The Cooking, Eating, Healing Show: Episode 3—Scrumptious Kale Salad

Episode 3: Scrumptious Kale Salad is ready to view!

Thank you for your patience in waiting for this new episode. I recorded it on a Friday in March 2024, a few days after my sweet mama needed a 911 call and ended up in the ER. I was quite frazzled as you can imagine, but was in a space also of needing to keep my routine going (code for needing to feel in control of my life!), so I pushed ahead and did the recording. As a result, there are many issues with this episode, especially with the audio! And I’m totally okay with sharing it with all of its imperfections because one of my main purposes on this planet is to role model imperfection :)

In the two months that followed the recording, I became a grandmother, my mom died, and we moved to a new house and a new town.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever finish editing the episode, let alone be able to focus on my work at all, due to the amount of change and grief I was experiencing. I wandered around most of the summer in a daze, getting adjusted to my new space and dealing with all of the tasks that come after someone dies. But healing is happening, especially because of the time I get to spend with my adorable grandson. He is a delight! When I’m with him I’m not plugged into phones or computers, my brain slows down, and I am fully in the moment. This slowing down is allowing my brain to be more creative in other times.

I don’t know what’s coming in my future, but I’m grateful to have found the energy to complete this episode and share it with you.

This recipe was given to me by my friend Moji, whom I met at our mountain retreat over a decade ago. She told me this summer that she got it from a friend who got it from the Esalen Institute. The only thing I’ve changed is I use black sesame seeds instead of brown ones, but either will work.

As always, in this episode, I share some personal stories about my relationship with food, and some thoughts about intuitive—sensual—eating and balance (which I don't believe actually exists except in brief moments!).

This is a fun recipe to create in a community gathering because there is a lot of tedious work to be done. My mom and I used to have a glass of wine while she stripped the kale and I worked on the other parts of the recipe. So Mama, this episode is dedicated to you. Thank you for all the fun we had in the kitchen!

Below you’ll find the recipe, along with links to resources mentioned in the video, as well as others that may be helpful.

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Scrumptious Kale Salad Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 bunches kale (Can be any type but I prefer lacinato (dino) kale or green leafy)
1/2 red onion, sliced into slivers
1/3 cup lemon juice, about 2 - 3 lemons depending in their size (I prefer using Meyer lemons for their delicious flavor, but any lemons will do)
1/3 cup Bragg's Liquid Aminos
1/3 cup olive oil (I said in the episode that I use Napa Valley Naturals, but since I recorded their prices shot up, so I'm using less expensive brands now)
1/4 - 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 - 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 - 1/3 cup black (or regular) sesame seeds

Directions:

• Rinse and dry kale and set aside
• Cut onion in half, set aside one half, peel and slice the other
• Make dressing: Whisk together lemon juice, Bragg's, and olive oil
• Add dressing to onions (if using a 2-cup measuring cup to measure dressing ingredients, you can add the onions right into the dressing and squish them down in to marinate)
• Prep kale: strip leaves off and slice kale into 1/4 inch ribbons. Add to big salad bowl
• Toast seeds: In hot pan, add pumpkin seeds and toss (stir) until browned (a good indication they are done is when they start to pop and crackle). Set aside and then toast sunflower seeds until golden brown. Add to bowl with pumpkin seeds. Add black sesame seeds to hot pan. Turn off burner and toss the seeds for a few minutes (they cook fast!). Add sesame seeds to bowl with other seeds and mix.
• Pour the hot seeds over the kale. It helps the kale wilt a bit. I like to toss them in with the kale before adding other ingredients.
• Scoop onions out of the dressing and lay over the top of the kale.
• Pour dressing over the salad.
• Massage! Get your hands in and take some time to knead the ingredients together. You want to do this for many minutes in order to break down the structure of the kale, which is what makes the salad so tasty and easy to chew.

That's it! It takes a while to prep, but the recipe is actually quite easy to prepare. This salad is delicious as a side dish with meats, fish, pasta, or by itself. As I mentioned in the video, it's great on its own with a big hunk of crusty French bread with butter! Or in your eggs for breakfast :)

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Final Thoughts:

Remember to experiment with eating different amounts of this salad. It's serious roughage, so great for digestion when eaten in amounts that are right for your unique body. With all foods, experimentation is the way to become an intuitive eater. Trial and error, trial and success. Listening to what you want, getting as close to that as you can, then asking yourself (your body included) how you feel after your meal. What worked? What didn't? If you do this without judgment, you learn heaps about your own body and what it needs and desires.

Also remember to honor your own body and what foods work and don't for you. Gluten intolerant? Eat a piece of gluten-free bread with the salad instead of a baguette. Don't tolerate soy? Use coconut liquid aminos instead of regular.

Please remember that no matter how long you live, life is short and oh so precious. I hope you can delight in food instead of fear it. I hope you can honor your ancestors (known or unknown) by allowing your body to be the shape and size it was destined to be. I hope you can savor life through all of your senses, even during the painful moments. We laugh, we cry, we celebrate, we grieve.

And mostly, we love, ourselves as well as others. As my mom said over and over the week before she died, "It's all about love. Love is what matters."

Please let me know how your kale salad turns out. Send me an email to info@conniesobczak.com. I would love to hear your thoughts and stories!

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Resources:

• Embracing Your Critical Voice: The Gateway to Self-Love: my TEDx Talk
• Embody: Learning to Love Your Unique Body (and quiet that critical voice!): My book about my work with The Body Positive. The book’s message is rooted in the philosophy that people inherently possess the wisdom necessary to make healthy choices and to live in balance. It emphasizes that self-love, acceptance of genetic diversity in body size, celebration of the unique beauty of every individual, and intuitive self-care are fundamental to achieving good physical and emotional health.
• ‍My Website ‍
• The Body Positive courses: Check out the Be Body Positive Fundamentals course to help yourself and others have more peace and joy in your body/life, or take the Be Body Positive Facilitator Training and teach the life-changing curriculum to others in schools, community settings, medical or mental health practices, as a coach, etc.
• ‍The National Alliance for Eating Disorders: Here you'll find resources to help if you're struggling with an eating disorder. They also have a hotline.

Please remember that my show is for educational and informational purposes only, and is shared with the understanding that it is meant to complement, not substitute for, professional medical and/or psychological services. Please reach out to the National Alliance for Eating Disorders (link shared above) if you need help.