A Baked Kale Salad with Chili Quinoa? You Betcha!
From the dazzling recipe star Justine Doiron's brand new, mega-hit cookbook, "Justine Cooks: Recipes (Mostly Plants) for Finding Your Way in the Kitchen." Also: we reconsider the spinach salad. Again.
EVERY NOW AND THEN IN THIS LIFE, you come across a salad that serves 4 and that you’re happy to share with 3 other people, until you try it and suddenly what you really want to do is eat it as a single serving from a giant bowl, alone, with no one else around to interrupt you or to try to get you to share.
I have one of those salads for you today, a lovely baked kale and Napa cabbage dish that is spicy, sweet, crunchy, chewy, and slightly smoky. After you make it, I command you to give it all to me.
It’s a recipe from the brand new, mega-hit cookbook by Justine Doiron, whose alluring recipes appear to have a similar effect on a lot of people, thanks in no small part to her appealing, laid back style, both culinary and personal. She’s what you’d call an omni-present, poly-viral (can I say poly-viral?) food-world star. One million followers clamor for her recipes on her Instagram feed, 2.3 million on her TikTok account, a ton more on her YouTube channel, and probably millions more on any other platform that comes into existence in the near foreseeable future. (She also has a terrific Substack Newsletter.)
The book, as its title suggests, is mostly plant based, which is very appealing to those of us in the salad crowd. (Doiron is a pescatarian). And it features 90 new recipes that her virtual audiences have never seen before. When I was offered a salad to share, I had a very hard time picking one from the book’s dedicated chapter, “Salads: The Good Kind,” because it included such gustatorily fetching dishes as Basil Cucumbers with Slightly Sweet Peanuts, Tamari Heirloom Tomatoes, Citrus-Ginger Cabbage with Sesame Tofu, and Blistered Shishito Peppers in Lemon Jalapeño Dressing, to name a few.
But Doiron is like some kind of crazy (the good kind) recipe-idea machine, so I am also having a hard time deciding which of the following non-salad dishes I should try first: Figs in a Blanket, Drippy Harissa Eggplant with Spoon-Over Sauce, Black Garlic Sea Bass with Pickle-y Ginger Slaw, Cauliflower with Coconut Dressing & Fresno Almonds, or Apple Rye Galette with Vinegar Caramel.
Regarding the salads, in the end I wisely went for the Baked Kale with Chili Quinoa, and it is absolutely boffo. I have that recipe for you below. But not until I first subject Doiron to the Department of Salad Questionnaire.
🥬 🥬 🥬 THE DEPARTMENT OF SALAD QUESTIONNAIRE, with Justine Doiron
DOS: Why is Salad the world’s most perfect dish?
JD: Oh great question! I think because with the right amount of attention, a salad can turn from a "mix of anything" dish into something really special. Also it gives me the perfect excuse to combine as many textures as possible into something harmonious, and I think that challenge is what makes it perfect.
DOS: When you’re asked to “just bring a salad" (as if salad were a small, inconsequential dish), what do you show up with?
JD: Oh god, it depends on the occasion! If it's a dinner party, I'm wowing them with the "Garden Salad to Make You Love Garden Salad" from my book. It's simple, but it will never make people look down on lettuce again. If it's a summer party (I'm thinking barbecue or pool party here), I'm pulling together a sliced tomato salad with a chili crisp dressing. Another simple thing, but good enough that everyone will talk about it.
DOS: How do you feel about the term “word salad.”
JD: I live and speak in one long word salad.
DOS: What makes a great salad?
JD: Salt. I don't know why we still aren't seasoning our salads the way we season our other recipes.
DOS: What is the saddest salad anyone—restaurant or home cook— has ever tried to serve you?
