Massaged Kale Avocado Salad

I had felt inspired this week by meeting the charismatic, sweet and enthusiastic raw chef Lisa from Vegan Culinary Crusade. We had a few meals together and I watched her give a talk on the healing power of plant foods. While I knew a lot of the info and references such as the china study. I still learnt a lot about new research into the benefits of vegan diet, and the horrible health consequences of eating dairy and animal protein. Both the talk and general conversations with her had me reflecting on all sorts of things, like my current diet.

It's coming up to my 10 year anniversary of being vegan in a few months. I started out as a pretty healthy vegan but as more and more processed vegan foods become available, they started to become part of my regular diet. I really have become a bit of  junk food vegan. I get how it happens, I guess I want to show myself and others that you don't need to miss out on fried foods, creamy ice creams, decadent cakes etc. But we really are doing a bit of a disservice to ourselves. If we are eating large amounts of sugar, fat, oil etc we can still end up with some of the diseases of affluence. Not only can it make us unwell but also gives veganism a bad name since if a vegan gets sick, veganism always gets blamed.

I took Lisa to radical grocery and she got the last bunch of kale and told me about the salad she was going to make for dinner. I was intrigued about it as she explained that by massaging the kale with certain ingredients it becomes wilted almost like it has been cooked. With the hot heather returning to Melbourne today, I couldn't resist giving it a try. I know kale salads are big on overseas vegan blogs but kale is still a pretty rare ingredient here and I think in the past I overlooked these recipes as I wasn't interested in what I thought to be boring and bland salads.

I massaged the kale as I watched project runway and was so amazed at the change in texture and size, it decreased by almost half. If you are looking for kale in Melbourne you can sometimes find it at radical grocery, and fruit peddlers. I have also been told that it is available at  psarkos in Thornby and LaManna Direct in Essendon.

Anyway, the salad was great, the avocado adds a bit of creaminess, the massaging takes away the bitterness of the kale, the capsicum provides a tiny bit of sweetness. Its also quick and doesn't require turning on the oven/stove on hot days. I'm certainly going to make this again and am going to experiment with other massaged kale salads. Do you have any fav kale salad recipes?

Kale Avocado Salad  from Vegan Culinary Crusade

1 bunch of kale
1 Tbsp of olive oil
1/2 Lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 (or 2) Avocado/s
1/2 red pepper (I used a whole one), juliened
2 spring onions, chopped

1. Tear up the leaves from a bunch of kale into bite sized pieces and place in a large bowl
2. Add olive oil, sea salt and lemon.
3. Massage everything together for a couple of minutes (the kale should change texture to become almost wilted)
4. Peel and pit an avocado/s. Mash the avocado flesh into the kale, to coat the leaves.
5. Top with red pepper and spring onion.

Serves 4 (as side)

I'm labelling this as raw, as you just need to sub the olive oil.