COOKING: Lemon Kale Salad w/ Garlic & Parmesan by Olena Osipov
Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have been cooking and baking at home to save money. As much as I would like to patronize all the amazing restaurants here in Richmond, I’m on a budget and mostly have to eat at home. So, I’ve been scouring Pinterest for interesting recipes — and anything that includes green vegetables is an absolute plus.
I found this recipe for Lemon Kale Salad with Garlic and Parmesan by Olena Osipov and am delighted to report that the recipe is perfect and doesn’t need to be tweaked at all. (This is a huge problem I find from recipes from Pinterest and one of the motivators for #SaraTries, by the way.)
It’s affordable, it’s tangy, it’s so, so so easy and it’s now a part of my normal meal rotation.
As you can see, I have 3 tablespoons of lemon juice — this is a tip from me that is important and I’ll talk about that below.
If you are like me, when you see garlic in a recipe, you double (or triple it). One clove becomes 2 or 3, two cloves become 4, etc etc etc. In my first picture, you will see 2 cloves, despite the recipe calling for one. JUST USE ONE. Even if you are a fiend for garlic like me, JUST USE ONE. Because it’s raw garlic and it will knock you on your ass if you’re not prepared. In fact, I started with half a clove because these were big cloves and when I tasted the dressing, I decided to not add the other half a clove.
I love how the lemon juice and olive oil emulsifies after you whisk it!
A note about nuts: I’ve tried toasted almonds in this salad and it’s awesome, but this time I tried soaked almonds. You heard me.
Soaking almonds in water is the only weird, woo-woo thing from Goop that I have ever decided to try and… you guys? They’re great. The woman who wrote this article for The Cut agrees with me. I think they bring out the almond flavor and they’re much easier to eat if you have sensitive teeth, like me. (I’ve spent nearly 12 months getting assorted major dental procedures done and don’t feel like cracking my teeth on anything.)
Another pro-tip: if you’re going through the trouble of grating fresh parmesan, grate a bunch to use for later!
This is way, way more than 1/4 cup
So, that extra tablespoon of lemon juice I was talking about earlier — I use it to “massage” the kale (and add a little extra tang). Massaging kale is something you can do to make eating kale a little less of a chore. Even me, who really likes raw kale, gets exhausted after eating certain kale salads. So, I started massaging my kale before making my salads.
How do you massage kale? Here’s what Fit Foodie Finds said to do:
Now it’s time to get those fingers moving! Coat the kale in oil and salt and start massaging the kale with your hands. Honestly, you really want to break the kale down, so really work the kale with your fingers by pinching and squeezing the kale for about 3-4 minutes. One the kale is tender and soft, your job is done.
I don’t do it for 3-4 minutes because I am usually hungry and ready to eat — I do it for 45-60 seconds and honestly, that’s plenty of time. They also recommend using oil, which is DELICIOUS, but you can do lemon juice if you want to cut back on fats.
And that’s it! Try this salad! It’s amazing!
