We’ve this incredible overabundance of Tuscan (dinosaur) kale from our community garden right now. The stuff is delicious but after a while, you simply run out of creative ideas for this ultra healthy green. What a relief it was, then, to try our friend, John’s raw Tuscan kale salad “cooked” in lemon juice on our picnic excursion to Mt. Tamalpais the other week.

raw Tuscan kale salad with lemon

I write cooked in quotation marks because I feel almost positive there is a culinary term for preparing food with lemon juice but without heat. I just cannot for the life of me remember it and my attempt to Google the word was a complete failure. Do you know the proper term for that process? If so, do write in and tell me! It’s driving me batty.

Anyway, I never did get John’s exact recipe, so I sort of guessed about what he did. Really this is like a kale Cesar salad in a sense. It is important to slice the raw kale as thinly as possible and let it marinade in the dressing for at least 20 or 30 minutes to tenderize it.

organic Tuscan kale from our community garden, lemon and garlic make this salad memorable

raw Tuscan kale salad with lemon

1 large bunch of Tuscan kale, thick stems removed
Juice of three lemons
¼ cup olive oil
1 small clove garlic
2 anchovy fillets
Salt and black pepper to taste
3 tbsps. Parmesan

Slice kale extremely thinly and place in a large bowl. Blend lemon juice, olive oil, garlic clove, anchovies, salt and black pepper together in a food processor. Toss with kale, cover and let sit for about 30 minutes. Toss with parmesan. Adjust with more salt or pepper, if needed.

We had ours with black beans and rice, catfish tenders, and sautéed okra with garlic and carrot.