Friday, June 15, 2012

A New Kind of Massage

I love a good massage.  Who doesn't?  But yesterday I tried out a new kind of massage - a massaged kale salad!  I've had massaged kale from Whole Foods before, but this was my first time making it myself.

I mentioned before that I bought a bunch of kale at a local farmers' market last Saturday.


I finally washed the kale and removed the leaves from the stems on Wednesday night (the worst part!  I hate cleaning and tearing up lettuce, which is why I'm such a big fan of bagged spinach).  With that out of the way, I was ready to make up a salad for lunch.

I used this massaged kale salad by Kath as inspiration for my salad.


I put my clean, bite-sized pieces of kale into a container and added about 1/2 T lime juice, 1 T lemon juice, about 1/2 T olive oil, a few blobs of hummus (I just eyeballed it according to the amount of kale I used, and added enough to coat all of the leaves), then mixed it all up with my hands and massaged the kale leaves until they were evenly coated.

I also added some red bell pepper, lentils, Trader Joe's marinated artichoke hearts, and chopped walnuts.  This was SO good!  I actually tried a plain piece of kale when I was washing it, and it tasted exactly how I imagine a leaf would taste.  Blech.  But it's amazing how the acids from the citrus juices and hummus really tenderize the kale and change its taste, making it much milder and very tasty.  I've read that you should let a massaged kale salad rest for at least 15 minutes before eating it, but since I made my salad before work, mine sat for about 4+ hours before I ate it, which worked fine.


I enjoyed my salad with some fresh pineapple and a medjool date.  Yum!  This salad was very satisfying and filling. It seemed even more substantial than spinach or other salad greens.  And the added protein and healthy fats from the lentils, hummus, olive oil, and walnuts helped to keep me full for quite awhile.

In other (much less appetizing) news, my feet are getting better!  Wednesday was a turning point for me and I'm almost walking normally again, thank goodness.  I can't wait to get back into a workout routine!

Are you excited that it's Friday?  I am!  Bring on the weekend!

Song of the day:

"1st Things 1st" by Phantom Planet.  In honor of their reunion shows the past 2 nights (oh how I wish I could have been in LA for them!), here is one of my favorite songs by my all-time favorite band.

2 comments:

  1. Looks delicious! I love hummus in salads! Have a great weekend! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, hummus in salads is the best! I love the taste of hummus + balsamic. Plus hummus makes salads much more filling for me. Thanks, I hope you have a great weekend, too!

      Delete