Recipe from The Farm: Greek Kale Salad

This is a good recipe for people who haven't yet fallen in love with kale. The strong flavors of the feta and olives, together with the acid of the lemon juice, set the kale's flavor to the background.

• 2 bunches of kale, large stems discarded or saved for another use (my dog Moe loves them too)
• 2-4 T extra virgin olive oil, to taste or preference
• 2 T. fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 t. crushed red pepper
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, cut lengthwise into silvers
• 2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about 2/3 cup)

1. In a large pot of boiling water, cook kale leaves until just tender; 3 to 5 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water to cool. Transfer the kale to a clean kitchen towel and squeeze dry. Fluff up the leaves, coarsely chop them and transfer to a large bowl.

2. In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 cup of olive oil with the lemon juice and crushed red pepper and season with salt and pepper. Add the grape tomatoes, olives and crumbled feta to the kale and toss. Add the dressing and toss to coat.

Sun dried tomato sandwich spread/dip

This recipe comes from a graduate of the Chef's Training Program at the Natural Gourmet Institute in NYC. Tracy Karanik used to hold classes at Cornucopia's Health Food store in Sayville where she prepared this delicious recipe.

Sun Dried Tomato Dip
makes about 3 cups

2 cups sun dried tomatoes (NOT the ones packed in oil from a jar, DRY ones)
2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup cooked white beans (navy beans, cannellini beans- can be cooked beans or from the can)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil, or less I used barely 1 T)
juice of 1 lemon (about 2 T)
1/4 tsp salt

Place tomatoes in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Cover with a plate and let soak for about 15 minutes.
In a food processor, grind the almonds into a powder.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the tomatoes from the water and add them to the almonds. (Make sure to reserve the water.)
Add the remaining ingredients and puree. Add about 1/2 cup (or more, depending on how much oil added) of the reserved tomato water and scrape down the sides as you go.
Cover and chill for an hour. Serve with vegetables or as a spread on a sandwich. I dipped the stems from greens that might otherwise be trimmed away, like dandelion greens, kale stems, bok choy, swiss chard but the obvious veggies like cukes, carrots and celery work fine too. On a sandwich, I add a bunch of sprouts for a hearty meal and sometimes use greens to serve as the bread.
High protein, fiber.

Green goddess salad dressing for non-believer's

What's up with the title? Tonight my 17 year old son ate a hearty dinner of leftover Penne a la vodka (soy milk) and a ckn cutlet but I sensed he'd eat more. I offered to make some veggies I knew he liked, like broccoli, carrots, corn and salad. He agreed to the salad as long as it didn't have a lot of "stuff" in it. Basic greens, maybe grated cheese, carrots and a "normal" dressing. What he got was a mixture of spinach, Romaine, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, grated Swiss, grated carrots and a tomato. The magic was in the dressing (though the green combo was a big "stretch"). In the Blender went 1/2 cup pineapple juice (it was left over), 2 cloves of garlic, about 10 walnuts, 2 big handfuls of spinach, S and P and 2 tsp of oil (bc it was for him, I caved and added it though usually the walnuts would serve as the fat). After the first blend, I added 2 T of apple cider vinegar. I tossed some on the salad, topped with croutons (had to make it more believable and mask the green dressing, somewhat). He finished a big bowl, then asked for more. It's hard when he asks me what's in something. I want  to tell him so after he agrees he likes something, it'll prove 'unconventional' ingredients. can be substituted, but it's a fine line. So I told him about the pineapple juice, oil, vinegar garlic and S + P. Can't mention the spinach and walnuts just yet. I'll have to sell it a few more times. Later, when I offered him a carrot with the dressing, he looked at the dressing and said, no way....Now you know where I'm coming from.