If you are a kale lover like me, you enjoy discovering new ways to eat this nutrient-dense green. Since pestos are beautiful green sauces, I thought why not make pesto out of kale?

Traditional Pestos are mostly raw sauces dominated by basil and garlic and usually contain cheeses.

• 2 bunch green kale (Curly or Dino Kale work best)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 cup raw pine nuts or raw cashews
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice (one lemon juiced)
• 8 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup cold pressed olive oil
• ½ teaspoon sea salt

Raw Vegan Pestos are easy to make if you understand the basic ratios of greens/herbs/garlic/oil and nuts (the cheese sustitute). I encourage you to be creative and experiment.

Greens, glorious greens!

I just can't seem to get enough!

It's impossible to mess this salad up, and you can use any kind of hearty greens.

The squeezing action along with the lemon juice acts in tandem to "cook" the greens down to a fraction of their volume in their fresh state, so "go big" when filling your bowl with fresh greens when you begin this recipe, or you won't have enough to share.

This salad is an easy and delicious way to get nutrient-rich greens into your diet. It also saves in the refrigerator for a few days, so you can make a big double or triple batch and have a perfect meal waiting to be garnished with other veggies of your choice when you are ready to eat.

It's also a great traveler if you want to take a "salad" to work that won't get soggy. The greens just kepp getting more flavorable!

Massaged Kale Salad

This salad can also be made with a combination of raw hearty greens such as the Kale and Beet Greens, Chard, or Spinach.

4-6 cups kale leaves (or other greens)

Rinse and dry one bunch of greens (or a combination), tear it up and place it in a roomy bowl.

Add two or three cloves of finely minced garlic, a light coating of cold-pressed olive oil, the juice of one lemon, salt and pepper.

Now it’s time for the “massage.”

Wash your hands and have at it. Toss the whole lot together and take big handfuls and squeeze the greens. Keep doing this for about a minute. Everything will get nice and juicy and the greens will soften and shrink in volume.

Then you can let it sit for a while. The lemon will ‘cook’ the kale, soften the greens and garlic even more.

Before serving, add whatever sliced of grated veg you have. I like sliced or diced avocado, grated beets or carrots, or diced apple and top with pumpkin seeds or any other chopped nut or seed you have for a bit of crunch and texture.

For an Asian-Inspired version, you can also “marinate” the greens in this dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 clove garlic, 1 T fresh ginger, 1T light Tamari, 1/2 cup water, pinch cayenne.

Make this version a few hours or even a day or two ahead of time.

The marinade will soften the greens and when you are ready to serve it you can toss with the avocado, apple and nuts.

 

Lately I've been a bit obsessed with greens! I crave them all day long, which has inspired me get a little more creative beyond my usual morning green smoothies.

The fresh mint and kale at the market today was so beautiful, on my drive home I started dreaming of how yummy a mint shake would be and how the kale could not only punch-up the green coloring, but enhance the nutrient content as well.

Fortunately I already had some fresh almond milk in the refrigerator ready to go for this DELICIOUS concoction:

Krazy Kale Mint Shake:

1.5 cups chilled almond milk
4 kale leaves
2 soft dates
1 small frozen banana
1 small bunch of mint - about 20 large leaves.

Blend in a high speed blender - I use a Vita-Mix.

For a chocolate version add 1.5 T of raw cocao.

 

A warming winter soup packed full of living whole food nutritious goodness! Today this soup really satisfied, as it was both comforting and energizing!...And when I say "creamy", you need to know that it's also dairy-free!

Creamy and Spicy Kale Soup

Ingredients:

1 head kale, just the leaves, stems removed - about  4 cups
1 pint cherry tomatoes (12 oz)
1/3 cup of fresh basil
1/4 cup raw pine nuts
1/4 cup red onion
1/4 cup carrots
1/4 -1/2 jalapeno pepper - spice as hot as you prefer
1/2 lime or lemon juiced
2 T light miso
1-2 clove garlic, depending on your taste for garlic - I always opt for more when it comes to garlic
1/4 tsp salt - I used smoked salt.
2 cups hot water

Blend in a high-speed bender like a Vita-Mix until creamy-smooth and heated.

This makes enough for 2 very large bowls!

When I skip my morning green smoothie on cold winter days because a chia breakfast pudding or warmed apple spiced cookie seems more appealing, I still crave the greens!

This soup and is a way to get in the greens for lunch or dinner!....um, and it's YUMMY!

I'm so excited about this recipe!

I make Cheesy Kale chips all the time, in fact I have some in the dehydrator right now!

But these that I just found on http://rawlivingfoods.typepad.com/ have a fabulous KICK!!

Here is a great snack recipe for YOU! these are the kale chips we made in the store (with added spice). You could use less spice if you like a milder flavor.
 
