If this salad doesnt make you love or at least learn to tolerate kale there is no hope for you.

Kale and I arent best friends but we visit on special occasions. Those special occasions being thick filling soups in the middle of winter. We get along pretty well as long as kale doesnt draw too much attention to itself which unfortunately it usually does. I totally understand why most people never invite it to their parties, kale is a bitter creature on a good day and an evening killer on bad ones.

This salad changed all that. The only reason I made it was kale came in the latest CSA box and there was steak in it so even if the kale was a failure there was still the yummy steak for dinner. I figured it was a win win type situation. But even as I wilted the big juicy organic kale leaves I was still hesitant about how much I was going to like this dinner. I was rushing to make it and take it in tupperware to my second job of the day, if I didnt like it I would be stuck at a coffee ship with nothing but scones to munch on.

Fortunately all the worry was for naught. Steak, vinegar, and salty olives turned the kale into a very delicious unassuming salad green. I wouldnt have even known it was a bitter green if I hadnt of chopped it up myself. This salad might not look like much but its great and filling and not at all like any other kale dish Ive ever dutifully forced myself to work my way through. The only way it would have been better is if I had decent sherry vinegar. Time to visit my friend at the fancy vinegar store on my next day off.

Steak, Kale and Olive Salad

1 pound steak, whatever cut floats your boat
1 bunch kale, thinly chopped
1 handful black olives, the saltier the better

equal portions olive oil and sherry vinegar


Season steak with salt and pepper then sear in in a nice sized pan to the level of doneness you prefer. Remove from pan to let cool a bit before slicing into bite sized pieces.

Put kale in pan with steak drippings and cook just until wilted. Remove pan from heat and toss in olives and sliced steak.

Whisk together oil and vinegar then pour over salad and toss.

Recipe from Mark Bittman in the New York Times.

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 Even with the appearance of warmer weather there is just something about a big pot of well seasoned root vegetables and beans that is still really satisfying.  Then again Im the type of person that has been known to suffer over a boiling pot of soup and cook a loaf of bread when its 100 degrees so I might be biased.  I think we can all agree that a tasty one pot meal is pretty amazing regardless of the weather.

The fella and I have been making this all winter and had it again yesterday and it still retains its yumminess no matter how many times we cook it.  The only problem has been trying to find gluten free chicken sausages here in town.  Amys Organic are the only ones Ive been able to find and sadly they are precooked without a casing which results in a slightly less appealing texture since the sausage refused to crumble into the beans nicely.  But if you can handle any ole chicken sausage you are in luck because raw crumbly sausage ups the delicious scale of this meal.

Ive also found that I prefer giant white lima beans in this recipe instead of the cannellini beans from the orginal recipe.  The lima beans hold their texture much better during the baking process.  This was another one of those surprising discoveries, finding out that lima beans done right are out of this world.  More proof that just because you hated it when you were a kid doesnt mean youll hate it later in life now that you know how to cook.

First beets, then kale, now lima beans.  Soon Ill find a way to make kohlrabi edible.  Now that will be the day.

Cannellini and Chickpea Pottage

1 tablespoon oil

4 chicken sausage links, casings removed (the only gluten free variety Ive found in town is Amys brand)

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 cup chicken stock

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon agave nectar

4 cups giant lima beans

2 cups chickpeas

3 tablespoons fresh thyme, divided use (or 1 1/ 2 tablespoons dried thyme)

salt and pepper, to taste

1 bay leaf

1/ 4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Heat a  Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add about a table of oil and the sausage, breaking it up with a spoon as it browns. Once meat is browned, add the onion and carrots and sauté for 5 minutes or until both the carrots and onions look like they are beginning to soften. Add the garlic, and sauté for 2 minutes.

Stir in chicken broth, scraping the pan to loosen browned bits stuck to pot.  Add the tomato paste, agave nectar, lima beans, chickpeas, one tablespoon of thyme, a pinch of salt and pepper, bay leaf and crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Sprinkle shredded Parmesan cheese evenly over the pottage and transfer dish to oven (uncovered) for 20 minutes or until the top becomes brown and bubbly.

Remove from oven, sprinkling any remaining thyme and Parmesan cheese over the top.

Original recipe from Food52 Blog.

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 This year was my first hosting Christmas dinner and trying to do it gluten free in a way that everyone would still make everyone happy.  Which was exciting and nerve wracking all by itself.  The problem was I had to work for 6 hours Christmas afternoon which left me no time to actually cook much of the meal itself.  Luckily I have two very talented men on hand in my kitchen.  The fella and the chef were kind enough to do most of the cooking and did a fabulous job. 