JD: This wasn't necessarily served to me (thank GOD), but there is nothing sadder than the worn-out airport salad. And you KNOW exactly what I'm talking about. The salad that you're seeking out because it's been eight hours of travel, your skin is dry, your ears haven't popped yet and you are looking for ANY sustenance that is not a protein bar from Hudson News or a $25 pre-made wrap TGIFridays To-Go. This is the worst kind of salad. They are floppy, you are guaranteed to have a bad cherry tomato experience and there is a 60% chance some of the lettuce might be frozen on the edges. I have no plan for airport salad reform, but I do need to know why going past TSA immediately makes lettuce awful.
DOS: Is there ever a time or place, aside from behind the wheel of a speeding car, when serving salad is NOT appropriate?
JD: I might get a lot (A LOT) of flack for this, but I really don't want to be eating a salad on the beach. There's too much risk of sand getting in the way there.
DOS: What is your personal go-to salad and why?
JD: This absolutely changes with the season, but right now it's a thinly shaved fennel salad with mustard vinaigrette. Probably because fennel is my season fixation this year, and also because I'm trying to use up my mustard. But normally my salads are because I absolutely need a vegetable with every dinner, so they are something thinly shaved or sliced, and a quick dressing I know I can make in the bottom of the bowl I'm serving it in. Keep it simple ;)
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Following Doiron’s recipe, you find my lemony salad with roasted mushrooms and chickpeas, which I devised after the windmills of my mind—like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning, on an ever-spinning reel—attached themselves to the idea of reevaluating the spinach salad, yet again. I won’t go into the tortured gymnastics that got me back to that state, but directly below you’ll find a link to the issue that describes how things worked out the first time I got the spinach salad bee in my bonnet. (Hint: quite deliciously, I think.)
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*RECIPE: Baked Kale Salad with Chili Quinoa, from Justine Cooks: Recipes (Mostly Plants) for Finding Your Way in the Kitchen
Serves 4
JUSTINE DOIRON’S RECIPE NOTE: Anytime the weather dips below 50°F, it is unofficially baked salad season— the season when all my salads turn roasted and hearty. And I don’t care if my love of kale is very circa 2012, I love kale. It has heft, it has crunch, and it holds up to any heat or toppings I throw at it. This roasted kale and cabbage salad stretches between side salad and full meal, with a chili- crispy quinoa topping that adds a touch more protein. The dressing is a take on agrodolce, which is a sweet- sour Italian condiment that thrives on sturdy vegetables, so feel free to bookmark it for any other salads you plan on making throughout our coveted baked salad season.
¾ cup quinoa, any type
1 bunch Lacinato kale (16 ounces), thinly sliced
1 head savoy cabbage (24 ounces), thinly sliced
2 tablespoons avocado oil
Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chili oil of choice (I prefer Calabrian chili oil or Brightland Ardor oil)
AGRODOLCE
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
Extra- virgin olive oil
5 or 6 fresh sage leaves
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
¼ cup honey
¼ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup warm water
1. Equally stagger two racks in the oven and preheat it to 450°F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
2. Cook the quinoa according to the package directions and set aside.
3. Spread the kale evenly on one of the lined sheet pans and the cabbage on the other pan. Drizzle both with the avocado oil, season with salt and a few cracks of black pepper, and mix to coat. Roast the cabbage on the bottom rack until charred on the edges and slightly crisp, 20 to 23 minutes. For the last 5 to 7 minutes of baking, add the kale to the top rack. Remove both pans from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 375°F.
4. Spread the quinoa on a sheet pan and drizzle the chili oil all over. Season with ¼ teaspoon salt and mix. Roast the quinoa on the top rack until it is golden and lightly crisp, 19 to 21 minutes, stirring halfway through.
5. Meanwhile, make the agrodolce: Place the onion in a small heatproof bowl.
6. Set a small saucepan over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the sage and rosemary and sizzle for 1 to 2 minutes.
7. In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, vinegar, and water. Pour the honey- vinegar mixture into the pan, season with salt, and bring to a simmer. Let the mixture simmer for 2 to 3 minutes to thicken. Remove the sage and rosemary and pour the mixture over the red onion. Stir to combine.
8. In a large bowl, mix together the kale and cabbage and dress with the red onion agrodolce. Pile generously into individual bowls and top each with the chili quinoa.
