I am way late to the kales salad party. I saw all these recipes for massaged kale and they made me scratch my head but I never went ahead and read any of them--until today. I always figured that marinating the salad in dressing would do whatever the actual massage was supposed to do. It does, to a certain extent, but it takes time. After reading various accounts of how the massage magically mellowed the greens and made them softer and sweeter, I finally took the plunge. It was kind of theraputic. Crushing the greens in my hands took a lot more effort than I was expecting it to. After a while I got into it and began to enjoy the process. When I tasted the greens I realized that had mellowed more than they ever did in a simply marinated salad. Sheer brute force is exactly what my baby kale needed to elevate it's flavor. Who knew? Well, apparently the rest of the internet knew a long time ago, but at least I got there eventually.
Years Past