There were a couple moments while I was stuck at my desk taking relay calls listening to other people talk about their meals and wondering what was going on in my kitchen.  It was torture to be at work, on Christmas nonetheless, while the chef and the fella handled everything back home.  I wanted to play food, not eavesdrop on other peoples phone calls, darn it.  And it was driving me crazy wondering what exactly would happen to the recipes I had handed off to the men that morning.  Would I come home to alien brain frittered stuffing or a bacon wrapped smoked turkey with an octopus stuffed in it?  The anxiety was for naught, the boys did amazing.  The only food that didnt quite turn out were the things I cooked oddly enough, but thats a story for another day.

It was lovely having my family over.  I think they even enjoyed the not so traditional food and the lack of gluten.  My parents even surprised us by bringing their adorable little present opening food hound who laid under the table to whole meal totally offended that no one was dropping any food on her and that she wasnt the center of attention.  You can see how neglected and abused she is cuddled up amongst the various feet that arent currently petting her.

The dogs werent the only ones giving me cute sad eyes though.  I probably nearly broke the chef by forcing him to use a recipe and one that didnt call for any fun ingredients even.  He obviously isnt too torn up over the stifled creativity however as I witnessed him stuffing cannelloni beans and chicken thighs in tiny pots last night so hes recovered. 

And after having the mushroom wild rice stuffing from a recipe in Bon Appetit I can safely say it would have been improved by a little creativity or perhaps just some nuts to give it a little texture.  It was tasty stuffing and the mushroom with wild rice combination really works, it just needed a little something extra to make it pop.  The cranberry wild rice stuffing with toasted hazelnuts I made for Thanksgiving was much more exciting and will probably be what I make for stuffing related situations in the future.

One of my brief contributions to the meal was to make a couple different varieties of kale chips to snack on while waiting for the meal to finish.  My mother sent me the idea for kale chips during the summer when I was lamenting yet another CSA box full of greens. Now I wanted to make them for her to see what they were like. 

Kale chips are super easy and tasty way to use up left over kale or any other hearty green you arent usually a fan of.  All you need is salt, pepper and the seasoning of your choice and you have a healthy simple snack.  These always disappear right away at my parties.  It isnt until afterwards I let people know they just willingly devoured leafy green veggies.  They have the same taste and texture of regular chips but are so much better for you.  I cant recommend them  enough.  Just dont get into an in depth conversation about cephalopods while making them and manage to salt the tray of kale 3 or 4 times because thats just too much salt and even your supportive mother will not eat many of the chips at that level of sodium.  Not that this has ever happened to me or course,  totally hypothetical. 

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale
oil, for drizzling
salt and pepper, to taste
1 pinch, cayenne pepper
seasoning of your choice, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Rip the kale leaves into bite sized pieces, making sure to remove all the hard stems.  Run the pieces of kale through a salad spinner until dry or wash them thoroughly and then pat dry.  Place the kale across a large cookie sheet without overcrowding it. 

Spray or drizzle kale with oil, then toss until just oiled on all sides, using an oil sprayer makes this process super easy if you have one.  Sprinkle the kale with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with a pinch of cayenne pepper and the seasoning of your choice--Montreal steak seasoning or 5 spice powder work really well—or extra cayenne is delicious if you want something really basic. 

Arrange the kale pieces evenly over the pan so that they dont over lap much, do several batches if you have to.  Place in oven for about 10 minutes then check on them.  The kale should be crispy but not brittle or blackened.  If it is still moist in places, agitate the kale and place back in the oven for about 5 minutes, watching it closely so that it doesnt burn.

Wait for kale chips to cool.  Remove from pan with spatula and serve.

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Another day another perfect summer salad.  This one is courtesy of the Lisas Kitchen Blog where there is no shortage of out of this world vegetarian recipes.  Whenever I want to cook a really unique curry this is the blog I go to because this is perhaps the only other person as obsessed with Indian cooking as I am.  She has some of the coolest recipes and flavor combinations, stuff Id never think to cook.


Like this salad, I was a little leery of the cooked beans, raw veggies and lots of sun dried tomatoes combo but after I poured on the sun dried tomato dressing I became a believer.  The flavors are just what I was looking for an a warm afternoon when I didnt want to turn on the stove for more than 5 minutes.  The tomatoes and balsamic vinegar create a nice tangy edge for the beans. 

The fella who isnt a huge fan of tomatoes wouldnt stop eating this.  He said it was like a less evil version of mayo encased potato salad.  And hes right the parmesan cheese (I used a half nutritional yeast half ground almonds substitute for vegan parm) and garlic create a pleasant creaminess that reminded us both of mayo but without the heaviness and the fat.  And because there is no mayo involved this would be a killer salad for a picnic. 

This is another salad that is going into heavy rotation on my summer menus.

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