No Kale Left Behind Salad

Have you ever tried kale?  Eaten raw, it can be tough and a litte bit bitter.  If you learn how to prepare it correctly, surprisingly, it is super delicious and is unbelievably good for you!  I’ve made this recipe a couple of times (when I have time constraints) for my raw food Meetup group.  You can quickly prepare it in the morning, and when you come home from work at the end of the day, it’s ready.  I’m happy to report, I rarely bring home a bowl with any No Kale Left Behind Salad in it from my Meetup group… :0)

This salad is easy, healthy and packed full of taste and nutrition. It can be prepared in under 10 minutes.  :0)

Delicious Ingredients:

2 head of curly kale

1 cup of green onion

2 tomatoes

½ medium red onion

3″ piece of daikon radish

1 avocado

2 cloves of garlic

Slightly over ½ cup of olive oil

1/3 cup of nama shoyu or tamari

1 pinch of Celtic sea salt

Handful of raw pumpkin seeds

***USE ORGANIC INGREDIENTS WHEN AVAILABLE***

Easy preparation:

1. Take the hard stalks off of the leafy part of the kale. You can do this by hand and do not need a knife. Save the stalks for juicing, add them to smoothies, use them in soups or cut them up in little pieces and add to a salad for extra nutrition and crunch.

2. Tear the kale (by hand) into little pieces and place in a large bowl (glass is best).

3. Dice the green onion, tomatoes, red onion and avocado.  Shred the daikon radish.   Place in bowl with the kale.

4. Add the olive oil, nama shoyu and Celtic sea salt.  You can add more olive oil if, in Step 5, you find that it is not coating all of the kale.

5. Now it’s time to get very up close and personal with your salad… Get your hands in there and mix the ingredients together, making sure that the kale is coated with the olive oil/nama shoyu mixture. This is what will break down the kale, which makes it taste so delicious!

6. Leave the salad to marinate for a minimum of three hours. The longer you let it marinate, the softer the kale will be.  If you are home, you can stir the salad periodically to ensure that the leaves are covered with the olive oil/nama shoyu mixture.

7. When it has reached its desired tenderness (taste it and see if it agrees with your palate), garnish with raw pumpkin seeds, and ENJOY!!

Be creative and try new vegetables, nuts or seeds as substitutes for the ones that I have chosen. For example, besides being extremely high in calcium, raw sesame seeds would probably be delicious on this salad or you may want to substitute a red pepper for the daikon radish. The possibilities are endless!! Get your creative juices flowing and experiment… You may invent a masterpiece!!

A few fun facts about the delicious ingredients:

Kale is high in Vitamin K, which regulates normal blood clotting and improves the health of your bones;

Green onions contain Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium and fiber;

Tomatoes are actually fruit that are a good source of calcium and iron;

Red onions are a good source of quercetin, which is a power antioxidant, is a natural anti-histamine and is anti-inflammatory;

Daikon radish is low in calories, contains Vitamin C and is milder in taste than its red radish cousins;

Avocados contain 20 essential nutrients; for example, fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B vitamins and folic acid;

Garlic was used by the Egyptians to treat infections, tumors and intestinal parasites;

Raw pumpkin seeds are very high in magnesium, B vitamins and folic acid;

Nama shoyu is raw unpasteurized soy sauce that contains enzymes and lactobacillus.  If you are allergic to wheat or have a gluten intolerance, you can use wheat-free tamari as a substitute for the nama shoyu.  You can find both of these in the natural section of your grocery store or at your local health food market;

Celtic sea salt contains 80 minerals, tastes and looks the same as its toxic counterpart  (regular table salt), yet, is actually good for you. This is the only salt that I use in preparing any foods. You can get Celtic sea salt online or at your local health food market.