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Massaged Kale Salad with Dates, Candy Onions, Blue Cheese and Peaches

Kale Salad with Peaches and Blue Cheese

Course salads
Author TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

For dressing:

  • 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
  • 1-2 T maple syrup or honey, to taste
  • pinch of salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 - 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, to taste (I prefer a tart dressing)

For salad:

  • 2 bunches kale, rinsed, stems removed, and thinly sliced
  • 1 bunch red leaf lettuce, rinsed, thinly sliced (or frisée)
  • 1 candy onion, thinly sliced and soaked in cold water for 15 minutes (red onion can be used but soak in 2 changes of water for twice as long in that case if raw onions bother you)
  • 6-10 pitted dates, thinly sliced (or pitted prunes), to taste
  • 4 peaches, cleaned and thinly sliced (or Fuji apples)
  • 6 oz crumbled blue cheese of choice--my favorite right now is Roth Buttermilk Blue

Instructions

  1. Begin by whisking the vinegar, maple syrup (or honey) and salt and pepper together. Then, constantly whisking, add the olive oil in a thin stream. The dressing should emulsify. Then set aside. It will separate a little, but that is ok, just whisk again before using.
  2. Prepare the kale first. Place in a large bowl--it will be quite voluminous at this point. Drizzle about half of your dressing over the kale and begin massaging. You are looking for the kale to darken in color and literally deflate--the kale should appear to decrease by half. You can do this much in advance and place the kale in the fridge in a sealed container until you need it (do not do more than 12 hours in advance).
  3. When you are ready to serve, toss the remaining ingredients into the salad. Make sure that the fresh fruit (peaches or apples) get tossed with dressing--add more dressing as you do this--as that will keep them from discoloring. Save some extra cheese and fruit slices to scatter on top.
  4. I have kept this salad successfully for as long as 3 days. If you want to keep it longer (for leftovers--guests should get it much sooner as it will deflate a bit) I would use 100% kale and no other lettuce greens.