Ode to Kale

After so many rants about how much I dislike kale, it has to be said...I have changed my mind! The only thing growing in our veggie boxes when we moved here was a single kale plant with a stem that exceeded 6 inches in diameter! it had also reseeded itself all along the back fence. I made a kale soup for a friend who was recovering from surgery, and only discovered as I was  about to deliver it to her that there were dozens of aphids floating on top. That put me off kale for starters, for I had carefully washed each leaf....

My change of heart began when a friend made kale salad for us from her Danish niece's recipe. She felt the secret was the lashings of parsley, and finely chopping everything. I like the fresh dressing made from lemon and  orange, both of which grow in our garden. Ever since we cut a main branch off the tree shading our herb garden, the parsley has refused to grow, so I substituted rucola instead. It seemed just as good. Crumbled feta is a must and the addition of a couple of chopped hard boiled eggs can turn it into a satisfying main dish.

Kale salad makes a great pot luck offering because it can sit around marinating in its dressing for hours,  and only gets better. Chopping it finely helps soften it up as does 'massaging' it. In fact I'm making some right now. OilMan came home with the avocados and, although they too are pretty essential as well as some chopped red onion, one of them looks too ripe and the other one is pretty hard.More improvisation may be called for....

This is Russian kale, which OilMan planted last year. It is resistant to aphids and has an interesting way of propagating itself. If you look closely you can see baby leaves growing right out of the middle of the larger leaves.

RECIPE FOR KALE SALAD
combine in a bowl:
finely chopped kale
diced red onion
finely chopped parsley or rucola
diced avocado
the juice of one lemon and one orange
a little olive oil
before serving add:
crumbled feta

My friends and family are probably hating kale now because I have given them this salad so many times....