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“Hey!” Amanita said, reaching across the counter to nudge Nomi over to her cutting board. “Look at my heart beet!” She had delicately pushed at the center of the beet she’d been slicing so that it slipped gently into a stylized heart on the cutting board, sitting in the haze of magenta its juice had already painted onto the light bamboo.
“Ugh, shut up,” Nomi giggled exasperatedly as she rolled her eyes, wiping her hands on the towel slung across her shoulder and digging her phone out of her pocket to take a picture of it nonetheless. “You’re terrible.”
“I know,” Amanita said, leaning across to give her a quick kiss. “It’s one of my better features.”
Nomi tapped through to add the photo to the group text about the potluck they were going to at their friends Adina and Melissa’s house. Neets is really putting her heart into this dish.
“So, no walnuts, but tahini is okay?” Nomi asked, putting the phone down and returning her attention to the lemon she was juicing.
“Right. Adina is allergic to tree nuts, Ruby is vegan and both Adina and Melissa are gluten-free,” Amanita listed out patiently. “Oh, and Sage can’t have allium, so no onions or garlic.”
“They’re lucky we don’t just bring them a bowl of raw kale and a lemon,” Nomi scoffed.
“You know, some of the folks there might be into it,” Amanita laughed. “I mean, there’s an outside chance Kris might not eat it because they’re breastfeeding right now, but...”
“Good lord,” Nomi laughed.
“I know,” Amanita said apologetically, tossing the beets with olive oil and salt before sliding them into the oven, “But it’s the sharing, the company as much as the food that makes it taste good.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Nomi agreed. “But it’s also easy for you to say. I mean, this is the kind of food your mom makes. You grew up eating stuff like this. My father probably still thinks ketchup is spicy.”
“Yeah, but you like my mom’s cooking,” Amanita said as she started stripping the kale away from its woody stalks.
“Even if it is weird hippie shit,” Nomi said with a little hiccup of a giggle, drizzling the lemon juice into a small bowl of tahini as she stirred.
“Damn right, it is,” Amanita said. “But so am I. To be fair, even my mom sometimes has difficulty with finding potluck dishes that accommodate all the different dietary needs that show up to the table. I mean, she almost always starts to cook by peeling onions and garlic, sometimes even before she knows what she’s making, so she almost lost it the first time she came across an allium allergy. But you can always find something good, especially if people are clear about what they can’t have and bring an open mind about it beyond that.”
“Hey, this dressing is getting thicker, not thinner as I’m stirring in the lemon juice,” Nomi said, nervously puzzled as the beige paste in the bowl in front of her that had darkened oddly and bound up pushed back against her spoon. “Like, it’s really sticky and the color’s changed. Did I fuck it up somehow?”
“No, it’s supposed to do that,” Amanita said, looking across the counter briefly from the colorfully-painted bowl where she had started massaging olive oil and salt into the kale. Nomi looked back at her puzzledly. “Trust me. Peanut sauce does it, too. Just keep adding the liquid and stirring it in well a little at a time and it’ll loosen up and smooth out and get over itself.”
“Get over itself?” Nomi laughed, pouring a little water into the bowl, watching it turn milky as she stirred.
“Change can be hard, even for salad dressing,” Amanita smirked. “Doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.” Nomi felt herself bloom with warmth in her chest. “But seriously, I think everyone has that same ‘Oh, shit’ moment with that at least once.”
The dressing began to smooth out, just as predicted, into a smoothly unctuous sauce. Nomi picked up the spoon to watch it drizzle in ribbons back into the bowl and smiled softly at it. Catching her expression, Amanita smiled warmly across at her.
“Does this look right?” Nomi asked.
“Perfect, sweetie,” Amanita said.
“So what’s left?” Nomi said.
“Pass me the dressing?” Amanita said. She looked at her oily hands as Nomi proffered the bowl. “Actually, why don’t you pour it on. I’m all slippery.”
“Is that a fact?” Nomi said as her eyes fixed wide on her partner.
“Oh, just add the dressing,” Amanita said.
“How much? All of it?” Nomi asked. Amanita looked back and forth between the two bowls.
“Sure, why not,” she said.
“Just dump it on there?”
“Fire when ready, capitan.”
Nomi poured the dressing over the bowl of kale. Amanita scraped out the bowl with her fingers and started massaging the dressing in with both hands.
“Actually, can you add the lentils while you’re at it? They’re in the pyrex with the orange lid in the fridge,” Amanita asked.
“Anything else to do?” Nomi asked as Amanita washed off her hands in the sink after mixing the cold lentils in with the rest of the salad.
“Well, the beets have another 20 minutes or so in the oven after this, but there’s really nothing else to do until they’re done,” Amanita said, wiping off her hands and turning the beets in the oven.
“I guess we’ll just have to think of some way to keep ourselves occupied for the next twenty minutes or so,” Nomi said with a knowing smirk, pulling the towel from her shoulder and dropping it on the counter.
“What ever will we do?” Amanita asked, raising an eyebrow pointedly as she stepped around to Nomi’s side of the counter in her bare feet. Nomi bit her lip as she looked at her.
“Oh, I have a couple ideas that might keep us busy for as long as it takes,” she smiled as her hand slipped into Amanita’s, still slightly damp from cooking.
Kale Salad with Roasted Beets, Lentils and Tahini Dressing
(And, yes, it is vegan, gluten-free and nut-free. I usually make it with garlic, though.)
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch kale (I hate the bunch as a measurement - this should be 1 to 1½ lbs with the stems in)
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 Tblsp olive oil for kale
- ½ c. puy lentils or green lentils
- 1 c. water for cooking lentils
- ½-1 lb. beets
- 1-2 Tblsp. Olive oil for beets
- Salt & pepper to season beets
Dressing:
- ⅓ c. tahini
- Juice and zest of 1 lemon (~¼ c. juice)
- ⅓ c. water
- ½ tsp. Ground cumin
- 1 tsp. salt optional:
- 1 Tblsp. maple syrup
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
Note: both beets and lentils can be done several days ahead of time and added cold from the fridge, but the whole thing can hang out in the fridge for quite a while. Part of the advantage of the robustness of kale.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut the beet or beets into approximately 1” chunks, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, spread on a baking sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until tender when poked with a knife, turning once.
Rinse lentils and add to saucepan with a cup of water. Set over high heat until boiling, then reduce heat to low for 20-30 minutes or until water is absorbed.
Strip the kale from its stems and slice into 1” ribbons. This is easier if you roll up the leaves tightly. Alternately, you can just rip up the leaves into bite sized pieces. Add about a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of olive oil and a little splash of the lemon juice and work it into the kale with your fingers. The salt and acid will help tenderize the kale and the little massage helps jump start the process.
Start the dressing by adding the lemon juice and zest to the tahini. It will, as depicted, bind up initially. Add the water a little drizzle at a time and stir in thoroughly before adding more. Stir in salt, cumin and garlic (if using) whenever you feel like it.
Even if the beets and lentils aren’t ready, add the dressing to the kale. If either or both were cooked ahead of time, add those. It’s okay to add the beets and lentils warm, but the dish is ultimately best served at room temperature.