Temperature is soaring in Bangalore and I only want light meals ! This Shrimp Millet and Kale Salad Recipe is perfect for a summer meal. Light, nutritious and super healthy. What else can one ask for !
Kale is making news and how! It is touted to be one of the superfoods of current times. If you look up online, you will see so many kale salad recipe (s) that it is not even funny.
Kale belongs to the Brassica oleracea family and is considered closest to wild cabbage. It is currently touted to be the healthiest food in the world and everyone is going crazy about it. It is being used in smoothies, salads, stir fries and I think last week I also read a kale dessert recipe *insert shock emoji*.
Kale is not a native Indian crop, it wasn’t traditionally grown in India. Kale is mainly a European crop according to history and was found in abundance in the wild fields of Europe. It was at one point one of the most popular green vegetable found in Europe. Over years the rest of the world discovered it’s super powers and everyone else fell in love with it. People are now growing it everywhere including India 🙂
Nandita of Saffron Trail grew a lot at home and when we met for a part work, part fun lunch a while ago, she got me a generous bunch of it. I wondered what to do with it, should I experiment and create something interesting but then sometimes it is just good to stick to basics. So this kale salad recipe is what came to mind. I love seafood in particular prawns or shrimps and I love using millets in my salad. I often replace the locally grown millets with quinoa and couscous. I feel it is equally nutritious and works out much cheaper in most cases. Doesn’t hurt that it also is good on the environment. I have been trying to eat more and more locally grown food. Ofcourse I indulge in some things that we just don’t get here. But like everything else in life I follow the 80-20 rule. Eat local 80% and then I give myself a leway for the indulgence for the rest of 20%. Sounds fair and allows me the indulgence I want while I am still being fair to the environment ( and on the pocket).
Anyways, I digress as usual. So this Shrimp Millet and Kale Salad Recipe is the brilliant thing you will be eating again and again all summer. Make changes as you want, if you are vegetarian replace shrimp with tofu. Don’t like or don’t have millets on hand, replace it with couscous or quinoa. But the basic flavours of these salads work for beautifully. With a simple and comforting aglio olio style dressing, I can pretty much eat these every day of summer. And if I love something so much I must share it with you guys right 🙂 So here is the recipe.
Kale Shrimp and Millet Salad
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup foxtail millet
- 200 grams medium prawns shelled and deviened
- 1 ripe avocado
- 1 cup cherry tomato halved
- 1.5 cup kale chopped
For the dressing
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 2 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Wash and finely chop Kale leaves. Wash and slice avocado in thin slices. Keep aside
- Grill or stir fry the prawns. I like to use my 5 ingredient prawn recipe for this (link in notes). Set aside
- Boil foxtail millet in 2 cups of water for 4-5 minutes till they are done. Drain and set aside
- Mix all dressing ingredients together.
- Now mix all of the salad ingredients and pour dressing on top. Serve with a glass of wine for a perfect summer meal !
This is interesting. I am going to try this out – love the prawns, and never tried cooking with kale!
And the 80-20 rule, love that too!
The 80-20 is my rule to live by 🙂