So I recently attended a health and wellness conference, and one of my sessions was a nutrition talk. I plan to write a more detailed post about all the golden nuggets of information that I tucked away from that, but the main thing that stuck with me was that, for optimal health, we should all be eating 7-10 servings of fruits and vegetable a day. Every day.
Knowing that in theory is a little different from doing it in practice. Not gonna lie, that involves a lot of fruits and veg. A lot. And while I eat lots of fruits and veg, I’m not sure I’m getting 7-10 servings a day. So I am resolving to change that! Luckily, I like fruits and veggies, so this should be no problem. Right? Right? Yummy salads definitely help, so here’s one of my faves. It’s my summer go-to “thing to do with kale,” other than kale chips, which is my winter go-to “thing to do with kale.”
Anywayyy, the marinating aspect of this salad is key. The thing that (i think?) turns some people off of kale is it’s tough, somewhat difficult to chew nature. Marinating the kale softens it so that, by the time you eat it, it melts in your mouth.
It’s also super-duper easy.
In a large salad bowl, whisk together the following:
the juice of 1 1/2 -2 lemons (depending on how lemon-y you like things)
1/3 cup olive oil
1-2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
sea salt and pepper to taste
Then, wash and dry your kale (I like green, curly kale, but purple will work too), chop it up, and dump it in the bowl on top of the dressing. Here comes the fun part: massage the dressing into the kale (yes, your fingers are now oily, mustard-y and lemon-y. Just go with it). Make sure no kale leaf is left untouched. You want that oily goodness to soak in. After the kale has been massaged to your liking, toss in
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Cover the whole shebang with some plastic wrap, and let it sit in the fridge to marinate, for about 2 hours for optimal results. Salad success!