Kale Salad with Apples, Bacon and Lemon-Shallot Dressing

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Kale Salad with Apples, Bacon and Lemon-Shallot Dressing…a hearty salad packed with flavor! It’s wonderful as a side dish, but is also great for lunch or a light dinner.

REDUCING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT

This time of year I am really missing the farmer’s market. Normally, in the summer and fall, I get almost all of my produce either from our CSA or the farmer’s market. There is limited hours at the farmer’s market in the winter, but we are coming to the end of it. And I haven’t made it to very many of them, between my surgery and my kids’ indoor track meets.

Buying from local farms and other local businesses helps keep money in our local economy, which is important to me.

But the other big reason I prefer to buy local produce whenever I can is the impact on the environment. Local produce requires less packaging, allows for more sustainable growing practices, and is fresher and healthier because it requires less transportation. It’s literally farm to table.

Speaking of trying to reduce your environmental footprint, our family tries to do our part in other ways as well. We recycle, and we recently installed solar panels on our roof.

So when Ford’s Driving on Energi asked me if I wanted to participate in their program by test driving the Ford C-MAX ENERGI for a few months, my interest was piqued. I’ve never driven a hybrid before. I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn more about hybrid cars and how they can help the environment. Please know that while I do have the use of this car for several months, and I am being compensated (I always want to be upfront about that with you), my opinions will always be my own.

The timing on this turned out to be quite helpful too. After my surgery, I wasn’t able to drive for six weeks. But over Christmas break, someone hit my son’s car in our driveway while he was home from college…we think it had to have been a delivery truck because there was so much damage. We were home at the time, but had no idea it had happened. And they did not leave a note. Who does that?! We discovered the damage when he took me to my physical therapy appointment.

We had to wait weeks to get it into the body shop, and in the meantime, my son had to take my daughter’s car back to college. She started driving my car, because I couldn’t drive at the time. His car is still at the body shop, but I can now drive, so I’m very happy to have a vehicle again…especially this one!

The Ford C-MAX ENERGI is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, powered by both an electric battery and a gas powered engine. The battery can actually be charged either at your home or a public electric outlet. If you do a lot of around town driving, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle can really save money as well as tailpipe emissions because you can drive using electricity stored in the battery instead of using gasoline. I drove home from the coffee shop completely on battery the other day.

There is also a screen that gives you a trip summary. The other day I checked it out and was thrilled to see that I had gotten 33.8 MPG on my around town driving! I’ll be sharing more as I go along since I’ll be driving this car for the next few months.

Now that you know what I’ve been up to, let’s talk kale salad!

KALE SALAD WITH APPLES, BACON, AND LEMON-SHALLOT DRESSING

This salad is another adaptation from a recipe that was made for me while I was recovering from my surgery.

SCROLL DOWN FOR PRINTABLE RECIPE

My daughter happens to be a kale salad fan, one of her favorites being my Lemony Kale Quinoa Salad.

But this is a different type of salad from the one I usually make, and it’s nice to try something new once in a while. I got a thumbs up from both my daughter and my husband, as well as a friend who I gave some for lunch. My friend messaged me that she loved it and couldn’t wait for it to be on the blog! Love when a recipe is successful!!

I set my kale salad aside for lunch and snacking because my daughter will often eat it when she comes home from track practice. It was gone in a day. I hardly got any. Next time I’m making a double batch.

This Kale Salad with Apples, Bacon and Lemon-Shallot dressing is quite easy to make, and delicious!

Start by cooking your bacon. Drain on paper towels and crumble when cool. Set the bacon crumbles aside.

Remove the ribs from the kale and rip the leaves into bite size pieces. Wash the leaves thoroughly using a salad spinner.

Wash and dry the apple, and cut it into slivers. If the slivers are too big for your liking, go ahead and cut them in half.

Grate your ricotta salata into coarse long slivers. Ricotta salada is a softer cheese and the pieces will break into smaller ones.

Combine all ingredients in a salad bowl.

To make the dressing, whisk together the chopped shallots, lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil. Toss the dressing with the salad.

For the best taste, let your salad sit for a little bit to allow the dressing to soak into the kale leaves.

OTHER SALAD RECIPES YOU MAY ENJOY

• Balsamic Beet Salad with Arugula, Goat Cheese and Walnuts
• Spinach Salad with Pomegranate Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
• Kale and Blueberry Salad with Grapefruit Vinaigrette