Delicious Cherry Smoothie for Joint Support, Immune Support, and Arthritis

Good morning!

Time to yawn, stretch, and prepare for the day.

But what if that morning stretch is hard? What if arthritis means your morning is full of achy soreness, stiffness, and pain?

There are many ways to approach arthritis and other kinds of body pain. Yoga, meditation, and other mindfulness practices can help a lot. Moderate exercise has been shown to help manage the stiffness. I can't currently do some of the things I used to, but I hope to do them all again soon. Even on really tough days, I try to do at least a half hour of yoga. There's a lot of creaking, but it helps.

Acupuntcure is helpful for a lot of people. There are herbs and other supplements you can take to help keep your body moving. There are lots of foods that help. Many people find NSAIDs and steroids helpful, but there are potential side effects to consider, especially with long term use.

I'm not your doctor. I'm not here to judge the combination of treatments you choose. What I do have is a delicious recipe to start your day off well. The ingredients in this smoothie work together to support your joint health, and they're delicious!

CHERRY SMOOTHIE

Cashew milk  or other milk or yogurt of choice
Lemon, peeled with a knife or juiced
Cherries, pitted (frozen or fresh)
Blueberries (frozen or fresh)
Ripe banana (frozen or fresh) or a spoonful or raw, local honey to taste
Romaine or spinach
Water

First, make your cashew milk. It's easy - blend cashews with a little water until smooth. That's it! Save some in a jar for other uses if you like. Using only a tiny bit of water makes a thick creme. More water makes a thin milk. You don't have to strain cashew milk; just blend and go.

Blend your fruits with your cashew milk. Add a little water as necessary. Add greens and blend until completely smooth. If you're not feeling the greens this morning, it's actually okay to skip them. There are no smoothie police to make sure every single one is green. Yes, the leafy veggies are oh-so-good for you, but even without greens, this smoothie will be super nourishing.

Optional but recommended: stir in a spoonful of fish oil, or take some on the side. Alternatively, you may choose to take a vitamin D supplement, preferably D3 suspended in olive oil.

So why these ingredients? Well, cashews are super creamy and delicious, and lend body and good fat to help you absorb all the other good stuff in the smoothie. Cashews make it taste a little more like cherry cheesecake, but you can use coconut milk or a bit of avocado instead if you prefer. Cherries and blueberries are both rich in phytochemicals that decrease inflammation. Blueberries are incredibly rich in antioxidants. Cherries have been shown to help with many kinds of arthritis and pain, especially gouty arthritis. Lemon boosts the smoothie's vitamin C content even higher. Vitamin C supports the health of connective tissue in and around joints, as well as the fascia surrounding muscles. It also helps you absorb the iron and other minerals in the greens.

Spinach and romaine are both excellent greens for overall health, especially for decreasing inflammation. Bananas are delicious and sweeten up your smoothie, countering the tartness of the berries and the bitterness of the greens. They're also rich in vitamins and minerals. Raw local honey is  great for immune support, allergies, and inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D in fish oil have been shown to support joint health and overall health. And again, that little dose of good fat will help you absorb all the goodness that's locked away in the fruits and veggies.

So sip that smoothie, relax, and enjoy. Then go for a walk in the sunshine, take a yoga class, and stretch it out! It may be hard to get started, but your body will thank you afterward.

Simple mustard and honey sauce

Happy May, everyone!

Very soon, I will post an awesome recipe for a grain free carrot cake that is perfect for breakfast, dessert, or a snack. I finally got some pictures today before it was completely devoured! But first, a super simple dressing, dip, or sauce. Tonight I had this on gorgeous baby greens as a salad and it made me so happy! Feel free to dress or sauce up anything you like, from salads to wraps to noodles. Would also pair as well with meat as it does with veggies, if that's how you roll.

INGREDIENTS:

Raw honey
Dijon-style mustard (grainy or smooth, both will be delicious)
Sunflower seed butter (or other seed or nut butter)

METHOD:

Put as much as you like of the three ingredients in a bowl. Play with proportions - I used about equal quantities of honey and mustard, and more of the sunflower seed butter. Stir with a fork to combine. Season to taste - depending on your mustard, you may want more vinegar, more salt, or any other seasoning you desire - ginger or turmeric would be great, as would coconut aminos, or chopped chilis.

