I knew the kale quinoa salad I made Tuesday for dinner was delicious, but I knew it was also a keeper recipe when Jeff texted me Wednesday to ask me I still had enough ingredients on hand to make it again to accompany the steak we were planning to grill. (Steak. Kale. Quinoa. Yes, we are omnivores.)
The original recipe is from Smitten Kitchen. I followed the recipe as closely as possible, except that I used feta instead of ricotta salata, after the cheese guy at Whole Foods said it was currently illegal to import ricotta salata due to the risk of Listeria. (I’m not sure the situation is exactly that extreme, but there was a recall of one imported brand back in 2012.) Anyway, the feta worked great, and based on the comments on Smitten’s recipe post, most people used feta, too.
I used dried cranberries instead of dried cherries, and didn’t have any dill on hand, but the rest of the recipe I followed to a T. Because kale is a hearty green, it stands up well to sitting dressed in the refrigerator, which means the leftovers make a great brown bag lunch the next day…as pictured above. Nutritious, delicious and makes good leftovers? What’s not to love!