Spicy Kale Chips (Rochelle Fahlgren)
 
2 bunches curly Kale (de-stemmed and chopped a little)
1.5 cups cashews (soaked 2-4 hours)
1 yellow or red bell pepper
2.5 Tb nutritional yeast
3 Tb Chipotle
1/2 tsp cayenne
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp sea salt
 
Blend everything EXCEPT the Kale in a food processor until almost smooth.
Mix the kale and nut mixture together until all the leaves are coated.
Place on dehydrator SCREENS (no need for teflex) and dehydrate overnight at 110.
 

Everybody loves Cheesy Kale Chips! These make a raw food diet so easy to stay with because you will never feel deprived when you can treat yourself to a delicious snack like Cheesy Kale Chips!

I first found them in the raw food section at the San Francisco Whole Foods, made by a Berkeley company, Blessings Alive and Radiant Foods, and they were $6.99 for 3 oz. I was so addicted, I realized that if I was going to stay on the raw food living diet, that I needed to figure out how to make them myself. Now I make huge batches at home (12 to 16oz) for about $5.00. I found this recipe on a great website for raw dishes called http://goneraw.com Gone Raw is a wonderful website to find and share recipes with other raw food natural-born chefs! I was lucky to find it the first week I went raw.

Here’s how you’ll find the post about Cheesey Kale Chips on GoneRaw.com:
 If you've been lucky enough to try Blessings Cheesy Kale Chips you know they are AMAZING!! www.BlessingsAliveAndRadiantFoods.com
This recipe makes identical chips. I found it over on Rawfoodtalk.com, thanks to Rawknitster!! http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?p=494315&posted=1#post494315  They are so fantastic I wanted to make sure everyone knew about them.
INGREDIENTS:
1 large bunch of curly, green kale, washed, large stems removed, torn into bite size pieces
COATING:
1 cup cashews, (soaked 2 hours)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
juice of 1 lemon
2 t. agave (optional-I don't add, I like them more salty + savory)
1 T. nutritional yeast
1/2 t. himalayan pink crystal salt (use more or less to taste)
PREPARATION:
Put coating ingredients in Vitamix. Blend until smooth. Using your hands, massage coating onto kale pieces getting it inside of curls. Put on teflex sheets (don't worry about flattening them, they're better bunched up) and dehydrate at 105 overnight or until coating is dry. Slide onto mesh screens and dehydrate 12 hours, or until very crispy.

Check out all the variations members of Gone Raw have added here: http://goneraw.com/recipe/cheesy-kale-chips. I was once out of cashews and used macadamia nuts instead. I also used a bit more agave to make "sweet" cheesy kale chips. I thought they were fabulous and my kale-loving friends agreed.  Try your own variations and have fun with kale!

Note: The one major piece of eqiupment needed to make these is a dehydraror, which, in my opinion, is essential in a raw food living dieter's kitchen, because making your own snacks (chips, cookies, breads, bars, seasoned nuts etc.) will save you a ton of money in the long-run. But if you don't have the equipment to make your own (yet) you can buy cheesy and other flavors like Ranch, Pesto and Thai at Blessing's Site: http://www.blessingsaliveandradiantfoods.com/kaleinkrunch.html or here: http://www.therawfoodworld.com/index.php?cPath=100150_100148_100216_100282

Photo Green Gulch Farm Zen Center's Kale. http://www.sfzc.org/ggf/display.asp?catid=3&pageid=485

Kale makes my raw food living diet so enjoyable!

I'd like to share with you this fabulously informative outline of the benefits of kale written by Dr. Linda Posh MS SLP ND:

"Kale is rich and abundant in calcium, lutein, iron, and Vitamins A, C, and K. Kale has seven times the beta-carotene of broccoli and ten times more lutein. Kale is rich in Vitamin C not to mention the much needed fiber so lacking in the daily diet of processed food eating Americans. Kale also has are natural occurring and very important phytochemicals sulforaphane and indoles which research suggests may protect against cancer.

The naturally rich sulfur content of kale deserves a bit more discussion. Science has discovered that sulforaphane, helps boost the body's detoxification enzymes, possibly by altering gene expression. This is turn is purported to help clear carcinogenic substances in a timely manner. Sulforaphane is formed when cruciferous vegetables like kale are chopped or chewed. This somehow triggers the liver to produce enzymes that detoxify cancer causing chemicals, of which we all are exposed on daily basis. A recently new study in the Journal of Nutrition (2004) demonstrates that sulforaphane helps stop breast cancer cell proliferation.

Kale descends from the wild cabbage which originated in Asia and is thought to have been brought to Europe by the Celtics. Kale was an important food item in early European history and a crop staple in ancient Rome. Kale was brought to the USA during the 17th century by English settlers.

A leafy green vegetable starting to gain widespread attention, kale belongs to the Brassica family, a group that also includes cabbage, collard greens and Brussels sprouts. Choose kale with small leaves as they will be tenderer and offer a sweeter taste. Make kale leaves a regular addition to your salads."  Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Linda_Posh

I love kale in green smoothies and I am absolutely addicted to Cheesy Kale Chips!