Warm Kale and Lentil Salad

Wednesday, March 26

Warm Kale and Lentil Salad

Rating: 4.25

I’d gone to visit my family over the weekend, which of course meant I raided my mom’s garden. Right now, it’s full of lettuce, spinach, and kale. All of those are about to be done for the season, so she really wanted me to take a lot. No problem. I knew we’d be getting more greens in our weekly basket, so I went ahead and planned to use the kale I got from mom first. I didn’t really use a recipe for this, since I couldn’t find one that was really what I was looking for in any of my books, or on-line. So I winged it for the most part. I used the Dijon-vinaigrette recipe from the lentil salad in Veganomicon, and it really was perfect. It’s basically olive oil, Dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar. I put about a cup of lentils on to simmer in two cups of broth. I ended up with way more than I needed, so next time I’ll make a smaller amount of them. I had a russet potato and several sweet potatoes on hand. Seth doesn’t like the sweet ones (they came in our basket), so I roasted the russet for him, and about half of one of the sweets for me, along with three of the prettiest, freshest carrots around. When the lentils, potatoes, and carrots were almost done, I sautéed some chopped red onion (about the equivalent of one small one) and four chopped cloves of garlic in a teaspoon of olive oil. I needed to spray the pan with a little more as they cooked, but no big deal. I had harvested about the equivalent of one extra large bunch of kale from mom’s garden and tore it into large chunks. I added it to the pot along with about ½ cup of water, then covered it and let it simmer until the kale cooked down a bit and was soft. Then, I mixed in the lentils and dressing until well combined and then added and then the potatoes. We both really liked it and will definitely make this again. I thought the sweet potatoes were better than the russet, but if you don’t like or don’t have any sweet potatoes, russet will be fine.