Now dip, dress, and enjoy!

Holiday Treats! Pi Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and Passover are all upon us!

Oh my goodness, Easter and Passover are right around the corner! I've been working on some chocolate treats and other holiday deliciousness, and I'll tell you about them very soon. (It is not too early to start thinking about a plague of chocolate mint frogs for Passover, or raspberry-filled zombie chocolate bunnies for Easter. A variety of chocolate treats will be available regularly, and sold by weight.)

But first, Pi Day and St. Patrick's Day! NOW IS THE TIME TO THINK ABOUT ORDERING FOR PI DAY AND ST. PADDY'S DAY! What? Ordering? Yup, I'm reviving orders and deliveries for the holidays, because I love cooking for you and I miss you! Plus I'm always happy to come cook for you and your family for a fantastic holiday or anytime! (I'm already booked for the first night of Passover and for Good Friday, but I have some other dates free. Please email me if you are interested in any menu for any date at all, and we'll talk!)

I'll be doing plenty of gluten free, real food, delicious, homemade awesome food for all those holidays. Most items will be vegan, and others will be non-vegan. All will be made with care and attention to your family's specific needs. As always, I avoid all gluten ingredients, all soy, peanut, GMOs, and weird stuff. Keeping your food delicious and safe is the top priority!

A Vegan Cottage Pie Begins

Gluten Free, Vegan Pot Pie

Sweet Potato and Local Beef Cottage Pie

For Pi Day, which is really soon, on Thursday, 3/14, I'll do a pie theme! I can do a vegan vegetable pot pie or a non-vegan, dairy-free chicken pot pie. Either way, it will be topped with a gluten free crust, similar to the one I did last year. I'll also do variations on shepherd's pie and cottage pie - I'm leaning toward a ground lamb filling with a mashed squash topping, and maybe a turkey one with a sweet potato topping, but we can figure it all out together based on customer interest. I'll pack these savory pies in recyclable foil pans so you can reheat easily - just pop them in the oven.

I will also do some sweet pies, of course! Last year's gluten free vegan pecan pie was amazing, and I'll definitely reprise that. I've also been working on a raw vegan avocado lime pie that I'm pretty excited about, and a banana cream pie with coconut custard. Yum!

This is the best pecan pie ever. Ever!

For St. Patrick's Day, which is next Sunday the 17th, I will make you delicious gluten free, vegan Irish soda bread. Remember how yummy that was last year? I miss it, and I want to make it for you again. It was so darn good. I'll also make colcannon: mashed potatoes with kale and general yumminess (can be made vegan with olive oil, or with dairy butter) AND I'll do a cabbage side - with or without bacon. If there's enough interest, I might do corned beef brisket too. If you're interested, please email me soon so we can plan! Write to me any time at rathercraftymary@gmail.com

Looking forward to cooking for you all soon!

Much love,
Chef Mary

Raw vegan hemp and veggies salad

Good morning!

This morning, I have a fantastic breakfast, lunch, dinner, side, or anytime dish for you. Again, there will be no awards for the photos; I was so hungry I ate most of it before remembering to take pictures. Oops!

Just trust me, this is awesome.

I woke up this morning tired of all the animal protein. On Whole30, the guidelines require a dense source of protein at every meal, alongside lots of healthy veggies. Well, I just wanted veggies, veggies, and just more veggies. So how to get some essential amino acids and healthy fats into my balanced breakfast? Hemp seeds to the rescue!

Like all salads, this one is endlessly customizable. Use what you like! Want it 100% raw? Skip the roasted beets. Is it summer where you are? Add tomatoes instead of the beets. Want more carbs to fuel a heavy cardio day? Add more carrots, some leftover roasted squash or sweet potato, orange or tangerine sections, or some fresh or dried apples. Need more protein to recover from an intense strength training session? Add some walnuts, shrimp, tuna, or egg. Need more fat to fuel a long day? Use the whole avocado. Have different salad greens kicking around? Switch them up. Kale would be awesome. Frisee would be wonderful, especially if you top the salad with some egg. Use what you have and like best. Enjoy!

