Kale Salad

[Seedy]

I made the best kale salad today. I made a dressing of raw tahini, white miso, water and sesame oil and massaged it into the kale until wilted. I topped the kale with green onion and tomato. It was so good! This sounds terrible, but it reminded me of the wilted lettuce my mom used to make by pouring fried bacon grease over leaf lettuce and onion. I guessing it was more the texture than the taste, but very comforting none-the-less. I like to joke that I grew up eating SO-SAD, that is, SOuthern Standard American Diet. Even the green beans and lettuce had bacon grease in them! LOL.
Seedy

[jane b]

I know exactly what kind of "salad" you're talking about . Actually, it's really a "sallet" as in poke sallet, using wild greens like poke weed, lamb's quarters, creesy greens, etc. The old folks used to saute them with bacon grease in a cast iron skillet as these were some of the first greens to appear in the Spring.

Sounds yummy tho. Now I've got to go find some young pokeweed growing in my yard.... I expect you could even warm it up a little in the dehydrator, too. Now where did I put that bacon flavored salt? :D

[MelanieC]

Man - My grandma from tennessee used to make the best Polk "sallet". I can't believe how bad that stuff is for you.

I know Polk is wild. Can you buy polk seeds and grow them in the Pennsyvlania area? I see you are from Virginia.

[jane b]

Poke is considered such a noxious weed that I don't know anyone who actually sells the seeds. I can almost guarantee that there's some growing wild near you in PA, unless you're right in the city and even then there's probably still some.

Right now, most of the undisturbed pokeweed is about 3-4 feet tall with a reddish stalk and large broad leaves. In a little while, they will start putting out cascades of small white flowers which will turn into green berries and finally, dark purple berries. The birds love these, and hence, the weed spreads via bird poop. You can save the seeds yourself, but be warned, polk berries stain everything. They are also mildly toxic as is the full grown plant. That's why you should only eat the very youngest plants.

Linda Runyon and Steve Brill have really good sites on foraging. I would HIGHLY recommend that you not eat anything in the wild unless you know for sure what it is. A lot of edibles have look-a-likes that are toxic. I've lived in Appalachia long enough to know what plants are safe for my region. But put me somewhere else, and I'd probably be lost.

[tanishamarshall]

You make me want a kale salad. I never really liked kale salad until recently. I found out that I was letting my kale salad marinade to long. It would start getting a very strong taste after sitting for a while. Now I let it marinade for about 5 mins and it is good...

[spicyfull]

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=40131&referrerid=4614