As you read this, I am in Rome, probably eating a big bowl of pasta followed (and likely proceeded) by gelato (sorbetto al melone is my fave). When in Rome, right? But in a couple of days I will probably be wishing I had packed elastic-wasted pants and be seeking out the rapini and artichokes side of Italian food, and dreaming about this very salad.
It has all of the things to balance out a decadent holiday season (it’s kale salad after all), while tasting hearty and decadent itself.
It has been a hot (hot!) summer in BC. Here in Vancouver, we’re the ones who usually get the rain, which makes our sunny days so green and lush (not to mention appreciated). This year everything is brown and dry and we actually had a few days when the iphone was telling us we had ‘smoke’ as our weather due to all of the forest fires raging in our province. A smoky, hot city is not a fun place to be (although, I imagine considerably more fun than the many places where the fires were actually raging), so I tried to focus on some of the good that would eventually come out of it.
Did you know that morel mushrooms thrive in the aftermath of a forest fire? They happen to be my favourite mushroom of all time, so this was definitely a silver lining. (To be clear, I would far prefer a forest fire-free summer over a handful of tasty mushrooms, but ashes and mushrooms are better than just ashes, right?) Another good thing to come of this is less related to fire and more related to the actual Southern Italy-like heat we were having, which equals a way above average tomato season for us.
This post is about a recipe that has been a bit of a game changer for me. I feel like invented it, although I’m (quite) sure I wasn’t the first. It came to me when I was thinking about where I used the most refined fats in my cooking. When they are extra virgin and super fresh, oils can be healthy, but more often than not, they sit on your counter instead of your fridge, and can be rancid before they even get to your grocery cart.
Although I do use some oils (mostly extra virgin coconut or olive oil), I try to use whole-food fats in their place whenever I can (avocados, coconut, nuts, seeds). It’s not always possible, but often it is (especially if you are not deep frying), it just takes a little more creativity. The first time I tried making salad dressing with avocado in place of any oil, almost everybody within texting (also whatsapp) distance got to hear about it. To be fair, it was that exciting. It opened up a whole new world of even healthier fat, enzyme-rich, oil-free, salad experimenting.
