I love kale, and am growing it but it’s not ready yet. At the farmers’ market it’s everywhere, so I grabbed a bunch today and wondered what to do with it.  When cooked, kale loses a high proportion of its vitamin C , so it’s best eaten raw – apart from anything else it’s not as nice when cooked! There are a few recipes for marinated kale (like this one) and it really is delicious, crunchy with a tahini dressing – tahini makes everything scrumptious. You could also griddle some asparagus and put on top, and experiment with different seeds depending what you’ve got – pumpkin, sunflower etc. It would be nice with some pomegranate seeds but I didn’t have any 

Method

Serves 2-3 as a light lunch or starter salad
large bunch of kale

For the dressing

2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 green or red chilli,  finely chopped (optional)
juice and zest of 1 lime

leaves of 30g bunch of mint or basil, coarsely chopped

For the topping

1 avocado
2 heaped tbsp pine nuts or pumpkin seeds, toasted

Method

Put the dressing ingredients into a bowl and whisk with a fork – you don’t need salt.

Strip the kale off its stems and slice into fine strips. Put the leaves into a large bowl and discard the stems.

Pour the dressing over the kale and massage it in for 3 or 4 minutes, so the leaves wilt. rAther than get my hands messy I tossed it with some sad servers until it was half the size.

Chop the avocado. Scatter over the kale, then sprinkle with seeds or nuts and serve before the avocado discolours.