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Independence Day Red, White, and Blue Kale Slaw

7/4/2011

2 Comments

 
It is July 4th, independence Day, and today, I dare to walk in the footsteps of Julie and Gretchen. OK, here goes. This is the first post of our new blog featuring recipes and cooking ideas as they unfold right in our kitchen. I've got the laptop on the counter and a stool to sit on. We will share with you what we do with the produce from our farm, the Mulberries Farm and Orchard, as well as other related cooking and food ideas. I look forward to hearing ideas from our readers.

We're invited to two neighborhood parties today, both of them potlucks. So what to bring? MJ has a huge cooler full of Red Russian kale in the basement. OK, it's really green, but it has a little red in it and it has red in the name. We also have green onions, which are actually white on the bottom. I'm not sure yet where I'll get the blue but let's see how this unfolds. This recipe is inspired by MJ's sister, Alice.

Independence Day Red, White, and Blue Kale Slaw
Take two big bunches of kale and wash it well. We soak it in the sink first in cold water, gently rub each leaf, and shake off the water. If it seems really clean already sometimes I just cut it up first, soak it right in the salad spinner, and then whirl it dry. A salad spinner is a really useful tool if you like to eat greens. For this recipe it would be good to have the greens clean first because we're going to cut them in in super thin strips like the way people cut up lettuce to put on tacos or cabbage to put in spring rolls (one of these days I'll get that recipe on here). Remove the thick stems from each leaf and compost them. Then, stack them up and use a big sharp chopping knife to cut them into thin julienne strips. Next combine 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar with a 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (Himalayan pink salt goes good with the July 4th theme), or salt to taste, about a tablespoon of honey or agave syrup, and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Then whisk in about 1/3 cup of fruity olive oil. You could also use a different kind of oil, like Walnut oil, for an interesting flavor twist. Taste the dressing to see if you need to adjust the sweet/sour/salty ratio. Toss the dressing with the kale. Add about 1/4 cup of finely sliced tender green onions (the white part, for this recipe). Now add a cup of blueberries. They work well with the apple cider vinegar base. (You could also mix in baby beets (boiled and cooled) or freshly grated beets as a garnish. I think the freshly grated beets would be good and mega-healthy).

We ended up also garnishing the dish with raspberries, for color. The red in Red Russian just didn't speak loudly enough. It looked really very pretty with the bright green kale and red raspberries. To be honest. this isn't my favorite way to use kale, but MJ had her heart set on it, so I went with it. Stay tuned for more ways to cook greens.
2 Comments
Mark Heller
7/7/2011 12:33:44 am

Hi Wendy, so I see from this recipe that you are doing this kale raw. Isn't it bitter? Don't you have to cook kale first to be able to eat it? Or is Red Russian Kale different that the regular? Or have I just been missing something good all this time?!

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Wendy
7/9/2011 06:05:12 am

Hi, Mark, you actually don't need to cook it. It isn't very bitter, assuming that your kale isn't too old, but yeah, it's a little bit bitter. One could call the flavor "skunky", my favorite word for stuff like that, but to my taste arugula is a lot more skunky than kale and people eat that raw all the time!

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