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Posts Tagged ‘kale’

Crunchy Kale Salad

Posted in Salad, Vegan, tagged almond butter, apple, Cabbage, cranberries, gluten free, kale, maple syrup, orange juice, raw, salad, vegan, vegetarian on February 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This recipe comes to us from one of my favorite blogs, Use Real Butter. Not only is she a fabulous cook but an amazing photographer too. (And she has a super sweet black Lab who often cameos, how could I not be smitten?) The first time I made this, like with most new recipes, I make it the way it is written. But hubby wasn’t too keen on it. I think it was the tahini flavor that got him. So the next few times I’ve made it with almond butter instead, which for us paired better with the maple, orange and sliced almonds. I also prefer a less oily dressing usually, so I reduced the oil.

I’ve also made this for a GF Gals night and one of our local support group potlucks. It has gone over well at both occasions.

Crunchy Kale Salad

Adapted from Use Real Butter

4 cups kale, stems removed, torn
2 cups red cabbage, thinly sliced
2 cups green cabbage, thinly sliced
1 Granny Smith apple, sliced or chopped
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped if large

Dressing:

1/2 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp maple syrup
3 Tbsp almond butter
pinch of salt, if desired
3 Tbsp olive oil

Whisk together the orange juice, maple syrup, almond butter, and salt in a medium bowl until blended. Slowly add the olive oil while constantly whisking.

In a large bowl, combine the salad ingredients. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat.

Note:

It’s best if the dressing is stirred in an hour or two before serving so that it has a chance to soften the raw kale leaves, especially if the recipients aren’t as big on raw kale as we are. Or, if you love raw kale salads, you can make it and serve it right up.

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Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Kale Tacos

Posted in Avocado, Beans, Black Beans, Mexican, Vegan, tagged avocado, black beans, celiac disease, gluten free, kale, sweet potato, Tacos, tomatillo salsa, vegan, vegetarian on February 10, 2013| 2 Comments »

I ended up with the flu this past week. First time in more than 12 years. But it got me. I made these the day that I was starting to get sick, but I was still in denial. I was SURE I was just getting a bad cold. Nope. But luckily I didn’t lose my appetite while I was sick. And these leftovers called my name all week in the frig. I had to make a deal with the hubby to split the last of them, we both loved them so much.

We enjoyed these topped with a dab of sour cream, chopped avocado and my homemade tomatillo salsa with its tangy taste, which is a nice complement to the other sweet and savory elements.

Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Kale Tacos

1 pound of sweet potatoes, 1/4″ dice

2 tsp oil, divided

2-1/2 tsp cumin, divided

2-1/2 tsp chile powder, divided

3/4 tsp salt, divided

1 onion, chopped

2 cups cooked black beans

3 cups kale, torn

Corn tortillas

Sour cream (omit for vegan or dairy-free)

Avocado, chopped

Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde)

Preheat oven to 450*. Line a baking sheet with foil. In a bowl, toss the potatoes with 1 tsp oil, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chile powder and 1/2 tsp salt. Arrange potatoes on baking sheet. Roast for about 10-15 minutes, depending on how small you cut them, turning once.

In a large skillet, heat the remaining 1 tsp oil over medium-high heat. Saute onion until tender. Add remaining 1-1/2 tsp cumin, 1-1/2 tsp chili powder and stir, cook for 1 minute. Mix in black beans. Add kale and 1/4 cup of water and stir well. Cook until kale is wilted down. Add roasted sweet potato and cook until potato is heated through again. Stir in remaining 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste. Add more cumin and/or chili powder as desired.

Heat a skillet or griddle on medium heat. Add a drizzle of oil and allow to heat through. Lightly fry corn tortillas in oil on both sides.

Assemble tacos with sweet potato mixture, sour cream, chopped avocado and tomatillo salsa in corn tortillas.

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Quinoa with Balsamic Butternut and Kale Saute

Posted in quinoa, Vegan, Vegetables, tagged balsamic vinegar, butternut squash, celiac disease, gluten free, kale, quinoa, vegan, vegetarian on November 18, 2011| 5 Comments »

My husband is frequently amused by the different pizza combinations I come up with, which are often inspired by other bloggers. Last weekend I finally got around to making Maria’s Sweet Potato Kale Pizza with Rosemary and Red Onion, and it was so full of gorgeous, seasonal flavors. The same evening, my husband made his standard (gluten-full) cheese pizza but he was intrigued by the kale on my pizza and so added some to his own. Maybe there is a possibility of his pizza tastes becoming more sophisticated? (Yeah, right.)

