Winter Salad with Kale, Squash, Apples, & Fennel

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Merry Christmas Eve! Happy Holidays! Happy whenever you find yourself doing today! For me, it's "Happy Another-Excuse-To-Plan-A-Menu Day"! 

If you are looking to build a holiday menu that everyone can enjoy, regardless of dietary preferences, you know my struggle well: what is paleo, vegan, and still filling? Salad is the easy answer. But it's so hard to make salad feel "right" in the middle of winter. Tomatoes? Hard and flavorless. Cucumbers? Chilling. Butterhead lettuce, arugula, even baby spinach--just plain out of place. It's easier to pass by with gratins, mashes, and roasts. And don't get me wrong--I love anything au gratin (especially this cauliflower gruyere gratin!) - but sometimes it's nice to have a light dish on your holiday table, to balance out all of the traditional winter fare.

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That very question brought me to this salad. (Now, before you say, "Salad is NOT filling," hear me out). This salad, with massaged dino kale, is stuffed with wintery goods that will fill you up: roasted delicata squash, toasted pepitas, and fennel, and crispy apples. Avocado for good measure — because what salad isn’t better with avocado? It has crunch, a touch of sweetness, and a savory kick. And it fits right in on a crowded table of wintertime foods. And if you're still not content, I recommend adding some shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. 

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Drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette, this salad breaks away from the heavy dishes we all know so well, with out feeling out of place. It's a piece of fresh in the midst of winter--often a much needed twist. Since this salad is made with hearty vegetables, it can be made several hours ahead of time, making your holiday meal less stressful! Just wait until the last minute to add the dressing. 

What new dish will you be trying this holiday season? How do you make sure everyone is jolly when they take their seat at the holiday table? 

P.S., that delicate looking garnish is a fennel frond — the top "leafy bit of the fennel bulb. Save a tiny bit when you’re chopping up the fennel, and put it on top for good looks. 😎

Winter Salad with Kale, Squash, Apples, & Fennel

Published December 24, 2014 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 8   |    Active Time: 35 minutes

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Ingredients:

1 delicata squash, seeds removed and sliced

1 tablespoon avocado oil

6 cups kale, chopped into bit-sized pieces

Dash salt

Drizzle extra virgin olive oil

3/4 cup fennel, sliced thin

1 apple, cut into matchsticks

1/2 cup roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

1 avocado, sliced or cubed

Balsamic vinaigrette  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Toss the sliced squash in the avocado oil. Spread it out on a cookie sheet, and place in oven. Bake until golden, soft all the way through, and browning on edges. Remove from oven and set aside. 
2. Assemble salad: Place the chopped kale in a salad bowl, along with a drizzle of olive oil and a dash of salt. Using your hands, rub the olive oil into the leaves until they are bright green. This softens them a bit, making them nicer to eat and easier to digest.
3. Add the fennel and apple to the salad bowl. Top with roasted squash, avocado, and pepitas. Serve with balsamic vinaigrette to taste. Optional: garnish with fennel fronds.

Paleo Cran-Apple Relish

Last week, I shared a recipe for coffee cake that was inspired by my grandmother. This recipe also makes me think of her, because for years I thought it was a family tradition--you know, passed down from my Grandmother, to my father, and finally to me. My Grandmother taught me to make blueberry muffins, and inspired so many other dishes: Every time she had guests over for dinner, she would spend the next day on her typewriter, writing up a thank you letter and a recipe card for the meal she had made. 

So it only seemed natural that this recipe, like so many others, was one of hers. Pass down the family line.  This was such a nice thought that somehow, it stuck. It stamped out my memories of canned cranberry sauce, jiggly and can-shaped. It made me forget that I used to despise cranberry sauce. 

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But one day, many years after trying this recipe for the first time, I told my dad that I had made his favorite cranberry sauce--his mom's version. He gave me puzzled look, trying to figure out what "recipe" I may have used, since in reality she had always just used canned cranberries. Quickly the truth became clear: I was confused! My dad had actually found this recipe years ago on his own. When it was passed to me, and described as "our family recipe," well, things got confusing.

It is still a family recipe, in a sense--two generations counts, right? But mostly, it's just the best cranberry sauce I've ever had. It converted me from a cranberry sauce hater (or a cranberry sauce poker — someone that just pokes the slice of canned red stuff with their fork, never taking a bite), into a cranberry sauce fanatic (someone that can’t wait to make cranberry sauce come November).