RAW VEGAN HEMP AND VEGGIES SALAD

Serves 1 as a light meal, or 2 as a side

INGREDIENTS

1/3 to 1/2 an avocado
2 T dulse seaweed flakes (if you can't find dulse, try crumbled nori)
A couple glugs raw apple cider vinegar, to taste
Pinch sea salt, to taste
1 large heart or small full head of romaine lettuce, washed and chopped
1 large or 2 smaller carrots, chopped small or shredded
1 leftover roasted beet, cubed
2 T shelled hemp seeds

METHOD

Mash the avocado, dulse, vinegar, and salt together in the bottom of your big mixing bowl. Add lettuce, carrot, beet, and hemp seeds. Toss to coat really well. Season to taste, and dive in!

Sprouted sunflower seed hummus recipe

Where is the intersection of the real food movement and veganism? In raw food, of course! The last few months, I have encountered a surprising number of raw vegan recipes on paleo/primal blogs and forums. Most of them were not new to me, but my background is pretty unique.

I'm not vegan anymore, but sometimes I want a meal that feels nourishing and satisfying and doesn't involve meat or eggs. Today I made hummus. I didn't use chickpeas - I used sprouted sunflower seeds! I'm allergic to chickpeas. Many people have sensitivities to legumes. Even if you are among them, you can still enjoy this yummy dip!

Okay, it's not very photogenic. It looks like hummus. Hummus is beige. It is delicious, but it doesn't look like much on its own. It looks and tastes best over a bed of spinach, sprinkled with paprika, with some veggies to dip.

For this recipe, you have to start a few days ahead and sprout your seeds. This is not much work at all, just a little planning.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup or more, raw organic sunflower seeds
A couple tablespoons tahini
Juice and zest of one to two lemons
Pinch cayenne
Sea salt, to taste
A glug of extra virgin olive oil
Optional: nutritional yeast, minced fresh garlic, cumin, roasted red peppers, apple cider vinegar, cilantro, scallions, whatever seasoning you like in your dip.
Garnish: more olive oil and paprika

METHOD:

Soak a cup or more of organic, raw sunflower seeds overnight. Drain, and rinse until the water runs clear. Drain well and leave undisturbed, covered loosely. I use my little OXO herb spinner for this.

In another 8 - 12 hours, rinse and drain. Repeat. When you have the beginnings of little tails, transfer to the fridge to slow down growth. Now they're ready to use!

Take a cup or two of sprouts and add to food processor. Add a couple spoonfuls of tahini - raw or lightly roasted is fine. If you like garlic, add a small clove, minced. Add a splash or two of lemon juice and some lemon zest, a glug of olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and some cayenne. Process until smooth. Add a couple spoonfuls of nutritional yeast if you like nooch, and blend in. Nooch is Whole30 approved, but some people might not like the idea of anything that is grown in a tank, rather than a field. Use your own discretion. Season to taste. Add anything else you like - it's good with cumin, more cayenne, paprika, some roasted red peppers, more lemon, cilantro, whatever you like! Serve garnished with olive oil and paprika. Great over spinach salad, or with carrots and celery to dip.

Enjoy!

Love,
Chef Mary

Iodine

Today I want to talk about a super important trace mineral: iodine.

Iodine is critical for the health of your thyroid, and therefore the health of the whole body. The thyroid is a tiny gland in the throat that has the big job of coordinating your metabolism. Two key hormones it produces (T3 and T4 in the diagram below) contain iodine. If you become deficient, you run the risk of all sorts of disorders from hypothyroidism to hyperthyroidism to goiter.

Iodine is also considered important for detoxification, and clearing of radiation. Once, I had a client who was undergoing very aggressive radiation therapy. Iodine is a very powerful element for removing radiation from the body. Because her therapy required that she keep the radiation in her body as long as possible in order to battle cancer, she was not permitted to consume anything containing iodine. During her treatment, she could not have anything containing fish, seaweed, or iodized salt! (Since completing her treatment, she is again encouraged to get plenty of iodine.)

