Caesar Salad with Kale and Romaine

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $10/day.

It's been a long day--the kind of day when good ideas are not the ones coming from my own head. So I did what any self respecting food-blogger/human being would do: I stole one from someone else.

A little while ago, I saw a Kale Romaine Caesar Salad on Kalyn's Kitchen and thought (humbly of course) that there was no way that would work for me. I am a great lover of kale, but so far I've mostly made it work in smoothies or cooked to a sound wilting point. Raw kale in a salad? How could this work? Kale is so thick, so ribbed, and so, so kale-y. Kalyn assured us that if you cut the kale small, all would be well.

And then one day I had kale and I had romaine and I had my favorite ever Caesar dressing (Girard's) and I thought, "Well, I guess I could add just a little kale." I removed the ribs and sliced it up good and small (seriously, do not even think about leaving it in any kind of large bite) and I'll be darned if I couldn't even tell it was there. The next time I tried it with more of an equal ratio of kale to romaine as Kalyn suggests and I'll be double darned if I still could barely sense it's presence. And the presence I did sense was most pleasant--not chewy and potentially bitter as I had expected it to be.

So, go ahead, live a little. Maybe live nice and long--this is kale we're talking about after all. Throw some (well chopped) kale in your next salad and see what happens. I highly recommend it in a Caesar as the kale and romaine complimented each other very well and the strong flavors of the dressing really gave those greens what for.

You might even find yourself going back for more. I personally have had this salad or a variation thereof at least 5 times in the last 4 days, and at least once when I would have normally had a dessert. Yeah, it's that good.