tender kale salad

with apples and pomegranate

This simple salad is really all about the kale. It makes a lovely first course or side salad, but could be made heartier with the addition of your favorite protein and other extras.

Kale has become popular with the “health food” crowd because it’s super good for you. In fact, all leafy greens are good for you, and we should all try to incorporate more of them into our diets. But among the greens, kale stands out. Want to know all the scientific benefits of kale? You can find them here, at Healthline. A three minute read will have you chowing down the stuff with gusto.

But there are a lot of kale haters out there.

It’s true.

These deep green leaves can be tough, fibrous, a little bitter, and hard to chew.

Unless you know the secret.

And the secret is, give your kale a massage.

New age music, candles, and incense are optional.

Massaging the dressing into the kale leaves breaks down their fibers and transforms them into tender, sweet, pleasantly chewy morsels of vegetable goodness. In this salad, shavings of apple add sweetness to every bite and pretty pomegranate arils add a burst of tart juiciness. Date syrup is lovely, but if you haven’t got any, don’t despair—you can substitute with 1 teaspoon of sugar (sugar is sweeter than date syrup) or honey.

For the dressing

Ingredients:

½ small apple, peeled and cored (you’ll use the other half in the salad)

⅓ cup pomegranate juice

¼ cup lemon juice

½ shallot

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

1 tablespoon herbes de Provence

1½ teaspoons date syrup (silan)

1 cup avocado oil

Method:

• Cut your apple in half and remove the core. Immediately drop ½ of the apple into a bowl of cold water with a squeeze of lemon, to prevent it from oxidizing. Cut the other half into random sized pieces and toss it into the food processor.

• Add the pomegranate juice, the lemon juice, the shallot, the garlic, the mustard, the salt, and the herbs de Provence to the food processor. Process until smooth.

• With the motor running, slowly pour in the oil through the feed tube in a steady stream, and let it run until you have a thick, well blended dressing. Add a few twists of the pepper mill and taste for salt. Adjust the seasoning to your liking, if need be.

• Set the dressing aside while you prepare the salad.

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For the salad

Ingredients:

a bunch of kale, any variety

1 ½ small apples (1 plus the half left over from the dressing)

a handful of pomegranate arils

the juice of ½ lemon

Method:

• Cut out the tough center stems from the kale and discard them. Or feed them to the goats and chickens. Or compost them.

• Cut or tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces and soak them for a few minutes in a large bowl of cold water, swishing them around with your handsi. Kale has a lot of crinkles, where sand and soil, and even tiny bugs can hide. A good swish in cold water will ensure that your kale is clean. Set them out on a tea towel or paper towels, or use a salad spinner, to get rid of the water.

• Put your clean, bite-sized kale into a large bowl and pour just enough dressing over it to moisten the leaves. Using your hands and fingers, massage the dressing into all of the leaves until they appear just a little wilted and softened. Taste a piece to test for texture. You don’t want to over-do it, or your kale will become mushy. Definitely not the plan.

• Peel and core the apple for the salad. You now have two choices and both work equally well. Decide whether you want shreds of apple, adding sweet and juicy apple-y goodness to each bite, or thin, tender slices of bite-able apple to prominently present themselves in your salad.

  • Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the apple you just peeled, plus the half reserved from the dressing. Squeeze some lemon juice over the shreds and toss them gently to ensure that they’ve all been covered. Use a light hand so as not to break them.

    Or . . .

  • Cut the apple you just peeled in half and thinly slice all three halves. Dress them with lemon juice as above.

• Add the apple shreds or slices and some pomegranate arils to the kale, add a little more dressing, and toss it all together. You want the salad to be nicely dressed but not drowning. Extra dressing will stay fresh in the fridge for about a week.

Optional additions are: shredded or crumbled cheese, your favorite protein, nuts, and/or seeds. Feel free to get creative.

Did you make it? Was it fabulous?