Rainbow Kale salad kinda fell into my life because of Cooking Matters, which also fell into my life. On August 18th, 2010, I received an email from a friend asking if I would be interested in volunteering to teach free cooking and nutrition classes and before I could hit SEND, I was saying YES.. even though I am not a chef and had never really taught classes before.
Well, lucky for me, you don’t have to be a chef or a nutritionist to teach Cooking Matters and four years later, I have 8 classes under my belt. Each series consists of one 2 hour class, once a week for six weeks. I calculate that I have taught about 100 how to eat healthier, while stretching their food dollar and making easy puns around food.
Back to kale. So I had never made a kale salad and I thought it would be a fun thing to learn myself while sharing it in Cooking Matters. I was advised by Sarah Nelson, the director of 18 Reasons, the non-profit that runs Cooking Matters in the Bay Area to massage the kale for the salad. I thought this was very funny, but it turns out, it makes kale a bit easier to chew. I decided to make it a rainbow kale salad because in the world of veggies, color usually equals more vitamins and tastiness (natural color!). This salad also served as a great way to teach participants how to chop using the “claw” method to avoid adding fingers to the salad.
It is crazy that it took us all years to discover that kale isn’t just a decoration, but that it kicks the butt of any lettuce when it comes to nutrition and it tastes wonderful.
Neither The Kale Council (if it exists) or Cooking Matters asked me to pimp them. I love the program and I have been wanting to tell you all about it for years. If you have a few hours a week to give back and you love food and people, this is a great place to volunteer. Visit CookingMatters.org to find classes in your area.
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