Kale, delicata squash and persimmon salad
how to massage kale
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The vegetable I eat more of than most others is kale. My kids aptly tell me that it tastes like grass, yet they eat it willingly, so I’ll take it. It is this exact flavour of the earth that attracts me. I am drawn to its verdant cruciferous-ness, its bitter edge, its rough, robust leaves. It’s a vegetable that stands and delivers. It’s also wildly adaptable.
Kale wasn’t always cool. When I was growing up, I only encountered it as a prop to make raw meat look less savage in butcher store displays. The popularity that it enjoys today is a recent phenomenon, some say as recent as 2014, often attributed to Gwyneth goop-ifying it or Beyonce.
In Australia, perhaps we were earlier adopters of this glorious green. I made many popular kale salads during my Arthur Street Kitchen days including the cult favourite, ginger peanut kale with tofu and quinoa. For those who haven’t tried it, the kale is wilted in a warm, ginger-spiked peanut butter and tahini sauce, and then tossed with quinoa and pan-fried tofu. It’s probably the most satisfying salad I’ve ever created. The recipe is in my first book Community but a slightly adapted version was also recently included in Anna Jones’s latest book Easy Wins and it was subsequently share on her website here.
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I recently kicked a major kale habit. During a period that lasted almost 2 years, I ate a kale salad at least 4 times a week. I lightly massaged the leaves in olive oil lemon, and avocado (the recipe is actually in Tenderheart); the kale provided a canvas for whatever ingredients I had lying around - tofu, tempeh, quinoa, chickpeas, dumplings, leftover roasted veg, raw shaved veg, pickles etc. Every salad felt singular, completely unique. I never tired of it. It was a siren to my appetite.
Despite the toppings, kale was always the engine of the dish, a sturdy, dependable base, that didn’t shrink into the background like leafy greens tend to do against more assertive ingredients.
Currently I have generally scaled back on my kale salads but I will still eat 1 or 2 a week. Kale cravings are real.
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I have always assumed that everyone knew how to massage kale. But I recently witnessed a massacre that made me question this. The kale was rubbed so vigorously and extensively that the leaves lost all their structure, transformed into a soggy mess. I started to wonder: does everyone massage kale to death?! Perhaps this is something that we need to talk about?
Look, to each their own. I won’t tell you how to eat your kale. But I will share my thoughts on this: massage kale JUST ENOUGH. Just enough to tenderize the leaves, just enough to bring out its greenness, just enough to melt away its mellow bitterness. But try not to destroy its structure. You should still be able to tell it’s kale. A massage should allow kale to shine, without destroying its soul.
This week’s salad is indeed a massaged kale salad. This is how much I massage, JUST ENOUGH:
This recipe is largely thanks to my friend and fellow cookbook author
(who writes ), who very generously sent me a huge box of persimmons that she had handpicked from a neighbour’s tree. California climate gifts the most incredible fruit. Thank you so much Andrea.
Monday: Soy butter bok choy pasta is a Tenderheart favourite, shared here on WSJ here.
Tuesday: Sweet and sour cauliflower, eat with rice.
Wednesday: Singapore noodles with charred scallions
Thursday: Thai green curry noodle soup
Friday: Store-bought beets are your friends - make this beet salad with lentils and cheddar
🥦 My cookbook, Tenderheart is for cooking vegetables, all year round. Pick up your copy here. It is also mostly vegan (or vegan-izable) and gluten-free adaptable.
Kale, Delicata squash and persimmon salad
© Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love.
Persimmons have a short season, so if you can’t get any, here’s how to substitute and remix for the seasons:
Northern hemisphere: apple, pear, citrus (orange, blood orange or pomelo)
Southern hemisphere: plum, cherries, mango. Swap out Delicata squash for a summer vegetable like charred green beans or barbecued/grilled eggplant. Both would work well with the dressing.
Serves 4
2 Delicata squash (about 675g / 1 1/2 pounds), sliced into 1/2-inch / 1.25cm rounds, seeds discarded
extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (or ground cumin)
sea salt and black pepper
1 bunch kale, leaves removed and torn (about 4 heaped cups or 180g / 6 ounces of leaves)
2 persimmons, stem removed, halved and thinly sliced
2 sliced scallions or handful chopped coriander/cilantro leaves (or both)
handful toasted almonds or walnuts, roughly chopped
Miso Mustard dressing
1 garlic clove, finely grated (I use microplane)
½ inch / 1.25cm piece ginger, finely grated
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon miso paste
2 teaspoons maple syrup
6 teaspoons (2 US tablespoons) extra virgin olive oil
3 teaspoon (1 US tablespoon) water
Preheat oven to 200˚C / 400˚F.
Place the Delicata squash on a baking sheet, scatter over the cumin seeds, season with salt and pepper and toss to combine. Arrange in a single layer and roast until the Delicata is tender and golden on the bottom, 18 to 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl (big enough for all the salad ingredients) place the dressing ingredients - garlic, ginger, mustard, miso, maple, olive oil – along with 1 tablespoon of water and whisk to combine. Season well with salt and pepper and whisk again. Add the kale leaves and massage the leaves in the dressing, rubbing the leaves a little, just enough to coat and soften the leaves slightly. Don’t overdo it as we still want the leaves to have structure. Leave the kale to sit for 10 minutes, or up to several hours.
To the kale, add the Delicata squash, persimmons and herbs, season with salt and pepper and toss to combine. When you’re ready to eat, top with nuts.
Io Vegetables, With Love is dedicated to vegetables and it is a joy to bring you a new recipe every week. Thank you to everyone who subscribes, especially to paid subscribers who make this work possible.
When massaging kale was introduced to me well over a decade ago, I was not only skeptical but very anti, even though I had never tried a side-by-side (why are we like this sometimes?). But now in my old age, I am wise enough to admit I was wrong. I had a kale salad the other day at a restaurant — golden raisins, almonds, pecorino, ugh so good — and the kale was so tender and soft, and I actually said out loud, "wow, this kale was definitely massaged!" ANYWAY. Thank you for the tutorial. You're the best. <3
Go team persimmon! 🤗 from Cali!