Many of us are most familiar with iodine from the yucky iodized salt in the supermarket. Here's the thing about the yucky salt: you don't have to eat if you get enough iodine in your diet. You can use better-tasting, non-iodized sea salt. In fact, you can get all the iodine you need from a healthy, balanced diet. You just have to know how to get it!

Iodine is abundantly available in all seafood, especially seaweed and kelp. So even if you avoid fish and shellfish, you can get plenty of iodine from sea vegetables. It also naturally occurs in soil, but we can't count on most produce as a significant dietary source because the amounts vary so widely from region to region.

Once upon a time, people living in the middle of the U.S. didn't have access to ocean fish. Lake fish is not a good source of iodine; it must come from salt water. On top of that, the soil in the Midwest is very low in iodine. In the 19th century and into the start of the 20th, many Midwesterners developed thyroid disorders. Then the U.S. government started adding iodine to table salt, and that problem was solved.

Unfortunately, now many people think that supplements (either pills or iodized salt) are the best or only ways to get iodine. But we didn't evolve to have to take supplements. How did people maintain healthy thyroid glands before supplementation? Easy: through seafood.

If you eat sea vegetables or salt water fish once or twice a week, you are likely getting enough iodine in your diet. It is abundant in fresh, frozen, dried, and canned products. So if all you can afford is dolphin-safe, low-mercury skipjack tuna in a can and packets of dried seaweed from Super 88, you can still meet your iodine needs that way. There will be recipes for grain-free "sushi" rolls and seaweed salads on this blog in the future.

If you find yourself craving seafood, one reason may be that your body is looking for an iodine boost. If you live in the Midwest and don't have easy access to ocean fish, or if you hate all seafood including seaweed and kelp, then you are a candidate for supplementation. Otherwise, just get it from food!

In my next post, I'm going to give you a wonderful, easy iodine-rich recipe for salmon with crispy skin, with a balsamic glaze. Yum!

Crab cakes, aioli, and clarified butter (ghee!)

I had a productive morning! Except my phone ran out of batteries, so there is no photographic evidence. Oops!

Last night, I soaked some sunflower seeds in filtered water. This morning, I drained and rinsed them and set them aside. I will continue to rinse and drain them for a day or three, until they have little tails, and then I will tell you how to make my famous raw vegan sprouted sunflower seed hummus!

Other things that have been accomplished this morning are not so vegan-friendly: Ghee, mayonnaise, and totally grain free crab cakes. Each deserves its own post, but I'm going to squish them all into one because it is my blog and I can!

First, ghee. Clarified butter. It is a traditional food from India and other regions. It has a very high smoke point, unlike regular whole butter, so you can cook with it at much higher temperatures without damaging it. Plus, it's the only dairy product allowed on the Whole30.

It is so easy. Are you ready?

GHEE

Take some organic butter from pasture fed cows. Put it in a saucepan large enough to hold it, but not too huge. Melt it over fairly low heat. Eventually, the water trapped inside will start popping and crackling as it evaporates out. If it doesn't, turn it up just a little. If it's too aggressive, turn it down a little.

Let it go until all or almost all of the water is boiled off, then pour it through a sieve lined either with 3 layers of cheesecloth or a nut milk bag, into a heat-proof glass measuring cup. Your cheesecloth or nut milk bag will catch almost all of the milk solids. Throw those away (or use in an extra rich brown butter if you are into such things.)

Now your measuring cup is full of golden, melty, lovely almost-totally-clarified butter. You may have a few super-tiny particles of milk solids still in there. Wait a few minutes for them to settle out, then carefully pour your ghee off into a heat-proof jar, leaving any solids behind at the bottom of the measuring cup. Now you're done!

Let the ghee cool to room temperature, then cover. Keeps for a very long time refrigerated, and believe it or not, at cool room temperature too. (I refrigerate mine.)

