Apple, Kale, and Cheddar Crisp Salad -- #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Kale, apple, and cheddar make a terrific fall salad, and we enjoyed this one tremendously. 

We used a dry white cheddar we had on hand; any sharp or full-flavored cheddar will be delish. The original recipe called for making double the cheese and nuts, saying we’d be glad of the leftovers; we were, but I’ve cut the amounts back to what you’ll need for this salad. Yes, using powdered sugar and water seems odd, but the nuts were not sweet, and the water helps the nuts and spices stick together. 

The salad is a great side dish, with chicken, sauteed shrimp, or beef. I sliced a hardboiled egg on to the leftovers for lunch the next day, and it was delish. 

Enjoy!

Apple, Kale, and Cheddar Crisp Salad 

(Adapted from the Smitten Kitchen blog) 

For the crispy stuff: 

½ cup sharp cheddar, coarsely grated 

½ cup slivered or coarsely chopped sliced almonds

1 tablespoons powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne (optional) 

For the dressing: 

1 small shallot, minced

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon smooth Dijon-style mustard

1 tablespoon plain yogurt (regular or Greek) 

6 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the salad: 

6 ounces kale, washed, woody stems and rib removed, sliced 

1 large crisp apple, halved, cored, and cut thin (cut just before using to avoid browning) 

Heat oven to 400°F.

For the crispy stuff: Line a small rimmed baking sheet or pan with parchment paper. (The photographs show a half-sheet pan, as directed in the original.) Spread the cheddar evenly over half the parchment, in a thick rectangle. 

In a colander, rinse almonds under cold water and shake off excess liquid. In a small bowl, toss wet almonds with powdered sugar, salt, and optional cayenne until evenly coated. Spread on the other half of the baking sheet in an even layer. 

Bake almonds and cheddar together for 6 to 9 minutes, until the cheese is melted into a lacy, evenly deep golden brown crisp and the almonds are dark at the edges and lightly golden throughout. Watch the pan closely, as both cheese and nuts can easily overbake. Check at 6 minutes, then every minute until the pan is just right. Remove and let cool while you finish the salad.

For the dressing: In a medium bowl, combine shallot and apple cider vinegar. Whisk in mustard and yogurt, then drizzle in olive oil and continue to whisk. Season salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Assemble the salad: In a large wide bowl, toss greens with dressing. Arrange the apple slices over the greens. Scatter clusters of almonds over over the salad. Blot cheese crisp if necessary, then break into large bite-size pieces and scatter them over the salad. Season the salad with additional salt and pepper, if you’d like, and serve immediately. 

Serves 4. 

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, my publisher is bringing out stand-alone editions of readers’ favorites from Carried to the Grave and Other Stories. The second selection, after An Unholy Death, is the holiday short story “The Christmas Stranger.”

Amid the holiday rush of keeping the shelves stocked and filling orders for for the Merc, the grocery her family has run for more than a century, proprietor Erin Murphy treasures the way her tight-knit community of Jewel Bay seems to grow even closer during the Christmas season. And this year, when she slows down to do a simple favor for a mysterious stranger, he shows his thanks with a small, quiet gesture—a gift that changes lives, and so much more . . . 

Available in ebook November 14, 2023 -- pre-order now!  

BETWEEN A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE: A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

It's the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change. 

 

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown–International District, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit?

 

But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold Rush, a long-closed residential hotel, questions leap out. Who was he? What was he doing in the dust-encrusted herbal pharmacy in the hotel's basement? Why was the pharmacy closed up—and why are the owners so reluctant to talk? 

 

With each new discovery, Pepper find herself asking new questions and facing more brick walls. 

 

Then questions arise about Roxanne and her relationship to Pepper's boyfriend Nate, away fishing in Alaska. Between her worries and her struggle to hire staff at the Spice Shop, Pepper has her hands and her heart full. Still, she can't resist the lure of the Gold Rush and its tangled history of secrets and lies stretching back nearly a century. 

 

But the killer is on her tail, driven by hidden demons and desires. As Pepper begins to expose the long-concealed truth, a bigger question emerges: Can she uncover the secrets of the Gold Rush Hotel without being pushed from the wok into the fire?

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.