AGM & kale salad

AGM

on saturday i spent the entire day at our AGM. i'm a founding member of a small start-up, and this past year we've had real clients so we have to have an AGM and sign papers and take minutes and stuff. but it's great to hang out with a bunch of cool people i hardly ever see (the rest of them are US-based) so even though there was a serious, business side of things, we also tried to fit in some QT, which included hanging out in borough market and going to the inspiral lounge for dinner and drinks with a client and various friends. i made a huge batch of greens&veg juice before i left in the morning, and made juice for everyone as a mid-afternoon snack and quaffed a good deal myself. i also had bits of juice other people had made for me throughout the day, and it rocked! i had a veg juice at borough market, which was really tasty, and at the inspiral lounge i had two juices - mostly veg but not sure what was in them, i just asked for juice, whatever they had. anyway, it's certainly been my most varied juice day ever!

kale salad rocks da house

on sunday i made lunch for everyone at the second part of our AGM, and besides some shop-bought tarts, i made a regular "wimp" salad of baby salad leaves, cucumber, tomato etc., and a kale salad. i have to confess, i did eat a forkful of the kale salad. just couldn't help it! everyone loved it, asked for the recipe, and polished it all off. what a success! YummyHubby says it's his expert kale massaging technique that really makes the salad, and that may well be true. he is getting good at it :)

if you have never made kale salad before, it's easy peasy. this is my take on karen knowler's salad (bragging rights: she taught me it in person!)

300g or so curly kale

handful small tomatoes

handful black olives

2 avocadoes

2-3 spring onions or half red onion

red/orange/yellow bell pepper

juice of 2 lemons

olive oil

coarse salt

wash the kale and trim off all tough ribs. shred finely (i do this with my hands, it's easier than with a knife) then put in serving bowl with a glug of olive oil and pinch of salt (if you're in the UK, use Maldon salt, it crumbles fabulously) and massage the kale. get your hands in there and gaze out of the window or meditate for 5 minutes until the kale is really supple and dark, shiny green. now add the lemon juice and stir. 

cut the avocadoes in half, score the flesh and then squeeze them out into the bowl. remove the stones and you're left with softened lumps of avocado. get your hands back in there and massage again until most of the kale is coated and there are only a few chunks of avocado left.

halve and pit the olives, chop the tomatoes, pepper and onion and throw in the bowl. stir well to distribute. serve. be showered with compliments :)

this salad lasts well. the lemon juice keeps the avocadoes from browning, so do make lots and it'll stand you in good stead for lunchboxes at work. fabulous.

image credit: kale salad by hnau. please respect the creative commons licence: attribution, non-commercial.