Kale Flower Salad

“Flowers in a salad??” you might ask. These delicate, slightly sweet flowers add a pop of color and flavor to your hardy green salad. My kale plant has grown quite large in the past few years, but this is the first year that it has bloomed. I started Googling if I needed to trim it back or not and came across a few articles that said the flowers were edible! I love trying new foods, so was quite excited to clip a few flowers to nibble.

Since my kale plant also had some new, small kale leaves that were nice and tender I decided to make a kale salad topped with the flowers. So down I went to the garden to harvest enough kale leaves and flowers for a salad or two. Trimming off the flowers also allows the kale leaves to flourish, since the flowers were hogging most of the plants energy (hence the smaller leaves).

I figured a light vinaigrette would pair nicely with my kale salad. I wanted to use champagne vinegar, but didn’t have any on hand, so went with white wine vinegar. On each kale flower stalk there were also some flowers that hadn’t opened yet, which are apparently called kale rabe - fitting since it resembles broccoli rabe and also kind of tastes like broccoli!!

Not only do these kale flowers pair nicely with kale itself, but they would make a nice addition to any leafy green salad!

KALE FLOWER SALAD

Original recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch kale or leafy green of your choice
• 1 bunch kale flowers
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar or vinegar of your choice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 Tablespoon minced shallot
• 1 Tablespoon minced fresh oregano or herb of your choice
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Wash and dry greens. Tear or chop into bite site pieces.
2. Wash and dry kale flowers and pick off of stalk.
3. Assemble greens and kale flowers in serving bowl or individual bowls or plates.
4. Combine vinegar, salt, pepper, honey, shallot, and oregano in a small bowl. Whisk to combine.
5. Whisking constantly, add olive oil in a slow drizzle. At the beginning, the oil should be poured so slow it is almost just a drip. You can increase the speed of your pour as you go. This process emulsifies your dressing, which keeps the oil and vinegar from separating.
6. Dress your salad to taste!
7. Additional (optional) tasty toppings: pepitas (green pumpkin seeds), sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, toasted walnuts, crumbled cheese… have fun with it! 🙂

Bon appetit!