You can use it to fry the crab cakes I'm going to tell you about in a minute.

MAYONNAISE

Mayo is not hard. Don't be afraid! The instructions are longer than the whole process of making this. I promise.

Leave a couple eggs out at room temperature for at least a couple hours, up to overnight. Your mayo will work so much better if all your ingredients are at room temp! If you forget, rest the eggs for a few minutes in a bowl of warm water to warm them a little.

If you are pregnant or immune-compromised and don't feel comfortable using raw eggs, pasteurize them in a bath of hot water. If you are neither pregnant nor immune-compromised, make whatever decision you are comfortable with. I would not use eggs from a factory farm for this mayonnaise; I use eggs from a farmer I know and trust. Personally, I feel that raw foods and especially raw egg yolks have a lot of health benefits. And the risk of salmonella or other contamination is minimal when you choose good, real eggs from good farmers.

Choose your oil. Today, I used a combination of rendered chicken fat (schmaltz) and extra virgin olive oil. If you are using a solid fat like animal fat or coconut oil in winter, melt it gently over low heat. You can also use a cold-pressed sunflower seed or grape seed oil as part of the fat. I don't recommend soy or canola oil for your health, but if you insist on using them in your diet, they do work well here. If you are using only evoo and no other fat, know that the taste will be very strong and may be slightly bitter. Usually, aioli is made with a combination of evoo and another oil - refined olive or another vegetable oil. (Aioli also usually contains garlic, and the acid is lemon instead of vinegar.)

Decide if you want a little mustard (it helps get emulsification going but isn't totally necessary) and decide what kind of acid you want to use. Lemon juice is great, as is raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, but any vinegar will do.

Separate your eggs and put the yolks (or one yolk and one whole egg) in the bowl of your food processor. Whir them up. Add mustard if using, a pinch of salt, and a tiny splash of your vinegar or lemon juice. Blend really well.

With the motor running, very slowly pour liquid fat in. It's best to either start with the fat that is not extra virgin olive oil, and add the evoo last, or mix the oils together and pour them as a blend.

Keep slowly pouring and blending until it emulsifies. You will know when it does, because it will look like mayonnaise (but a lot yellower than the packaged stuff.)

If it doesn't ever emulsify, you can save it! Pour your runny mess out from the bowl of the processor into a jar or small bowl with a spout. Put a new egg yolk or two in the bowl of the processor. Process the new yolks for a couple minutes, then slowly start adding the messy stuff into the processing yolks.

Once it's all nicely emulsified, season it up. Add more salt, vinegar, or lemon, as needed. A great and super healthy addition here is a spoonful of probiotic whey drained from homemade yogurt, or some sauerkraut juice. It sounds so crazy, but it is fantastic for digestion. I know, me and my healthy bacteria for digestion. But it's important!

Now you're done! To develop the probiotics from the whey or kraut juice, and to actually improve shelf-life, leave at room temperature for a couple hours before refrigeration. It sounds insane, but it is true.

CRAB CAKES

Remember how we separated eggs earlier, and used mostly yolks? Well, now you have whites left over. You can save them for meringues, macaroons, macarons (they're different,) fish mousse, nuvolone, or use them right now in crab cakes!

Heat a cast iron skillet to medium.

Take some cooked crab - canned or frozen is fine. Mix gently with egg whites, salt, mustard, a spoonful of mayo, and seasoning you like - Old Bay or a similar seasoning mix works well here, or your own blend. Anything you like!

It might be pretty runny now. If you want to tighten it up, add a spoonful of coconut flour or some almond flour. Almond will add crunch, while coconut is super absorbent!

Taste, and adjust seasoning. It's okay - the crab is fully cooked and you're using eggs from a source you trust, right?

Add some ghee to your pan. Look how lovely and clear it is! Make small patties with the crab mixture, drop in the pan, and cook until brown on the bottom. Flip, finish cooking, and serve with a dollop of mayo and a simple, lovely salad.

Enjoy, and have a beautiful day!

Love,
Chef Mary

Dry rub recipes, fresh sauerkraut, and delicious breakfasty banana souffles!