And so, that pizza sent my mind wandering around, thinking of the other possibilities for the flavors I had just enjoyed together. Somehow my mind landed on quinoa. And so did Maria. I laughed when I saw her Quinoa Salad with Sweet Potatoes and Kale pop up one morning last week. I was like, dang, she beat me to it! But at the same time, it wasn’t quite what I had running through my mind. And so, I introduce you to…

Quinoa with Balsamic Butternut and Kale Saute

An original by Renee, inspired by those listed above

1 butternut squash (2-3#), seeded, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

1 large onion, chopped

1 Tbsp oil

3 cups kale, de-ribbed, torn into small pieces

1/2 tsp salt

Vinaigrette:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp dried rosemary leaves, crushed (or sage)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet(s) with foil. Toss chopped squash in olive oil to lightly coat. Roast squash until tender, 30 minutes or so, depending on the sizes of squash pieces. Be sure to stir the squash at least once, halfway through. And give the squash plenty of room to “breathe” on the roasting pan so that they are crisp rather than soggy.

Cook quinoa in water according to your favored method (I prefer to use my rice cooker these days).

Whisk together vinaigrette ingredients and set aside.

Once the quinoa is cooked, in a large skillet, saute the onion in the olive oil until it begins to soften. Stir in the kale and allow to soften slightly. Next, stir in the roasted squash and allow to heat through slightly, especially if it had cooled down significantly (I had roasted mine the day before). Pour in half of the vinaigrette and stir to coat the vegetables. Allow to cook for 1-2 minutes, then stir in the cooked quinoa and salt. Heat through if quinoa had cooled down significantly. Taste. Add more vinaigrette or salt as desired. Serve warm.

Additions:

We had some goat cheese that needed to be eaten, so I crumbled some up and sprinkled on top as well, after the photo – a very nice addition.

I also thought that adding a can of drained and rinsed white beans might be nice and add a big protein boost (although quinoa is already high in protein).

I saved the extra vinaigrette in a small glass jar to pour over the leftovers. Quinoa has a tendency to suck up some of the flavor and make it disappear after some time in the frig.

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Meal Plan Monday, September 12, 2011

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged apples, gluten free, kale, meal plan, menu swap, tomatoes, vegetarian on September 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This week’s host for the Gluten Free Menu Swap is My Gluten Free Home. Her theme is apples, and she recently posted an apple dip recipe. While the apples are just starting to come in at the farmer’s markets around here, I still have end of summer vegetables on my mind, like tomatoes and sweet corn. For once, I am being overrun with tomatillos and now that the nights are getting cooler, grape tomatoes. And my kale is going gang-busters with the cooler weather again.

And as a nod to the apple theme, I might make some baked oatmeal bars and freeze them. We each eat an apple a day for lunch and the bunch of apples in the crisper drawer were suddenly tasting very perfumy last week. Too perfumy to eat, yuck. I couldn’t figure out what had happened all of last week. Until I discovered that one of the lemons and one of the limes in the same drawer were half rotten. Gah. That’s where the smell came from, but it had already permeated all of the apples. So I am hoping that by baking the apples, the citrus smell will be diminished so I don’t feel like they are going to waste. (Although not much goes to waste around here since the chickens would eat them and “recycle” them into eggs anyway!)

This week’s plan:

Creamy Pesto Pasta with Chunky Tomato Salsa – one of our hands-down favorite meals. And we have plenty of tomatoes still.

Kale with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Garbanzo Beans over Polenta – to try and make a dent in the kale.

Stir Fried Tofu with Miso Sauce and rice

Red Beans and Rice – a pantry basics recipe with limited produce, good for the end of the week. I’ll probably serve it up with a massaged kale salad with cherry tomatoes (two birds with one stone!).

Make You Own Pizza – hubby will probably eat a gluten-full pizza and I will use a frozen Udi’s crust.

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