Kale Salad, Between Vineyards

Let me start by apologizing for my short absence over the past few weeks. I have good excuses, I swear! I ended up buying a new car (woot woot!) the same week I was preparing to leave for vacation, so between figuring out car logistics and packing, there was no time for blog cooking or writing. Then I went on vacation (yay!), so the only thought of cooking or blogging that week came by way of gaining inspiration from all the yummy food we were eating in northern California. And lastly, I was easing back in to real life after vacay, but I did manage to make three home-cooked meals last week - one of which is the delicious recipe I'm going to share today. So that week wasn't a complete waste ;-)

I mentioned northern California and I want to give props to the area for the tasty, creative, and satisfying food, mostly made from fresh, local ingredients, we were able to enjoy on our trip. We ventured from San Francisco:

to Napa Valley:

to Monterey:

and everywhere we went, we ate well! I think we hit our record for most consecutive days of fried calamari consumption, and enjoyed many a glass of California's famous wine. If you couldn't tell, one of my favorite activities in which to partake while on vacation is eating! I love to try new foods or some of my favorites made in interesting and new ways, and there is nowhere better to do this than in Napa Valley. In fact, that is where I got the inspiration for this salad. My friend, and seasoned Napa enthusiast, Lauren, recommended to us one of her favorite restaurants on the drive from Napa to the northern end of the valley. We are so glad we took her suggestion because it was one of, if not THE, best meal we had the entire week. Trust us: if you are in Napa Valley, pull into TraVigne and have the 'mozzarella al minuto' (pictured below). You can thank us later. Actually, you may want to plan far in advance and make a dinner reservation. We weren't able to get one, but lucked out by stopping in for a late lunch and managed to get a table.

We ordered quite a few dishes, but one of the ones I was looking forward to recreating at home was this delectible kale salad. Raw kale has never been that appealing to me unless it's ground to smithereens in a smoothie. I prefer it roasted or sauteed. But kale salads are all the rage right now, so I figured I would give it a try, especially since my boyfriend was so gung-ho about ordering it. We shared a plate and it was so good - it won me over to raw kale forever! You can see a little peek here in this cell phone pic I captured:

BTW - don't you just love when you are skeptical about something but try it anyways and are pleasantly proved wrong? I do. Happens to me all of the time where food is concerned and inspires me to always try new things.

The recipe I'm sharing is pretty much a straight up recreation of the one I had in Napa. Except I believe they used dino kale and I used just regular ol' kale (whatever the official name for that is!). And I had to create the dressing recipe on my own since I wasn't privy to all of the ingredients in their concoction. But other than that, this one tastes just as good as the one we had there, and boyfriend agreed! And bonus - this is pretty darn healthy for you! I was super excited about that.

Let's get cookin'!

Autumn Kale Salad

Servings: 2

Prep time: 45 minutes

Cooking time: varies depending on farro cooking instructions; approximately ten minutes

Ingredients:

1/4 dry farro

3 handfuls kale, chopped

1/2 fennel bulb, sliced thin

1 large handful dried cranberries (craisins)

1 handful pecans, chopped

1/2 teaspoon iodized salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper (FCBP)

goat cheese

Dressing:

Juice of 1 naval orange

4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar (I used raw)

6 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Start by placing the chopped kale on a large cutting board.

Run through it with a large knife once and then remove any large/thick stalks. Discard them. 

Place the chopped kale into a bowl large enough to toss the salad with the dressing eventually. 

Next, add the sliced fennel, cranberries, and pecans. 

To make the dressing, add all of the salad dressing ingredients to either a blender or food processor or cup so you can use a hand blender/emulsifier, as I did.  

Blend the ingredients together.

Pour 3/4 of the dressing over the salad and toss with salad tongs or two serving utensils.  

Sprinkle the salt & pepper over the salad and toss again.  

Place the salad bowl in the fridge. You're going to leave it there for at least a half an hour. 

Use this time to make the farro. Place a small pot on the stove over high heat. When the water starts boiling, add the farro. Set a kitchen timer to the amount of time indicated on the package cooking directions. 

When the farro is done cooking, drain it in a strainer and place it back over the pot (while still in the strainer) to cool and dry out a little. 

When the half an hour is up for the salad being in the fridge, remove it and add the farro and the remainder of the dressing, then toss.

Lastly, add the crumbled goat cheese to the salad and toss.

Add all of the salad to a serving plate - like the beautiful one I used here. I got it on our vacation at a vintage shop in Calistoga :-)

Serve with a glass of white or red California wine and enjoy!

Salute!