Kale salad with crispy chorizo
Editor's note: In Praise of Leftovers was nominated for Saveur's 2013 The Best Food Blog Awards. Check out the list of winners on
Sometimes, Yancey and I are at home together during lunchtime. On a weekday.
He'll be absorbed in a project, and food will be the last thing on his mind. I have no idea what that is like. I wish I could leave more brain space free for other ponderings. Like making the world a better place, marketing my consulting practice with more aplomb, or getting my yard to look less like an abandoned junkyard. (I've heard somewhere that you can't be a reader AND a gardener. I take solace in that.)
But no. I wake up thinking about the three meals in front of me and how to make something with whatever is in my fridge. And Yancey benefits. I'll say, "I'm making a salad. Do you want some?" He'll answer, "Umm... I guess so." He doesn't聽feel聽hungry, necessarily, and if I weren't around, he probably wouldn't eat lunch. He'd have an apple at 3 p.m. and call it good.聽
But if I'm home working during the day, I love the opportunity to get some vegetables in. At the hospital (where I'm doing a lot of consulting these days), I grab a sandwich or a cup of grapes from the cafeteria. It's a treat to make a mess and eat something interesting.
This time, it went like this:
Fill a medium salad bowl with washed and chopped lacinato聽kale聽(or other greens). Mix in julienned聽carrot, thinly sliced聽red onion, roughly chopped聽green olives, and chunks of聽smoked mozarella or feta. Then heat up a heavy skillet and pour a big glug of聽olive oil聽in. Add some big chunks of fresh crusty聽bread聽and a handful of chopped聽chorizo聽and fry them together with salt. Everything will turn crispy and a little bit orange.
Dump that hot mixture in with your greens, and toss the whole thing with white聽wine vinegar,听olive oil,听补苍诲听salt. And if you're lucky enough to have a cutie husband around, give him some, too, even though he says he's not hungry. Don't believe him.
P.S. A giant聽THANK YOU聽to everyone to voted in Saveur's contest and who called, texted, or commented to say congratulations. What I got out of the whole thing is that 1) I am loved and appreciated and 2) this blog is going to be around for a long time.聽
