Excuse me, there´s a summer in my salad!

It´s Saturday and I´m off from work which means that I got to go to the Food Co-op today! YAY! That’s all it takes to make me happy, really!

So, as usually I went a bit crazy and shopped like I had a hungry family of 5 to feed…..which I don’t! Anyway, this salad was born in my head as I was roaming the stalls and I must say that apart from being full of nutritional superheroes it´s super fresh and tasty, a little bit of summer in a bowl ☺

This should serve two as a side dish

You will need:

• 2 large leaves of Kale, taken of the stem and chopped
• ½ fennel bulb, finely sliced
• ½ red onion, finely sliced
• 2 radishes, thinly sliced
• about 3 tbsp dill, chopped
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• juice from 1 lime
• generous pinch sea salt or himalayan pink salt
• freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
• 1 tsp honey (agave or maple syrup for vegans)
• 1 nectarine, diced

Then you simply….

• Mix olive oil, lime juice, salt, pepper and honey in a mixing bowl
• Throw everything apart from the nectarine in
• Massage everything well together with your hands, yes really get your fingers in there as this will soften the kale and marry all those lovely flavors together
• When done with the rubbing, throw in the nectarine and give it a little toss
• Let sit for at least an hour for maximum taste satisfaction
• Before serving add a little more black pepper on top

This one stores and travels well because the kale is so firm. No danger of it becoming soggy like your usual salad leaves. So make a big batch to have for lunch the next day, take on a picknik or just to have a huge bowl of salad ☺

I had it with salmon, a perfect match!

Now, I just have to tell you a little bit about kale!

Many of you are probably not too excited about kale but really, when prepared in the right way it´s sooo tasty, crunchy, fresh, wonderful! It is also one of those amazing nutritional powerhouses that are often forgotten about. Kale is crazy high in vitamin K and beta carotene, chlorophyll, lutein, vitamin C, calcium, iron and a host of other vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. All this makes it good for your blood, your eyes, a cancer fighter and detoxifier to name but a few! In short, it´s just really good for you ☺

Here you can read more about the wonderful benefits of kale and some interesting studies that have been done on it.

Oh and one more thing! Kale is really easy to grow so if you have an allotment, backyard or even just a big flower-pot and soil, get some seeds and grow some of this magical stuff! It´s very hardy and can even withstand frost which makes it one of very few crops you can be harvesting almost year-round. Amazing, I know ☺

Lots of kale-love
Ösp