Kale, Kale, Kale…it’s all people are talking about these days.  Do you know much about kale?  I was not familiar or interested in learning more about kale until I got into culinary school where they taught us to always try everything.

I’ve made baked kale chips and my newest addiction quinoa with grilled vegetables and kale, I’ve also used kale in soups.  So baked, raw, sautéed and in a soup…makes this vegetable very versatile.

Here is a little secret to taking kale that is limp to making it crisp…these photos are not touched up…I bought my kale at the farmers market on Sunday and decided to make my salad today, it looked a little wilted, here is my kale..sad and wilted

I then broke off the kale into small pieces and put my kale in iced cold water, this cold water will bring my kale to a nice crisp consistency and watch how beautiful they will look…here is the before…dull and wilted

here is the after, i left them in cold water for about 20 minutes

after the kale was perky and washed, I removed it from the sink and placed it on a towel to dry, I then put it in a large bowl and put some banana pepper rings (pepperoncini), I found a pretty collection but the plain green ones work fine

here is how it looked on top

add cranberries

add cubed pepper jack cheese

Season kale with salt, pepper, oil and lemon juice, tossed and served

I will say that my ratios were off a bit as for every bite you want a piece of kale and something so play with your portions.  Just know that my recipe is more of and idea of how much.  I would not change the combination of what you are using as they all compliment each other.

Thank you for visiting my site and I hope you enjoy this recipe.  I do love comments so please feel free to leave me your comment or suggestion.  If you would like to be kept up to date with all my new recipes, I only post twice a week, please subscribe in the box listed on the top of the page “Subscribe Via Email”. You will be emailed with a link to confirm you are interested in the subscription so be sure to click on that link too.  

Thank you again ~ Patty Limatola-Tanenbaum