Welcome to Whole30, day 2!

What happens when you give a chef a slightly different set of restrictions within which to work, and let her get a good night's sleep first? You get crazy levels of creativity, that's what!

Today is a day I don't have all that much work to do, so I'm experimenting and planning ahead for busier days.

This morning we had banana souffles for breakfast. I did not invent this recipe; I based it on this recipe from Primally Inspired:

http://www.primallyinspired.com/gingerbread-breakfast-souffle-with-cinnamon-spiced-bananas/

I omitted the molasses, of course. They were fantastic without it! Really sweet, actually. I got 5 small souffles out of the recipe - 4 regular ceramic ramekins and then a glass Pyrex bowl for the overage. I sliced one very ripe banana very thinly and divided it among the five dishes, so we each got about half a banana and about two eggs each for breakfast. So light, so delicious! (I also finished off the lettuce that was sitting in the fridge and had a crazy drink - soaked chia seeds, a splash of beet kvass, and fresh water to dilute it, to wash down my digestive enzyme supplement, vitamin D, and quercetin with vitamin C.)

Here they are right before coming out of the oven:

 And here they are right before being devoured! They held their shape so nicely.

Lunch is in the oven now. Last night, I took some beef short ribs (from local pasture-raised beef) and rubbed them with a mixture of paprika, chili powder, cayenne, and sea salt. I wrapped them up and put them back in the fridge. This morning, after breakfast, I went out to get more veggies, including lots of carrots. I sliced the carrots the long way, and lay them in the bottom of a baking dish. They made kind of a rack, to keep the beef just above the juices. I covered the carrots with homemade beef stock, then lay the spice-rubbed beef ribs on top.

I covered that loveliness with a piece of parchment then covered the whole thing tightly with foil. I set it in a 295 degree oven and it's still there. My estimate is that it will take a total of 3 hours or a little longer - 2 1/2 covered, and the last 30 minutes uncovered. It's going to go until it is wonderfully tender, but not quite falling apart. If it takes longer, I am okay with that. Good food is worth waiting for! They'll be so tender and flavorful they won't need any kind of sauce, though I am considering maybe blending up the roasted carrots with the accumulated juices to make a sauce. Haven't decided for sure yet...

These ribs will be a great lunch for me and Earnest (and maybe dinner too!) with the roasted carrots and a big salad. I love salad! In fact, maybe I'll make a simple kale salad with some of the kale I picked up this morning. I think this one will only need olive oil, lemon juice, and sea salt to balance the richness of the ribs.

You guys, don't forget to eat tons of veggies! A pound or more a day of veggies is a totally reasonable amount. Don't skimp! Remember, on a Whole30 or other low-sugar plan, you're eating less fruit, you're skipping the grains and potatoes, so you have to eat even more veggies than usual. It's not all about the meat!

Speaking of veggies, I also got some sauerkraut started. I shredded up a cabbage that was hanging out in the fridge, and tossed it with lots of sea salt, some mustard seed, caraway, a tiny bit of celery seed, and shredded carrot. I let that sit and juice out for a few minutes, then I packed it with the juice into jars. It's going to sit and ferment and get very happy for a couple weeks, and then I will eat it!

I'm prepping a lot of things ahead today. I also made an herb rub for a beef roast and tucked that in the fridge for another day, and a spice rub for pork belly. The beef is rubbed with parsley, rosemary, thyme, sea salt, and black pepper. The pork belly is rubbed with sea salt, fennel seed, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, a pinch of clove, and some pepper.

Why do I do dry rubs and marinades ahead of time? Well, the flavor takes time to penetrate the meat. Some meats (especially fish) pick up flavors very quickly. Fish should be seasoned and cooked right away, or after no more than a half hour. Other meats are denser and take longer. Generally, count on at least an hour per inch of meat; less if you've got an acidic liquid marinade or one with lots of ginger. Very fatty cuts like pork belly can hang out in their rubs for two or three days!

I hope I have inspired you all to enjoy some wonderful food today, and make steps toward a healthier lifestyle. Have a beautiful day, and I'll see you again soon!

