NYTimes Kale Salad With Apples

I had an over-supply of kale which I needed to use up quickly. A quick Google search led me to this NYTimes recipe for Kale Salad with Apples and Cheddar. This is very simple but I will post it anyway, with my variation on it as well my sense of how it came out.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• 4 cups of kale, thinly sliced
• 1 apple (I went with Gala), diced to 1/4"
• 10 almonds, chopped
• 10-20 raisins
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 5 tbsp olive oil (EVOO)
• Pinch of salt

Ingredients before prep

Ingredients after prep

Directions:

1. Prep the ingredients as above
   
   If you notice the knife in the photo above, it is a Victorinox 8" Fibrox Pro Chef's Knife. I am not much of a cook, but I bought it because of the rave reviews, and it has lived up to the reputation! Especially when paired with the NYTimes Basic Knife Skills guide.
   
   
   
   
2. Place the kale, apple, almonds, and raisins in a salad spinner
3. Stir the salt, lemon juice, and olive oil until it is homogenous
4. Add the dressing to the spinner and push push push!

The dressing

Unlike the original recipe, this one omits the cheddar, mostly because I did not have any at hand. Overall, it came out pretty good! The total prep time was about 15 minutes. The last tip from the NYTimes was key though: letting the entire mixture sit for 15 minutes after mixing helped break down and soften the kale a bit. I would happily make this salad again!

The finished product: Kale Salad with Apples

Kachumera ( Koshimbir )

Any vegetable that can be consumed raw can be used to make this dish "Kachumera". The vegetables used commonly, alone or in combination are carrot, cucumber, cabbage, radish, tomato. Below I will describe the cabbage carrot combination.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

• Cabbage finely chopped 2 cups
• Carrots 2 coarsely shredded
• Olive oil 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
• crushed pepper 1/2 tsp
• Fresh lemon half or lemon juice 1 tbsp
  
• salt to taste 1tsp
• roasted peanuts powder 2 tbsp (optional, works as a binding agent)

Directions:

1. In a 1 quart pan add olive oil and heat on medium heat till a cumin seed added puffs up immediately.
   
2. Remove pan from the heat and add cumin seeds followed by crushed pepper immediately.
   
3. Add cabbage followed by carrot and cover the pan
4. After 10-15 minutes add salt, lemon juice and if desired peanut powder and mix well

It is ready to serve. One can add chopped cilantro for added flavour. Also lemon can be replaced by orange or grapefruit. If red pepper is too hot for you reduce the amount or replace it by black pepper. It can be used in sandwich also. Other favorite combinations are Cabbage Tomato, Cucumber Tomato, Carrott Cucumber, Spinach Tomato.