This bright, crunchy salad will excite your eyes as much as your taste buds, and is perfect for a potluck or a big backyard family meal.
This salad is best served when the chickpeas are slightly warm or at room temperature.
Mix kale, cocoa nibs, bacon, and shallot in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Coat well with the dressing. Arrange persimmon wheels on the salad after it's put on the plate so they do not break.
Dressing:
1. Heat 2 tablespoons (30 milliliters) of the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and cook, stirring and adding small amounts of the stock to help steam the onion, for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until fragrant.
Fresh kale is wilted ever so slightly by tender-crisp, hot onions -- and glazed with reduced vinegar before being graced with freshly made croutons, shaved cheese, and figs (fresh or dried). A single pan handles all the parts of this recipe that need heat, and the flavor that accumulates in there is absorbed by the bread as it toasts. Deliciousness builds, step by step, and the results are glorious. (My feelings about this dish are pretty much summed up in the yield estimate.)
4 to 6 Servings
Charred on the outside, raw on the inside was my destiny. Everything changed with two discoveries by Sally: this lusciously spiced ginger-miso sauce and microwaving eggplant slices before they hit the grill. You cannot mess this up, no way, no how. (Why it never occurred to me, I’ll never know.)
If I had to choose one dish alone to represent my childhood, it would be this.