*RECIPE: Lemony Spinach Salad with Roasted Mushrooms and Chickpeas
Serves 4
The dressing for this salad is one that I’ve been making for simple green salads, in one variation or another, for a few years, but I couldn’t remember exactly where it came from. I thought it was from the famed NYC vegetarian restaurant Dirt Candy’s cookbook (which is great, if you don’t have it). But it turned out to be from this Food52 interview with Amanda Cohen, Dirt Candy’s chef. I double it for this salad (you’ll have quite a bit left over, but you’ll want it for other salads, I promise), and I add a bit more vinegar than the original recipe calls for, and a touch of honey. It goes perfectly with this salad, which satisfied a recent and rare craving for a big pile of raw spinach; when you want it, nothing compares to that tender-squeaky texture. And my method for roasting the chickpeas (they get chewy but not tooth-crackingly crunchy), is from Julia Turshen’s absolutely delicious Vegan Kale Caesar with Crispy Chickpeas, which we featured here.
1 15.5-ounce can of chickpeas, rinsed, drained, and dried on a tea towel or paper towels
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Good pinch cayenne
1 pound mixed mushrooms (I used cremini and shiitake) trimmed and quartered or thickly sliced (I cut off almost the entire stem from shiitakes)
Freshly ground black pepper
4 big handfuls of baby spinach, or about 8 ounces
½ cup roughly chopped mixed olives (I used Kalamata, Castelvetrano, and Manzanilla; dry-cured will be too salty here)
Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette (method below)
Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C)
Spread the chickpeas on a parchment-lined sheet pan and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Sprinkle with the salt, garlic powder, and cayenne, then mix to evenly coat using your hands
Spread the mushrooms on another parchment-lined sheet pan and drizzle with the remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with several grindings of black pepper, then mix to evenly coat using your hands.
Place both pans in the oven. Roast the chickpeas, shaking the pan once or twice as they cook, until they are browned and crispy, about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Roast the mushrooms about 15 minutes longer, until they have released and reabsorbed some of their juices, and become brown and crispy. Remove from the oven and season lightly with flakey sea salt or kosher salt.
When ready to serve, combine the spinach, chickpeas, mushrooms (still warm or completely cooled), and most of the olives in a large bowl with several spoonfuls of the dressing. Toss gently to combine. Taste for more dressing salt and pepper. Serve directly from the big bowl or transfer to an attractive serving platter and top with the remaining chopped olives. NOTE: I end up using the entire delicious dressing recipe for this salad, which is why I recommend doubling it, in case people want extra; you can serve it on the side in a little pitcher.
Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette, slightly adapted from Chef Amanda Cohen
Makes over ½ cup
This is one of those instances in which you’re going to use both the pulp and the peel of the preserved lemon. (Preserved lemons are available at most gourmet grocers.) As I said earlier, I tend to double this recipe.
½ preserved lemon, seeds removed
2 small cloves garlic, cut up
⅓ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons honey (Cohen doesn’t add honey, but for this salad it’s a good idea)
Add the lemon, garlic, and about a quarter of the olive oil to the bowl of a mini food processor and process briefly. Continue pureeing, streaming in the remaining olive oil as you go, until you have a thick, relatively smooth, glossy mixture. Add the vinegar and honey and process again until you have a creamy dressing (it will still be slightly lumpy). Taste and adjust; you might want a bit of salt. Keep any leftover dressing in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
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🥬 🥬🥬 🥬That’s It! We’re done here! We’ll see you soon with a recipe for authentic Spam Musabi. I’m kidding—it’s going to be salad.
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OMG! I just made that exact baked kale salad from that exact book last night. It's everything I dream of especially after the combo of holiday gluttony and bad travel food. I also made her lentils with sticky honey shallots to go with it.
The two of you are kind of my dream cooking team!
I knew you two would like each other! You're so aligned in so many ways, particularly salad ways! I met Justine at a book event a few weeks ago, and all I could think of was, "this would be perfect if Emily was here"!