Kale Salad in a Cucumber Cup

Kale, kale, kale! Everyone is talking about the health benefits of kale and it is suddenly a staple on restaurant menus.  Curly kale is popular, but there are so many varieties like Red Russian or Dinosaur.  All I'm gonna say is that I liked kale before it was cool.  Have you always loved kale or are you a recent convert?

One of the latest assignments for my Plant Based Rouxbe course focused on kale.  We learned about the different ways to wilt raw kale for salads.  One of the suggestions for our wilted leftovers was a kale, radish and avocado salad. 

Often times I find that some dishes are too salty for me, so I skipped it here. For this salad, Rouxbe also had a tasty recipe for a sesame, sunflower seed and spice topping.  The cucumber cup looks really pretty and wasn't too difficult to put together...though there may or may not have been mild cussing involved.

For the course, I recently read through the kitchen safety section as well as other intro work, including "resetting" my fridge and pantry.  The current focus is on knife skills. The video instruction has been extremely helpful and I'm amazed at how quickly I'm progressing.  In addition to my course work, I've found some great youtube videos on the rolling method. 

This weekend I'll be learning how to sharpen my knives using a whetstone.  With automatic sharpeners available, it may seem a but archaic but I'm looking forward to having that particular skill in my arsenal.

Expect some upcoming posts on knife cuts and a copy cat kale salad recipe from one of my favorite local restaurants.