Kale Caesar is a staple at Sam’s house. This recipe was first sent to me by Lan— and i love it. Instead of having egg in the dressing, you push hard boiled egg through a mesh strainer and use as a topping- and it is actually quite gorgeous. You can also- as I have- made pita chip croutons- as inspired by a different salad that I saw on Chuck’s Day Off. But if you are too lazy– and not in the fussy mood- as Sam & E & I were last week– you can quickly throw together just the kale and dressing. Tastes good too if you let the kale sit w. the dressing for a little bit, softens it up.
This recipe found on Epicurious– is originally from Bon Appetit
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
8 anchovy fillets packed in oil, drained
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil [last time just use 1/2 cup and worked fine]
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan, divided
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 hard-boiled egg, peeled
14 ounces Tuscan kale or other kale, center stalks removed, thinly sliced crosswise (about 8 cups). Tuscan kale also called lacinato, black kale or dinosaur kale– has long, narrow, bumpy dark green leaves. [I find the best way to chop… hold leaf and pull out stem. Then stack all leaves in a pile- on top of the other. Then– starting at the top tip– roll it up– so you get a spiral of kale– and cut into thin ribbons— sort of like you would cut cookies from a roll of dough.
Put first 4 ingredients in a blender of food processor– and process until smooth. W. machine running, slowly add oil to make a creamy dressing. Transfer to a bowl and stir in 1/4 cup of parm. Salt & pepper to taste. Cover and chill. Can make dressing 2 days ahead.
If doing the sieved egg. Take hardboiled egg and separate egg white from yolk. Place egg white in a coarse mesh strainer– and push through w. a back of a spoon. Scrape egg white from bottom of strainer. (clean strainer in between- unless you are lazy, like me). Repeat w. yolk. [to boil an egg, i usually just lower egg into boiling water and cook for 11 mins. take out and put in bowl w. cold water to cool before peeling.]
Toss kale and dressing in a large bowl to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Top with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan and sieved eggs.
For Pita chip croutons– A Chuck’s Day off method
1 pita pocket
olive oil
salt- sea salt if have. or kosher.
1 clove garlic
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Open pita– and cut around the edges so splits into the two rounds. Rub surface w. clove of garlic, drizzle w. olive oil and salt. Cut each round– into chips- maybe 6 triangles. Bake for 10 mins or until medium brown.
When cool, take in your hand– and crumble over the salad.
Obviously- if you just want to eat pita chips– that works too.
Snacko Backo 
One Response to “Kale Caesar”