citrus marinated kale salad

Eating raw kale might sound as delightful as biting into boiled brussel sprouts, but there's simple ways to make it taste good with very little effort. Kale is a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. It's very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C and has more calcium than milk. So, you should really eat your greens! 

By marinating the kale in orange juice, lemon juice and a splash of apple cider vinegar, you get a more tender and sweet green. You could just marinate in one of these acidic choices, but I chose all three to give it a more tart and sour kick to help balance out the rich creaminess of tahini and the smokey goodness of roasted red pepper.

Here's what to do: 

Tear off the leaves of kale from its stalk (about five leaves will do)

Put into large bowl and add about 1/4 cup of orange juice and lemon juice. Finish off with a splash of apple cider vinegar (any vinegar will do)

Roasting a red pepper is super easy: http://keukenmeid.blogspot.com/2009/08/roasted-red-pepper.html

After roasting on the stove top, put into an empty pot or bowl, cover and let it sweat for about 15 minutes. Then, remove all the burnt bits and its seeds and slice lengthwise into strips. Add to kale.

Next, thin out 1/4 cup tahini paste with water til it resembles a creamy dressing. ( I added a pinch of paprika to accent the smokiness of the pepper)

Add to kale, sprinkle some salt and pepper and there you have a healthy hearty salad.

Zucchini Salad with Parsley and Mint

Too hot in my kitchen to heat any sort of ingredients, so I decided to shred some zucchinis with my cuisinart and see what happens.

Ingredients:

2 zucchinis (shredded)

about a T of sea salt

juice from one lemon

2T of flax oil (olive oil would have worked too)

2T of sesame seeds

freshly ground pepper

handful of parsley and mint (chopped)

This is barely a recipe. I literally just shredded the zucchini, put it in a bowl and added the rest of the ingredients. The salt will bring out the moisture in the zucchini. You can choose to drain the liquid. I didn't bother. It turned out really well. The salad is light and refreshing and has a bit of crunch from the sesame seeds.