanout spice mix

Serve with dinner.

Rated a 4.49 on the Kale Scale.

Kale and Grapes Salad

Simple, and effective. Kale salad to go with a salmon dinner and corn on the cob.

Mix up to your satisfaction:

1 cup purple Kale, ripped into bite size pieces
30 red grapes, halved
2 Tbsp Tangerine Vinaigrette Dressing (Cindy's Kitchen)

Rated a 4.5 on the Kale Scale.

Kale Salad with Persimmon, Kiwi and Pineapple

Our long and pleasant run of 70+ F. weather is still with us, and makes for great salad motivation.

Toss, layer or however you like, put these ingredients together:

1 cup Kale, ripped to bite size pieces
1 persimmon, peeled, cored, chopped
1 kiwi, peeled, chopped
1/2 cup pineapple pieces, chopped

Dust with 1 tsp of coconut flakes

Serve with 4 tsp of Cindy's Kitchen Tangerine Vinaigrette.

Rated a 4.66 on the Kale Scale.

Kale Veggie Salad

95 grams Kale, ripped into bitesize pieces.

This is about 3.4 oz. More
than a cup of well packed Kale, less than 2 cups. I weighed it
on my food scale.

½ C Corn kernels, canned
¼ C Carrot, grated
6 grape tomatoes, halved
7 olives, canned, pitted, halved
1 radish, large, sliced
½ Pear, chopped
3 slices fake bacon (Morningstar), cooked, broken into pieces
2 T Balsamic V and Oil Salad Dressing (Safeway Select)

Toss all ingredients except the dressing. Top with the dressing.

The mix of flavors was quite good. This is a lot of kale to eat for a serving of salad. The salad could have used more dressing as some of the kale was “dry,” but that would have added unnecessary calories and fat to the recipe.

Rated a 3.78 on the Kale Scale.