Kale Salad (Grünekohlsalat)
KALE CAME INTO CULINARY VOGUE in the United States relatively recently, but it’s always been eaten in Germany, especially in the country’s colder northern regions. One of the most common preparations features Pinkel, a fatty pork sausage studded with buckwheat groats, served atop braised kale. This recipe keeps the greens raw, but requires you to massage the dressing into the leaves to break them down. A generous helping of grated Gouda and paprika-seasoned hazelnuts provides nice pops of salt and crunch. Don’t be off-put by the inclusion of Maggi seasoning sauce in this recipe. Invented by a German-speaking Swiss of Italian ancestry, it is a widely used wheat-based sauce comparable to soy sauce.
Ingredients
Dressing
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 2 tbsp Löwensenf or Dijon spicy mustard
- 2 tsp Maggi seasoning sauce
- Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
- Leaves from 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 tbsp grapeseed or olive oil
Hazelnuts
- 1 cup blanched hazelnuts
- 1 tsp sweet smoked Spanish paprika
- 1/2 tsp grapeseed or vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Salad
- 1 large bunch kale about
- 12 oz kale leaves and stems cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 small shallot sliced
- 4 oz aged Gouda or Prima Donna cheese grated
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- To prepare the hazelnuts, preheat the oven to350°F/180°C. In a small bowl, combine the hazel-nuts, paprika, grapeseed oil, and salt and toss tocoat the nuts evenly. Spread the nuts in a singlelayer on a sheet pan and toast in the oven untilbrownish red and fragrant, about 15 minutes.Remove from the oven, let the nuts cool com-pletely, then crush the cooled nuts lightly so theyare easier to eat in the salad. Set aside.
- To make the dressing, in a blender, combinethe garlic, mustard, Maggi sauce, lemon zest andjuice, thyme, and pepper and turn the blender onto low speed. When the ingredients begin incor-porating, increase the blender speed to medium,then slowly drizzle in the grapeseed oil and blenduntil emulsified. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the kale and shallot.Pour the dressing over the kale and mix it in well,using your hands to “massage” the kale with thedressing until it is soft and slightly wilted. Garnishwith the hazelnuts, Gouda, and pepper and serveimmediately.
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