Crunchy Kale and Coconut Bowl
You can and you should. Work hard. Don’t stop. Unless there’s wine. Drink it. Then work harder.
If people don’t get it. Lose em. Find people that do. They exist. Make them your friends. Go thrift shopping. Buy skirts. Talk about ice cream.
Make the world more beautiful. That’s our job while we’re here. And we’re still here. So love well, and hard, and like we won’t be here forever. Because we won’t.
Use your good luck spoon. Throw away your bad luck fork. Remember that texting and driving is dumb. And your car horn never really adequately expresses your anger, so don’t use it and just scream in the car a bit if you must.
Buy kale. Especially if it’s named dino. It’s ok if it has dirt on it. It came from the ground. Wash it well. Combine it with coconut. Roast. Feed it to a person you love. See what happens. You’ll have just made the world more beautiful. Is it really that easy? Sometimes it is. Mind blown.
You might never guess that such a simple combination of ingredients could be so wonderfully lovely.
You also might never guess that I’ve eaten this dish every day for a week straight. That is no exaggeration. It’s so good. So comforting. Soooo the new mac and cheese.
Kale and unsweetened coconut is tossed with soy sauce, sesame oil, sriracha, and olive oil. It’s baked until golden and crisp.
It’s chewy. It’s crunchy. It’s a total mouth workout… and so so good for your body.
Farro is a big hearty grain and it stands up wonderfully to robust kale and coconut. Brown rice would also be quite nice.
This recipe is from Heidi’s Super-Natural Every Day cookbook and inspired by Tracy.
Tracy told me that this dish was serious man food/comfort food. I refused to believe her. I finally made it for myself, fed it to a man… and that was it. Game over. I’m now engaged, pregnant with twins (a boy and a girl), I just won the lottery, someone just bought me a pony, and I have every single pair of shoe that I’ve ever wanted.
Except none of that happened…. but this meal was simply exceptional.
Crunchy Kale and Coconut Bowl
makes 4 small servings or 2 large servings
recipe adapted from Shutterbean and Super Natural Every Day
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (or seasoned rice vinegar if you have that on hand) (i know they’re totally different but both work well)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sriracha
scant 1/3 cup olive oil
5 cups dino kale, ribs removed and leaves torn into bite-sized pieces
1 cup unsweetened large flake coconut
1 cup uncooked farro
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium pot, bring several cups of water to a boil. Salt the water (like you would for cooking pasta) and add farro. Reduce heat and simmer farro, uncovered, for 17-20 minutes, until farro is softened but still has a bit of a bite. Drain in a colander and set aside.
In a small mix together sesame oil (or rice vinegar), soy sauce, and siracha. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking as you drizzle it in so that the dressing emulsifies. You can also place all of the ingredients in a small jar and shake to emulsify.
Place the kale pieces and coconut on the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle half (or a bit more) of the prepared dressing over the kale and coconut. Toss around to coat. Bake for 12-18 minutes, until browned and crispy. Remove from the oven. Divide farro and crispy kale into bowls and top with a bit more dressing. Enjoy warm.
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I am a huge kale fan and may have to make this very soon (without the coconut, of course)!
I love your outlook on life and how you share it so well with all of us. Make the world a better place! <3
Mmm my kind of health food!
Joy, you fill my world with Joy and I love you for that and your amazing recipes and pick me ups!!! x
I’ve been so curious about roasting Kale! And my gentlemen loves Kale to begin with, so this is right up his alley. Thank you for the recipe!
I am now dying to go out and buy farro! Where do you get yours? I think it is seriously the best grain…maybe it will be like quinoa and within a few years it will be in stores everywhere :D
I’ve been meaning to try this recipe from Heidi’s book for ages, but as you say, you’d never imagine such simple ingredients to taste so wonderful. Now that I’ve had confirmation from you, though, I might just try it!
If only much more people knew how tasty can healthy food be… Granted, tasty vegetarian dishes demand work but it’s worth it.
sweet lordy does this look amazing! sooo into coconut right now. and thanks to this post, i’m feeling a kale phase coming on!
I’ve never thought about a “mouth workout” regarding food. It’s a delightful concept to think about.
I love all the individual bits of this recipe so I can’t wait to try it. Every day ? Maybe not every day. A few days.
Looks good.
This sounds lovely and simple and tasty! I need to get on this kale wagon, methinks…
Coconut and kale! This looks fab, dinner sorted x
Okay… DINO kale???? That sounds incredible!!!! I suddenly think I need to have some for breakfast!!
… Is that weird?
xxx
Anything with coconut in it- I’m sold :)
This looks wonderful!
“You might never guess that such a simple combination of ingredients could be so wonderfully lovely.” <— Actually, I do know how wonderful kale & coconut is because I make chocolate coconut kale chips that I make from a homemade chocolate sauce that's made from cashews, coconut, coconut oil, agave, and tons of cocoa powder. Sort of like nutella, but vegan and made from cashews and then I slather that all over kale and make chocolate coconut kale chips. So good.
Your salad is clearly healthier though :)
Both this recipe (chocolate coconut kale chips) and this kale coconut salad sound phenomenal. What about the two together… one for lunch, the other for post-lunch dessert?