Tuscan Kale Salad: A Light Entree With Healthy Ingredients

Todd Hartley:
Hi, and thank you for joining us at EmpowHER. Have you heard Dr. Andrew Weil talk about how chronic inflammation is the root of many serious illnesses? Well one major way to combat inflammation is by following an anti-inflammatory diet and that’s why True Food Kitchen’s Executive Chef Michael Stebner is here to teach you how to make a wonderful anti-inflammatory appetizer. Hi chef.

Michael Stebner:

Hi, how are you?

Todd Hartley:
Chef, I am doing great. Now before you and I get started, how do you explain to people the reasons why they should consider eating on the mindset of the anti-inflammatory diet?

Michael Stebner:
Well, the most important thing is not to think of it as a health food type diet. It’s a real food type diet. So, you can get a lot more joy out of eating real foods that just happen to be good for you and most of the time eating a diet rich in vegetables and fruits, it basically just becomes anti-inflammatory. So the things that cause inflammation are found in a lot of the highly processed foods that we eat and the things that fight inflammation are found in the produce aisle of the market.

So if you sort of look at it, instead of looking at it like you’re eating health food, just look at it like you are just eating real food and that’s the way I like to explain it to people.

Todd Hartley:
I think that totally makes sense. True Food Kitchen is one of our favorite restaurants and we always get the kale salad. In fact, we always get extra kale salad to go.

Michael Stebner:
Yeah? Good.

Todd Hartley:
In the name of decreasing inflammation, right, because that’s what this is all about, if I wanted to make that salad for my wife at home and surprise her, would you be willing to share that recipe with me?

Michael Stebner:
Yes, of course. It’s very, very simple.

Todd Hartley:
All right, so tell me where do I get started?

Michael Stebner:
Well first thing you do is you’ve got to buy dino kale or Tuscan kale at the local market and right now it’s a little harder to find. Seasonality of it is more of a, as being a dark leafy green is more of a fall/winter, so the seasonality is little tough. It’s still being grown in parts of California and Tuscan kale is basically, if you look at whole foods now has their, you know they rate all their vegetables on a scale of 1 to 1000 on health, and Tuscan kale is 1000.

Todd Hartley:
Wow!

Michael Stebner:
It’s about the healthiest thing you can eat. So you’re starting with something like that that is not only delicious, it’s really super good for you and we use organic at the restaurant and so I recommend sticking with organic, especially with that vegetable, that’s one of the 12 vegetables that you should eat organic and then basically from there it’s a very simple classic Italian recipe and it’s based on really high-quality ingredients. We use organic extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, a little crushed garlic, some chili flakes; it has great Parmesan cheese in it and it has toasted breadcrumbs and a little salt.

So that’s basically the entire thing are those five or six ingredients – pretty simple, but all together they make something that’s really amazing and definitely healthy.

Todd Hartley:
So if I had all of those ingredients, and I’ll tell you I’m foodie, but I’m starting to cook. It’s not my strength, but if I had all those ingredients in front of me, what kind of assembly order would I need to know in order to make this work?

Michael Stebner:
Well you take the kale and wash it obviously and you pull the ribs out, pull the stock out and it’s actually pretty easy to do. You just hold on to the stock and run your fingers along the stock and the leaves come right off the stock. So start there and then what we do is we just slice those leaves – those tender leaves. The stocks are a little too fibrous to eat raw because we are not going to cook it.

At that point you put the sliced leaves into a mixing bowl. I drizzle it with the lemon juice and the garlic and then chili flakes, and then I hit it with the extra virgin olive oil and the salt and I basically, it’s almost like a coleslaw so it needs to macerate a little bit; it needs to marinate for probably five or ten minutes, you know, and I like to mix it with my hands and sort of get my hands in there and get that sort of breaking it down a little bit because it’s a pretty fibrous vegetable and then I just finish it with grated parmesan and the toasted breadcrumbs add a little bit of texture and give it sort of that unique flavor and texture combination and that’s it. It’s almost the most simple thing that we make at the restaurant and it’s our signature dish so…

Todd Hartley:
But it’s also key, right, to let it sit for five minutes and let it just kind of…

Michael Stebner:
Yeah, it needs to hang out for like…it can sit even longer than that so if you want to make it ahead of time. It’s like coleslaw; it just gets better, you know, if you make it the day of. I wouldn’t necessarily keep it overnight. It’s okay to keep it overnight; it doesn’t break down that much but you can make it in the afternoon and eat in the evening and it’s fine. Just keep it refrigerated.

Todd Hartley:
My favorite part of it, you know besides it being really good for me, is the kind of breadcrumbs, little crunchiness, little peppery stuff that you’ve got going on, on top of it. Do you add that at the end or is that added through the tossing process?

Michael Stebner:
You . . . I toss it through and then I also add it at the end. So you toss it through and it kind of gives body to the salad, but kind of loses it’s crunch when you toss it through the salad, the breadcrumbs, but that’s why we put some on top as well because that texture is key.

Todd Hartley:
So I was in recently with a member of EmpowHER’s community and we came in for lunch there and we didn’t order the kale salad and then I realized once we started eating, “We’ve got to have that kale salad.” So we ordered it and I think the two of us just ploughed through that thing. It is so good and, he is True Food Kitchen’s Executive Chef, Chef Michael Stebner, and the first True Food Kitchen, it opened in 2007 and luckily for us in Phoenix at the Biltmore Fashion Park. Chef Michael Stebner thank you for helping us improve health and also, change lives.

Michael Stebner:
Thank you.

Visit Chef Michael Stebner at True Food Kitchen

Add a CommentComments

There are no comments yet. Be the first one and get the conversation started!

Tags:

• Healthy Eating
• Recipes & Cooking