Love,
Chef Mary

Kale Salad Recipe and Variations

Here's a great recipe for almost everyone - it's Whole30 compliant, raw if you don't toast the seeds, and vegan, as long as you don't add cheese to it. It's WAPF compatible. It can easily be nut free. It's gluten free and grain free. It's also paleo, primal, intuitive eating, and made using only real, traditional foods and ingredients. It's also high in fiber, low in net carbs, made with good healthy fat, filling, can be mostly or all local. It's versatile, customizable, nourishing, and goes with everything!

It's barely even a recipe, really, more of a method with infinite variations.

Yesterday, we made a very similar kale salad for a new year's eve party. For the party, we added very finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. It's great with or without, but if you are dairy-free or doing a Whole30, leave it off for now. If you use fresh fruit, add it in right before eating to keep it fresh. If you use dried fruit, use sparingly and make sure it is unsulphured and has no sugar, additives, or preservatives. Another day I'll teach you to make your own dried fruit!

Lacinato Kale!

Fresh and Wintry Kale Salad

Toasted pine nuts or local pumpkin seeds
A big bunch of kale - any variety works
A few bits of diced fresh or dried apple, or other fruit you like (use moderation)
A small piece of shallot, very thinly sliced
Apple cider vinegar (preferably raw and unpasteurized)
Extra virgin olive oil

Toast your pine nuts or pumpkin seeds in the oven or very carefully on the stove top. Pine nuts need no extra oil when toasting. Keep a very close eye on them - they burn easily and they're so expensive! I love butternut squash seeds. They're delicious, and they're a free bonus with your squash! Toss with olive oil, salt, and paprika, spread in a thin layer on a baking sheet and bake at 350 until toasty and brown. Let cool fully.

Wash and dry your kale. Take out the stems, and use them for juice. Make a chiffonade of the leaves: Roll a couple at a time into tight little cylinders, and cut across the roll into very skinny little ribbons. The thinner they are, the more tender they will be.

Chop your apples into little dice, slice your shallots ever so thinly, and if you are adding parm grate it now. Add them all to your kale in your very biggest bowl, and toss everything together thoroughly. Add a sprinkle of sea salt, a splash of vinegar, and a glug of oil. Toss again thoroughly, until very well coated. Season to taste.

Let it all marinate for at least a few minutes before enjoying, or keep it dressed in the fridge up to overnight. A dressed kale salad stands up to storage extremely well, unlike its lettuce and spinach based cousins. This makes it a fantastic choice for your lunch at work - make it in the morning or the night before, pack it up (preferably in a glass or other BPA-free container) and it's ready and waiting for your no-fuss, healthy lunch.

Variations: You can make kale salad hundreds of ways!

*Instead of the apples, use different fresh or dried fruits - try apricots or sun dried tomatoes. Or skip the fruit entirely - kale salad is fantastic even without. Remember that dried fruit benefits from absorbing the dressing over time. Fresh fruit may discolor (though the dressing does slow that down) so you might hold the fruit back and add it closer to serving time if you're using fresh fruit and not serving the salad right away.
*Grind cashews that have already been soaked and dehydrated. Mix with some nutritional yeast and a pinch of salt, and sprinkle that on top. Cheese-like umami flavor without dairy!
*Sprinkle in hemp seeds instead of the pine nuts for even more healthy protein, good fats, and variation in texture.
*Add leftover chopped chicken, fish, or beef for a big protein boost.
*Top with a poached or fried egg.
*Serve as a lighter entree on its own, or as a side with grass fed beef or lamb.
*Try using different vinegars like pear vinegar, champagne vinegar, balsamic (great with figs!) or use lemon juice.
*If you're eating it right away, massage the dressing in a little to tenderize the kale. Add even more satisfying texture by tossing in some romaine or other lettuce after you massage the kale.

The only limits here are your imagination and what you have on hand. So make sure you always have lots of healthy veggies in your fridge, healthy oils like olive and coconut, and high-quality vinegars in your pantry.

Enjoy!

Love,
Chef Mary