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Kale Caesar Salad
This crunchy kale caesar salad is the perfect side dish for your barbecue bash! Bob Blumer shares his favourite shortcut to get super creamy and delicious dressing right at home.
SERVES
4
TO
6
Ingredients
Fried breadcrumbs
- Stale or oven-dried bread of choice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Caesar Dressing
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 5 anchovies (or 1 heaping teaspoon anchovy paste)
- 1 tablespoon anchovy oil
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1½ teaspoons red wine vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 5 tablespoons sunflower, safflower or canola oil, or a light olive oil
- 1 egg yolk
Kale Salad
- 2 bunches Tuscan black kale (aka cavolo nero, lacinato kale, dinosaur kale), stemmed and chiffonaded
- 1 cup fried breadcrumbs
- ½ cup (about 2 ounces) freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Directions
For the Fried Breadcrumbs
- Get into the habit of saving your leftover bits of bread in a paper bag. If you want to make breadcrumbs and don’t have any stale bread on hand, put a few slices of rustic bread into a toaster oven or oven at 250°F and bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until rock hard.
- Put your stale or oven-dried bread in a plastic bag and smash it with a blunt object until it’s reduced to coarse breadcrumbs. Alternatively, you can smash it in a large mortar and pestle.
- To make one cup of fried breadcrumbs, transfer a cup of the breadcrumbs to a pan over low heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil or leftover oil from an anchovy tin or jar. Stir occasionally and watch for about 10 minutes, or until crumbs are golden brown. Leftovers will last in the refrigerator for a month and the freezer for six months.
For the Dressing
- To a blender, add garlic, anchovies, anchovy oil, Dijon, lemon juice, Worcestershire, vinegar, salt and pepper. Purée.
- With the blender on, very slowly drizzle in oil. After oil is incorporated, add yolk and pulse a few times. Taste for salt, acid balance and seasonings, and adjust if desired. Reserve for serving.
Time to Build the Salad
- To a large bowl, add the kale, half of the dressing, fried bread crumbs (holding back a bit to garnish), and the Parmigiano (holding back a bit to garnish). Toss and add more dressing as needed until greens are well dressed, but not too wet.
- Finish with a dusting of Parmigiano and breadcrumbs. Serve immediately and enjoy!
