Eating For Your Future/Massaged Kale Salad with Quinoa and Pomegranate

For those of you who have become accustomed to seeing a daily post from me, you may be thinking that you'll need to put out a missing persons alert ;) All is well, I've just been super busy in my garden, in fact, all of my spare time has been spent in the garden. Later this summer, we are hosting 2 rather large parties and my garden really needs some attention. By the end of this upcoming week, I should be in pretty good shape, fingers crossed. Between the garden, trying to get ready for the marathon in October, as well as other activities, something had to give, and sadly, it has been the blog. So hopefully one more week and life will begin to get back to normal, at least my normal :) 

On a fun note...

I went to the drug store a few days ago and basically bought out the Epsom salts. My husband picked up the bag of salts that I had in the car and without hesitation exclaimed, "how many pounds of Epsom salt did you buy?!!! My muscles are screaming and I need all the help I can get!

So now for a really good salad. Hey, who doesn't like a massage?!! Well, I guess there are a few people in this world, I'm not one of them. As it turns out, even kale likes a little massage ;)

With most green type salads, they really need to be made and eaten the same day. Not so with this salad. The kale really holds up, so the salad can be made the day before, and leftovers can be eaten even a few days later.

Massaged Kale Salad with Quinoa and Pomegranate 

Ingredients:

1 large bunch of kale

1 large clove of garlic

1 teaspoon of salt

juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 purple onion sliced into strips

5 radishes sliced

1 cup cooked quinoa(I like to use red quinoa as it stands out against the green kale)

seeds of 1 pomegranate

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

extra salt and black pepper to taste

The key to this salad is the dressing that is massaged into the kale.

Begin by chopping the garlic clove. 

Then mash the garlic to form a bit of a paste, but not a complete paste, you want there to still be bits of the garlic.  

Combine the garlic with the lemon, salt, and olive oil. Set aside.

Remove the stems from the kale and then roughly chop. Place kale in a large mixing bowl.

Pour the dressing over the kale and then start massaging. Be sure your hands are clean!!!

Massage until the kale begins to wilt. This will only take a few minutes. The kale will soften slightly, but will retain its crunch.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

The result is a hearty, yet light salad that is full of protein. And it's pretty too!!! The lemon juice gives the salad just a bit of a tang and the pomegranate offsets the tang with a touch of sweet.

If you give it a try, I hope you enjoy it!
Rhonda