Sweet Curry Kale Salad

12 oz. cleaned, ribbed, cut Kale

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon or lime juice

1/4 cup garlic infused olive oil (or olive oil)

1/4 - 1/2 tsp sea salt (to taste)

fresh ground black pepper (to taste)

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon stevia (to taste)

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1/4 cup slivered almonds or other (raw) nuts

Put kale in a large bowl and drizzle the lemon or lime juice over it. Set aside. Come back periodically over the next 20 minutes to 2 hours to toss the kale. Alternately, you may also refrigerate the kale/juice mixture for up to a day and come back to toss periodically. The point is that the acid from the juice will soften the kale. You will find that if you add other ingredients in as little as 20 minutes, it will still be very yummy, but the flavors will continue to improve over time.

When ready to add other ingredients, add them in the order listed and sprinkle each item over all the kale, stirring after addition of oil, and then again after the last ingredient. Taste-test and adjust seasonings to your liking.Salad is ready as is, or could be used. as a part of the next salad, Sweet Curry Kale Pasta Salad, below.

Sweet Curry Kale Pasta Salad

You will not believe that this salad is Advanced Plan! The pasta is made from 100% organic red lentils and nothing else. This pasta, Tolerant's Organic Red Lentil Rotini, showed up recently in our local Costco and has quickly become a family-favorite. If you can not locate it in your Costco or local health-food store, you can order it through Amazon. The flavored vinegars and oils mentioned below come locally (West Cobb County, Georgia) from Olive Tree and Vine, other locations of olive oil and vinegar tasting boutiques have been popping up in locations around the country. and can typically be found with a google-search of olive oil and vinegar tasting boutique.

1 batch Sweet Curry Kale Salad (Recipe below)

4 cups dry red lentil pasta

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 (15 oz.) cans organic black beans, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup cara cara orange white balsamic vinegar (or other balsamic vinegar)

1/3 cup garlic infused olive oil (or olive oil)

additional 2 tablespoons garlic infused olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

1/2 small head of green or red cabbage

Taking note that the original salad requires time for the lemon or lime juice to soften the kale, you can get that started first and then assemble the rest of the salad. The kale will be ready by the time you have everything else put together. Next, get the beans marinating so they have plenty of time to soak up good flavors. Put the drained, rinsed beans into a medium bowl, sprinkle with the salt and pepper, mix. Next add the 1/3 cup of cara cara orange vinegar and 1/3 cup of garlic olive oil and toss. Periodically toss this mixture also while assembling the remaining ingredients. 

Next cook the pasta according to package directions, adding 1/2 teaspoon sea salt to the water. Do not overcook! Drain and rinse, and return to the original cooking pot and let soak in cold filtered water (may add a few filtered ice cubes as well) until the pasta cools. 

While the pasta cools, clean and slice the cabbage very thin using a knife, food processor slicing tool, or mandolin. Drain the cooled pasta, toss with the additional 2 tablespoons of garlic olive oil, and add to the kale salad. Next put the sliced cabbage on top of the pasta, followed by the marinated black bean mixture. Toss, taste-test, adjust seasonings if necessary, and enjoy!

You can have fun with other variations of this salad adding other seed or nuts, or changing the flavor of  the vinegar and oils.