Warm kale salad w/ shallots, beetroot & feta
A salad that gives kale the fanfare it deserves (plus a hefty accompaniment of cheese)
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Warm kale salad w/ shallots, beetroot & feta
Serves 4-6
Risoni - rice shaped pasta - plays a glorious trick on your brain. It’s the shape of rice (but less chewy) with the smooth and silky texture of fresh pasta. It is absolutely delicious, and it makes a fantastic alternative to a wild rice or barley salad.
I guess *technically* it’s not quite as healthy or virtuous as some wholesome wholegrain, but when we’re talking salty goat’s cheese, garlicky kale and sweetly roasted beetroot, virtuousness is neither here nor there.
Kale, on the other hand, is decidedly virtuous, often touted as a ‘superfood’ whatever that means. I don’t think the trick to get us to eat vegetables should be to persuade us of their healthfulness though, that’s like trying to convince a teenager to do their maths homework because it will hold them in good stead for the future. Boring.
The thing that really got me onto kale was learning how to actually make it taste good. Kale is so often leathery and a bit…meh, when eaten fresh. For so many years I would try to eat it and I never really felt like it was delicate enough for a salad. That is, until I learned the Kale Secret: sprinkle it with olive oil and salt and then give it a *massage* in the salad bowl. Like a proper, serious rub. Granted, this means you probably are only going to want to eat kale salads made by yourself or people whose hands you don’t mind getting in and around your food, but if you want seriously GOOD KALE in a salad, you gotta be prepared to get a bit intimate with it.
That said, please enjoy this warm kale salad with shallots, beetroot and feta. It’s tangy, it’s salty, it’s sweet, it’s well massaged and very, very relaxed. It’s been listening to Enya. It’s good.