Recipe: Kale, Cherry Tomato, Feta and Mint Salad
Pluck the kale from your CSA basket, and have some fun massaging the greens!
If your weekly CSA delivery included a bounty of kale, this salad is for you. It’s flavorful, colorful and packed with vitamins. And since it’s really too hot to cook, make it a meal by crumbling in more feta, sprinkling in some chickpeas, crisp bacon or torn prosciutto or add hard-cooked eggs.
Tender, smaller kale works best in a salad. In this recipe the leaves are further tenderized with a spa treatment: a luxurious massage of salt and oil. For color and flavor, do a mixture of kales. I chose Lacinato kale, aka Tuscan or black kale, and for color added curly red kale, torn off its thick stems. Both are easy to find if you didn’t get a batch in your CSA. Don’t use chard here; I find it too tannic to eat raw, but I love it cooked.
The salad is adapted from a recipe in Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy, a cookbook that will help you to deal with just about anything that turns up in your CSA box or at the farmers market this summer.
Kale, Cherry Tomato, Feta and Mint Salad
Makes 4 servings
8 packed cups small torn pieces stemmed Lacinato kale or curly red kale, or a combination (about 1 large bunch)
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon robust olive oil, divided
Sea salt or kosher salt
1 fat garlic clove
1 to 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon grainy mustard
2 pinches crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
2 ounces feta cheese, add more for a heartier salad
1 cup colorful cherry tomatoes, halved
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons slivered fresh mint leaves
1. Put the kale pieces in a salad bowl. Pour in 1 teaspoon of the oil, sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt, and then squeeze the leaves repeatedly with your hands until they glisten.
2. Chop the garlic on a cutting board, sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt and crush with the flat side of a chef’s knife to make a paste. Alternately, you can pound the garlic with the salt in a mortar and pestle. Scrape the garlic paste into a small bowl. Whisk in the vinegar, then the mustard, the remaining 3 tablespoons oil and the crushed red pepper flakes, if using.
3. Toss the kale with the dressing until thoroughly coated then crumble over the feta, add the cherry tomatoes, scallions and mint and toss once more. Taste to make sure there is enough vinegar and serve.
