Roasted Cherries and Kale Salad
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Serves: 3
Ingredients
For the salad
  • 15-20 Leaves of kale
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 Dozen cherries
  • 4 Purplette onions and/or 1 small onion (shallots would be delicious too)
  • Toasted almond slices
For the dressing
  • 3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
  • 1 Tablespoon Grey Poupon Dijon mustard
  • ⅓ Cup olive oil
  • Splash of maple syrup
  • Pinch of salt
  • Pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Chop your kale and dress with a tablespoon of olive oil. Gently massage the oil into the leaves and set aside.
  2. Preheat a skillet with oil and salt while you dice your onion. Once the oil is nice and hot (it should shimmer), toss your onions into the pan. They should snap and crackle. Stir constantly until the onions start to look translucent, then turn the burner to low and stir every several minutes. Continue cooking until they begin to brown.
  3. Place your almonds on a sheet pan and bake at 350F or in a skillet and toast until they start to brown. They should toast quickly (5-10 minutes). Keep a watchful eye on them; nuts have a nasty habit of burning. Time this so that your almonds have a chance to cool and get crunchy by the time you're ready to serve the salad.
  4. Pit your cherries. See below for the method I used.
  5. Once pitted, slice cherries in half and place on a baking sheet. Give a very light spray of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. Place in the oven at 350F convection bake for 10 minutes.
  6. I like to put my kale in a skillet for 2-3 minutes on medium heat to further soften the leaves, but you could also eat the kale raw.
  7. To make your dressing, add in all of your ingredients except the oil and whisk together. In a gentle stream, pour in your oil while whisking briskly. You should whisk until you have one consistent mixture; there should be no oil separated out.
  8. Place all of your kale into a large bowl and pour in some of your dressing and massage into the leaves. You will have leftover dressing.
  9. Now place your kale into the dishes you will be serving the salad in and sprinkle the onions, cherries, and almonds over the top.
Notes
Here's a great way to pit cherries if you don't want to buy a cherry pitter:
1. Find an empty bottle, any will do as long as the mouth is not bigger than a cherry.
2. Center a cherry over the mouth of the bottle.
3. Using a straw or thick skewer/chopstick, push the straw through the center of the cherry. The seed will drop into the bottle and your cherry will be pit-less.
*I didn't have a straw to use for this so I used a thick skewer. It worked, but a straw would be better and more precise. I learned this method from Cooks Illustrated.
Recipe by at https://www.thescratchartist.com/roasted-cherry-kale-salad/