I used to really hate kale. The only way I’d ever eaten it was steamed with a little bit of soy sauce, which just ends up tasting like a mushy mouthful of watery soy sauce and leaves. Not fun, especially for a kid.

But it is really healthy for you, so once in a while I would disdainfully buy a bunch and take it home to blend into smoothies with lots of bananas and mangos and other fruits to disguise the flavor.

Then a few years ago my friend introduced me to kale chips and I was floored. So delicious! Just toss them in a bag with olive oil and some kind of vinegar and bake until crispy. And they taste like french fries! And then over break I was experimenting with putting kale in soup and it turns out that’s delicious too! The kale gets all soft and silky but still keeps its structure. Super noms!

And then my sister and I were starving at Whole Foods one day and decided to grab lunch at the salad bar. Holy crap guys. Most delicious healthy meal out ever. We immediately went home and tried recreating some of our favorites.

Earlier this week I had a craving for a kale salad and happened to have some leftover raita from an Indian restaurant I’d gone to, so I decided to add that. So delish I can’t even. Anyway, this is my modified version that I made after I ran out of raita. And I’m 99% positive this is at least 99% clean.

Clean kale shrimp salad

Ingredients:

• 1/2 bunch kale, leaf only, washed and ripped into bite sized pieces
• 1 roma tomato
• 1/2 red onion
• lemon juice (I use one of those lemon squeezer thingies)
• olive oil
• shrimp (I get the frozen cooked tail off kind from Costco)
• apple cider vinegar (best kind is Bragg’s, with the mother)
• 2 tbsp nonfat plain Greek yogurt

Put the kale in a ziploc bag and drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Close the ziploc bag and massage the kale around so all of the leaves are well coated. Kale is really tough but becomes more tender as it’s massaged so you’ll want to do this for a few minutes. Add more olive oil and lemon juice as needed.

Meanwhile, defrost your shrimp (I usually add about 5-8 shrimp per serving) by putting it in a small bowl, covering with water, and microwaving for one minute.

In a separate tupperware, add the chopped tomato and thinly sliced onion. Add 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, 1-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Shake well and let it sit in the fridge for at least half an hour for the flavors to mingle.

For the dressing just mix 1-2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt with lemon juice, consistency based on preference.

Serves 2.

Since grad school can get busy and I eat six meals a day*, I like to do a lot of cooking and food prep once or twice a week so I always have food ready. This is a great recipe for that because I can have one container of prepared kale, one with the tomato/onion mixture, and a separate one of pre-made dressing. It makes making dinner  super easy!

If you’re skeptical, go to Whole Foods and try one of their kale salads. It’s life-altering. Unless you inherently hate salad, in which case I really don’t recommend trying this. :]

*No, I don’t cook six times a day, and yes they are each smaller meals. I just hate that feeling of eating a ton and feeling bloated and crappy for a few hours and then suddenly being starving and then repeating the cycle. My metabolism has also gotten waaaay faster since I started doing this!