Massaged Kale and Craisin Salad

Massaged Kale and Craisin Salad

This is my new favorite salad! I slightly altered it from the recipe on Melskitchencafe.com I halved the dressing and it was more than enough, and cut a few things out. This salad is Sweet, crunchy, and oh so healthy. Hope you enjoy it as much as my husband, 2 year old, and I!INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch kale
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt or sea salt
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1/2 cup dried cranberries/craisins (optional, but delicious)
3/4 cup small-diced apple
1/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon agave

DIRECTIONS:
Wash the kale and pat it dry. Slice off the stiff stems below the leaves and continue slicing the stem away from the leaf until you have cut a thin v-shape into the kale leaf and removed the tough stem all the way up. (I save the stems for green smoothies). Stack the kale leaves two or three at a time, roll them up, and slice the leaves into thin ribbons.

Place the kale ribbons in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and massage it into the kale with your hands for two minutes. You’ll notice the kale start to turn a darker green and the texture of the kale will begin to soften a bit.

Toss in the red onions, craisins, apples, and sunflower seeds. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar and agave. Pour over the salad and toss. Sprinkle The salad can be refrigerated for up to a day before serving.

Lemon Thyme Bars

These lemon thyme bars are just plain delicious and so much chic compared to the regular ones! You gotta try this. Of course I had to make some changes from the original Giada de Laurentiis because well...I can't help myself :) 

Ingredients

• Vegan butter, for greasing dish
• Whole wheat flour, for dusting dish

Bars:

• 1 stick (4 ounces) earth balance vegan buttery spread, at room temperature
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 cup organic powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Glaze:

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup organic powdered sugar

Directions

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish.

For the bars:

In a small bowl combine flour, thyme and salt. Set aside. Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together 1 stick of butter and powdered sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture. Using damp fingers, press the dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes until golden. Cool for 30 minutes.

For the glaze:

In a medium bowl, whisk the lemon juice and powdered sugar together until smooth. Spoon the glaze over the cooled crust. Allow the glaze to harden, at room temperature, for at least 1 hour.

Using a metal spatula, remove the crust from the pan. Cut into 1 1/2-inch square bars and arrange on a serving platter or store airtight in a plastic container at room temperature.

Since the original recipe is with all-purpose flour it looks white but yours will be brown

Soyican

One thing you need to know about me is that I'm Chilean and I thought it would be cool to share my vegan version of this Chilean dish called "charquican." Usually this dish has ground meat, beef jerky or Durvillaea anteractica (chilean seaweed) but my version is a bit different. Also, I wanted to show you how to make "Ensalada Chilena" which is a tomato salad that has tons of flavor and shows you how the textures of raw food make all the difference.

Ingredients: Charquicán
Serves: 4-6

• About 12 small potatoes or about 8 big potatoes (yukon gold will do)
• one cup of green beans (not canned but fresh or frozen) 
• one cup of kernel tcorn (fresh of frozen) 
• 1.5 cup banana squash cubed 
• 1/2 big onion (purple or white depending which one you like)
• 2-3 roma tomatoes 
• half a bunch of spinach  
• 3-4 small carrots 
• 2 cloves of garlic 
• 1/4 of a red bell pepper 
• 1 cup of mushrooms
• 1 1/4 cup of textured soy protein (or soy meat, textured vegetable protein)
• 1 serrano pepper
• sea salt 
• pepper if you want (not a fun of adding pepper to every single dish like people do sometimes) 

Preparation: Charquican 

1. Wash all of the ingredients.
2. Boil potatoes, banana squash, corn and green beans in salted water until potatoes are soft. I prefer using a pressure cooker for this if you are in a hurry. 
3. While all ingredients in #2 are boiling get a sauté pan or frying pan add olive oil and turn the heat to med high.
4. Mince or dice (depending on your cutting abilities and how much your family likes onions) the onion. Mince garlic, Serrano pepper (take out the seeds before mincing) and red bell pepper. Add to the pan and turn down the heat to medium. Cook everything until onions until they are translucent. 
5. Add sliced mushrooms, and sliced carrots and diced tomatoes (if you have a this is a piece of cake) and add them to the frying pan with the rest of the ingredients and cook for about 3-4 min. Turn the heat to med-low
6. Boil about 2 cups of water in a sauce pan and add the soy meat. It will mandoline dehydrate in about 2 min. After that drain the meat very well and add it to the frying pan with the sliced spinach and add salt and pepper to taste.  Mix very well and cook for another 2 min on med heat until everything is been incorporated very well. Make sure that the spinach keeps the green color. 
7. Drain the potatoes, green beans, squash and corn but leave about 1/4 of the water. Place in a big pot or bowl. Gently smash them (do not puree) you should be able to see big chunks of the ingredients. Add all of the ingredients from the frying pan to the bowl and mix gently until everything has been well incorporated. Taste and add salt if needed. Serve hot. 

Ingredients: Ensalada Chilena 

• 6 globe tomatoes ripe but not still hard 
• half a bunch of cilantro 
• 1 big yellow or white onion
• sea salt  
• red wine vinegar
• grape seeded oil (Love this type of oil for salad or salad dressings) or olive oil 

Preparation: Chilean Salad 

1. Wash all ingredients 
2. In chile everyone peels the tomatoes. Don't ask me why but I enjoy the peel so I leave it on in my version 
3. Thinly Julienne onions. In case you don't know watch the video below. 
4. Add the onions to a bowl with cold water and about 2 tbs of sea salt. Pressed the onions with your hands until everything has been kinda of covered with salt and the water. Leave it there for about 20 min and rinse.
5. Roughly chop the cilantro 
6. Mix all ingredients in a bowl with salt, grape seeded oil and vinegar and mix.