Hello, Kale!

It's Sunday--welcome to this week's salad! Last week was an amazing salad: Warm Lentils with Sausage and Kale and a Mustard Vinaigrette. So, now I'm a little obsessed with kale--it's so good for you, and it's actually much easier to cook than I expected. This week, I decided to blend a couple of different recipes I found to create something that used ingredients I already had in the house. Here's what I came up with (with the help of my furry little sous-chef, of course!).

Rosie, reporting for duty!

Salad Ingredients:
3 cups cooked barley (approximately 1 cup uncooked)
16 oz kale
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small/medium onion, chopped
Red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper (to taste)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Dressing Ingredients:
1 part (1 1/2 tbsp) honey
1 part (1 1/2 tbsp) olive oil
2 parts (3 tbsp) apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions:

1) Cook barley according to package directions (mine took about 1 hour, 15 minutes to cook, so make sure you leave yourself plenty of time!)

2) To cook the kale, first wash and drain it, but don't worry about getting it perfectly dry. (I found kale that was already washed, cut, and bagged; I had to tear it into smaller pieces, but it did make it a lot easier!) Put 1 tbsp olive oil into a wok (or large saute pan) over medium heat. Once it's warm, add the onion, pinch of red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. Allow the onion to soften and become translucent. Then, after turning the heat up to high, add the kale in large handfuls, tossing it with the onion. Once the kale is tender, reduce the heat to medium, cover the wok, and allow the kale to continue to cook for approximately 15 minutes more (it should be bright green and tender to bite into once it's ready).

Cooking the onion.

3) In a small bowl, mix the cranberries and sunflower seeds.

Jeff, taste-testing my cranberries and sunflower seeds for "safety."

4) In another small bowl, mix the dressing ingredients and whisk to combine.

5) Once the kale and barley are cooked, combine all the ingredients (kale/onion, barley, cranberries/seeds) in a large bowl. Add the dressing a bit at a time, stirring to combine and tasting as you go. (You may not use all the dressing, or you may find you need to make a little more, depending on your preference.)

6) Enjoy!