Dinosaur Slaw

 I have a few friends (I won’t name names) who have poked fun at my love of kale.  Well, Friends, get ready to poke some more.

I don’t know why, but when other really green things have scared away my children, one in particular, kale hasn’t.  It started when I baked up my first batch of Kale Chips.  Both kids could eat an entire batch in the blink of an eye.  So, I started adding kale to soups and salads, and even smoothies, in an attempt to get more “good” into my kids. Nine times out of ten, it works!  Kale is really, really nutritious.  I won’t bore you with the nutritional nitty gritty, but if you’d like to know more, check out there article here.  (Not only will you learn something about nutrition, you’ll learn about “massaging your kale”, which I’ve never done, and I find hilariously funny for some reason.)

Anyway, we had dinner with some friends when we were househunting up in Indianapolis a few weeks ago.  My friend, Laura, served up this amazing kale slaw.  It was delicious, and we all gobbled it up.  It was so delicious, that I made it to have alongside grilled chicken the night we came home from our trip!

The name of the slaw makes me smile.  I really don’t know where it came from, but I imagine that it was a parent who was desperate to get something green in to their child without a fight, so they named it something fun, that might impress the child.  And thus, a legend (at least in my household) was born.

I started by shredding up a head of kale.  I removed the spines first, and then finely shredded up the leaves, rinsed them, ran them through my salad spinner, and put it all in a large bowl.

Once that was done, I got to work on the dressing.  The dressing is really simple, and is nice because it can be made a little bit ahead of time.

First, I sizzled some minced garlic in a half-cup of olive oil on the stovetop, until the garlic was just about to brown, but hadn’t yet.

 Once the garlic was ready, I stirred in some sherry vinegar and kosher salt.  The dressing bubbled up a bit but I let it cook for about 30 seconds until it was nice and fragrant.  Then, I poured it out of the pan and let the dressing cool for a bit before tossing it with the kale and some shredded Parmesan cheese.

A few minutes before we ate, I tossed all of the ingredients together, and we had a big bowl of delicious Dinosaur Slaw on our hands.  It was the perfect accompaniment to grilled chicken, but would pair with most any type of meat.  You could also easily add other veggies to the slaw mix and color things up a bit.

Thank you for the recipe, Laura!  It was a huge hit at our table as well.  So good, that I think I need to throw together another batch really soon!

DINOSAUR SLAW