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This, my friends, is what cranberry sauce is all about. Refined sugar has been taken out of the equation, and what's left is a pure, delicious, tangy cranberry and apple relish. Studded with pecans, for a bit of texture, too.

Cranberry sauce isn't just for dinner! It makes a pretty awesome desert, served over ice cream or a slice of pound cake. If you eat dairy, it's delicious on yogurt, cottage cheese, or perfect for making an appetizer platter with baked brie or gruyere. Or, try it on french toast!  

TIP: You can make this sauce a week ahead of the big day! Store in the fridge in air-tight containers. 

Paleo Cran-Apple Relish

Published December 15, 2014 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 2 cups   |    Total Time: 25 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 cup diced apple
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Optional: 1/4 cup chopped, toasted pecans

Directions:

1. In a small sauce pan, combine the cranberries, chopped apples, water, and honey. Cover and bring to a low simmer for 10 minutes.
2. After ten minutes, the cranberries should be puffed or popping, and the honey should be dissolved. Add the lemon, vanilla, and cinnamon. Stir. Simmer for five more minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in the toasted pecans. Serve immediately or allow to cool and place in an air tight container to serve later.

Paleo Cinnamon Coconut Crumble Coffee Cake

Update 1/12/2017: I have been playing with photography more, and wanted to reshoot the images for this recipe. The images here are new, the recipe is the same!

Mmm... can you smell that? Wafts of warm cinnamon? Melodies of toasting coconut? Hints of vanilla? That's what leisure smells like. At 7am it smells dreamy, like you're not quite awake yet. This is what our house smelled like this week, letting everyone know it's official: winter break is here! 

On the last day of school, my usual mid-semester stress was already beginning to lift, and with no cramming left to do, I spent my morning making cake. This coffee cake, a Paleo makeover of one of my grandmother's recipes, has a soft crumb and is lightly sweet.

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My grandmother's secret ingredient in coffee cake was sour cream, but I wanted to keep this recipe paleo-friendly, so I used bananas, which add a similar amount of moisture, and keeps it dairy-free. The banana flavor is subtle, and after a bite or two it's lost between the cinnamon and coconut, but that fruit provides a gentle sweetness that is the perfect match to a cup of chai. Hooray for natural sweetness! Really have a sweet tooth? The cakey part of this coffee cake is only subtly sweet, but you can add 2 tablespoons of honey if you’re sweet tooth is begging for it.

Another twist that my grandmother’s recipe didn’t call for — coconut on top. Most crumbs call for just a few ingredients: flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon. Sometimes oats. But, since none of those ingredients (aside from the cinnamon and maybe the butter, depending on your definition) are Paleo, I improvised. Toasted coconut adds the “crunch” I was looking for with out adding grains or flour. GF, DF (though you can use butter over coconut oil if you prefer), and NF (nut-free, for anyone that needs it!).

Now who has the coffee??

Paleo Cinnamon Coconut Crumble Coffee Cake

Published December 12, 2014 by Caitlin Sherwood

Yields: 8   |    Active Time: 60 minutes

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Ingredients:

4 eggs

2/3 cup canned full fat coconut milk 

2 ripe bananas, peeled and roughly chopped

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the Crumble Topping:

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2/3 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut 

4 tablespoon coconut oil or butter, melted

4 tablespoon honey, melted or coconut sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9-inch by 9-inch glass baking dish or cake pan.
2. Whisk together in coconut flour, baking soda, and salt, getting rid of any chunks of coconut flour as you do. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas well. Add the eggs, and vanilla to the bank mixture, folding together until incorporated. Slowly fold the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring until a smooth batter forms. **If you own a blender,  you can skip the mashing and stirring and throw all of the batter ingredients in (eggs, banana, coconut flour, coconut milk, salt, baking soda and vanilla) and blend until smooth. 
3. Spread the batter into the greased baking dish or cake pan.
4. In a small bowl, combine melted coconut oil, honey, cinnamon and coconut. Stir with a fork until a loose crumb forms. Use your fingers to sprinkle the crumble evenly over the top of the cake batter. 
5. Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown on top and a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted into the middle. Set on a wire wrack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature with your normal breakfast beverage.