Harvest Café Kale Salad
Ingredients
- 1 bunch kale, about 1 lb, chopped, rinsed, and dried
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 lb asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp walnut oil
- 1 C cooked quinoa
- 1 C fresh blueberries
- 1 C walnuts, chopped and toasted
- Zest and juice of one lemon
- 1⁄2 C fresh mint, chopped fine
Directions
Heat oven to 400°. Massage kale with your hands and 1⁄2 teaspoon salt for 1 minute. Toss asparagus in 1 teaspoon walnut oil and roast on a wide, shallow pan in the oven for about 5 minutes or until just tender. Let asparagus cool slightly then toss with kale. Add cooked quinoa, blueberries, and walnuts, and toss gently until combined. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice and zest, walnut oil, and mint. Pour over salad and toss. Salt and pepper to taste.
Cooking Tips
• Massaging kale tenderizes the mature leaves so that they become tender and less bitter, making them perfect for salads. The leaves will also reduce in volume, so consider that when figuring yields. Baby kale is already tender and can be cut up and tossed directly into salads.
• Quinoa cooks like rice: 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water, with a little salt. One cup of quinoa with 2 cups water yields 3 cups cooked quinoa. Quinoa grows with a bitter, protective coating that is easily rinsed off, which is why many recipe directions call for rinsing the quinoa. Check the package your quinoa came in: if it doesn’t ask you to rinse, you don’t have to rinse for the particular recipe you’re following.
• Add fruit to this salad according to the season: apples and pears in late fall, oranges and grapefruit in winter, strawberries in spring, and peaches in summer. And don’t forget watermelon and cantaloupe.
