Shredded Kale Avocado Salad: Have you had enough kale yet?
I know inwardly you're groaning. AGAIN Joanne? MORE KALE AGAIN? What's with the kale?
Every week, the farmer's in my neighborhood comes by and I go and buy armloads of fresh Tuscan kale. I bring it home and spend about an hour washing, drying and shredding the kale so that I can always have a kale salad, at the ready. I love kale salad because they are hearty, hold up well, and taste great in a number of different permutations, and this avocado kale version is one inspired by a friend of mine who told me that Whole Foods makes a version that always gets picked over because people take all the avocados.
In your home version, however, you can just add so many avocados (or as many as you'd like) so that NO ONE can pick out all of your avocados. I love this version of kale salad for its brightness combined with the richness of the avocados. You are satisfied after consuming it and probably your insides are happy to be so green with all of those great antioxidants. Don't knock it until you try it (I know you there are kale haters out there) and a little bit of kale goes a long way in making you feel pretty darn great.
If you’ve never dealt with dinosaur/lacinato kale, you’ll need to remove the stem before trying to eat it. I’ve found the fastest way is to simply grab the stem with one hand, and with the other, start at the base of the leaf, and it a quick motion, strip the leaf upwards until the stem is left stripped. I save the stem and chop it finely and put it in my vegetable soups. I find it much easier to wash the kale after the stem has been removed. Wash, dry very well in a salad spinner, and then shred. The smaller the shred, the better the texture in the salad.
Every week, the farmer's in my neighborhood comes by and I go and buy armloads of fresh Tuscan kale. I bring it home and spend about an hour washing, drying and shredding the kale so that I can always have a kale salad, at the ready. I love kale salad because they are hearty, hold up well, and taste great in a number of different permutations, and this avocado kale version is one inspired by a friend of mine who told me that Whole Foods makes a version that always gets picked over because people take all the avocados.
In your home version, however, you can just add so many avocados (or as many as you'd like) so that NO ONE can pick out all of your avocados. I love this version of kale salad for its brightness combined with the richness of the avocados. You are satisfied after consuming it and probably your insides are happy to be so green with all of those great antioxidants. Don't knock it until you try it (I know you there are kale haters out there) and a little bit of kale goes a long way in making you feel pretty darn great.
If you’ve never dealt with dinosaur/lacinato kale, you’ll need to remove the stem before trying to eat it. I’ve found the fastest way is to simply grab the stem with one hand, and with the other, start at the base of the leaf, and it a quick motion, strip the leaf upwards until the stem is left stripped. I save the stem and chop it finely and put it in my vegetable soups. I find it much easier to wash the kale after the stem has been removed. Wash, dry very well in a salad spinner, and then shred. The smaller the shred, the better the texture in the salad.
Shredded Kale Avocado Salad
Serves 3 to 4
Ingredients
3 medium bunches Lacinato/dinosaur kale, washed and rinsed well, finely chopped (8 cups chopped)
2 or 3 large ripe avocados, cut into large chunks
3 large garlic cloves
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Method
In a food processor, or with a garlic press, create finely chopped garlic. Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and whisk together. (If you are using food processor for garlic, add lemon juice to the garlic in the processor and process. Add olive oil, salt and pepper to processor and give a quick pulse.)
In a large salad bowl add shredded kale, and dress lightly with dressing. Depending on the actual volume of kale you may need less dressing that what you’ve made. Carefully coat all kale with the dressing then toss avocado chunks so that they are also coated with dressing.
Serve. Because of the sturdy nature of kale, you can actually dress this salad and serve even 30 minutes later and it’s still delicious, although my preference is to eat it immediately.
Printable recipe
Keep all the avocados for yourself.
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