Like you, I resolve every year to eat a little better. And every year, I succumb to the Nutella-buttercream stuffed whoopie pie at the expense of, well, my waistline.
This year however, I'm off to a good start, especially since I stumbled up on a really delicious recipe courtesy of the lovely folks over at the fab Food 52. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, please do so. It's a wealth of cooking info and a great source for really good, solid recipes.
As I looked through the site hoping for some inspiration on cooking with winter greens, I found a kale salad recipe from a restaurant in NYC called Northern Spy. You can check out the original recipe here, along with a gorgeous pic of their finished product.
Even though the recipe looked pretty darn good, I did a little more research into eating raw kale and found that massaging the kale lends a little extra tenderness to the final dish; something I was all for, as I find raw kale to be a bit too bitter and tough for my personal taste.
So I did what any good cook loves to do, which is change the recipe about here and there to include a new technique and get a few ingredients swapped about. Make no doubt about it -- this is definitely a riff on an already excellent recipe by Northern Spy, with just a few changes, including the whole massaging thing. Which is really funny to write, and even funnier to say. That said, take a look and give it a try.
Kale & Butternut Squash Salad
serves 4
1 small Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 large bunch Kale, de-stemmed and cut into strips/bite-sized pieces (choose your variety; I'm finding the curlier edged stuff at my local grocery but would love to locate a bit of Dinosaur kale)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup toasted, chopped Hazelnuts
1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, not shredded, but cut into small little bite-sized pieces
2 more tablespoons good quality Olive Oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
Salt
Pepper
Preheat your oven to 450-degrees. Toss the butternut squash with 1 tablespoon olive oil, then sprinkle to taste with a little bit of salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes, stir and toss, then roast an additional 15 minutes, until tender. Place on a cooling rack and allow to cool to room temperature.You'll start with this...

And end up with this...

This is where you'll notice, after a minute or two that you've lost quite a bit of volume in your kale, and that it looks a bit shinier and glossier. This is very good.
Add the cooled butternut squash, toasted hazelnuts, Parm, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and lemon juice, then toss really well to combine. Taste, then season with salt and pepper as you deem necessary. (Be sure you taste before adding the s&p, as you've already added salt to your dish when massaging the kale.)
Healthy, tasty, and truthfully, a total snap to prepare. Doesn't that look delicious?

Now, go forth and be healthy!