One of my favorite lunches are salads, they are good for a light meal and can be filling depending on what all goes in it, such as nuts, croutons, meat, cheese, fruits and vegetables. They are fresh and packed full of nutrients and antioxidants.
Until recently, I always made salads with lettuce whether it be romaine, bibb, red leaf, etc. The only living creature in my house that ate kale was our rabbit, Opie, who was an 18 lb. French Lop who thought he was one of the dogs.
I start off with freshly washed kale leaves that I separate from the stem by holding the stem firmly in one hand and grab the leaves like a claw on each side of the stem with the other hand then pull down. I chop the leaves into bite size pieces then toss them with a French vinaigrette. Yes, I seem to have lots of recipes with French vinaigrette, it is so versatile, easy to make and works well with so many different salads and makes a good marinade. I try to make a practice of tossing greens with the dressing before adding other ingredients so you use less dressing.
I top the salad with bleu cheese crumbles, walnuts and a sliced pear. This salad has it all, tons of texture, pungent bleu cheese, sweet pear and tart vinaigrette. It is great for a light meal and also a great side salad as well. While the nutritional data provided seems high, the fats in this salad are good fats coming from walnuts and olive oil, saturated fat is low (<9). This salad contains more than 100% of your recommended allowance of Omega-6 oil and nearly 200% of Omega-3 oil. Also over 100% for vitamin A and copper and packs nearly 300% of vitamin K.
- 2 cups kale, chopped
- 1 ripe pear, sliced
- 1 oz. bleu cheese crumbles
- 1 oz. walnuts, chopped
- 2 tablespoons white or red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tsp. whole grain mustard
- Start off my combining all the ingredients for the dressing, mix well.
- Place kale in bowl or plate, toss with dressing.
- Sprinkle top of salad with bleu cheese and walnuts.
- Arrange pear slices on top and serve.
I created this slaw to go on top of pulled pork but it works good with any sort of barbecue or picnic and would be good topped on many different sandwiches, fish tacos and hot dogs. Not only does this slaw have a burst of great flavors; sweet, tart and savory but a great crunch.
This slaw starts out with shredded green cabbage and shredded carrots. If you are short for time or if you prefer, you can use the already shredded cabbage mix in the produce department, most also have red cabbage as well and that will just add more color to this slaw.
Thinly sliced red onion and matchstick size julienned apples are added to the cabbage mix. As far as apples go, you can use sweet or tart or a mix of both. For presentation purposes I would use an apple with reddish skin but it is totally up to you or what you have on hand.
The slaw is then tossed with a simple French vinaigrette which is olive oil, apple cider vinegar, whole grain mustard and a tad bit agave nectar.
Peanut coleslaw is something I had at a barbecue restaurant, I loved it so much more than regular or traditional coleslaw. It was crunchy, tangy and very satisfying, I looked forward to it more than I did the rest of the meal. Of course the restaurant wouldn’t give out their recipe so I had to play around with it until I could make a copycat version of it, which after some tweaking, I preferred more than theirs.