Kale, Apple & Carrot Salad -- a fall #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Finally, after several years, our Liberty apple tree gave us a decent crop. Then, I came home from the farm stand with a beautiful bag of carrots, and a friend gave my hunny a bag of kale. My little brain decided those three things ought to go together, so I went searching. 

What I found was a Kale, Apple & Carrot Salad with Apple Cider Vinegar Honey Dressing, by Jenna Braddock, a dietician who sings the praises of raw veggies and raw apple cider vinegar. A recipe is often, for a me, a place to start, I’ve adapted this one quite a bit. I cut the amount of vegetables in half for our small household. At the last minute, I tossed in a bowl of toasted pecans I spotted on the kitchen counter, and because the dressing was a bit bland, added a pinch of cayenne. Both are entirely optional. On a later remake, I used a mix of roasted unsalted nuts and added chunks of feta— a firm goat cheese would be a nice addition, too. 

Use a firm apple, more toward the sweet side than the tart. 

The result is tasty and pretty. You will likely have more dressing than you need, but that’s okay—it keeps, and you’ll want to make this again. The dressing didn’t make the leftovers soggy, as I’d expected – not even the pecans – but I do suggest you wait to dress the salad until just before serving. 

This salad went beautifully with grilled salmon with a creamy dill sauce and roasted potatoes. You could also add cooked shrimp to the salad to serve as a main dish. 

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing. Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Kale, Apple & Carrot Salad 

1 cup baby kale, cut into fine ribbons

1 large apple, unpeeled, julienned

1 heaping cup carrots, juilienned (about 2 carrots)

3 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

sea salt

fresh black pepper, to taste 

a pinch of cayenne (optional)

1/4 to ½ cup toasted pecans or other nuts (optional)

½ cup feta, broken in chunks (optional; not pictured)

In your serving bowl, combine kale, apples and carrots. 

Use a pint jar with a tight-fitting lid to make the dressing. Pour the vinegar, oil, and honey into the jar. Add salt and pepper and the optional cayenne. Seal jar and shake well to mix; when dressing emulsifies, check the flavor and adjust the seasonings. 

Dress salad just before serving. Toss gently to coat the raw vegetables. Top with optional nuts and cheese, and serve immediately.

Serves 4 as a side salad. 

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

TO ERR IS CUMIN:A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, out now in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: One person’s treasure is another’s trash. . .

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, wants nothing more than to live a quiet life for a change, running her shop and working with customers eager to spice up their cooking. But when she finds an envelope stuffed with cash in a ratty old wingback left on the curb, she sets out to track down the owner.

Pepper soon concludes that the chair and its stash may belong to young Talia Cook, new in town and nowhere to be seen. Boz Bosworth, an unemployed chef Pepper’s tangled with in the past, shows up looking for the young woman, but Pepper refuses to help him search. When Boz is found floating in the Ship Canal, only a few blocks from Talia’s apartment, free furniture no longer seems like such a bargain.

On the hunt for Talia, Pepper discovers a web of connections threatening to ensnare her best customer. The more she probes, the harder it gets to tell who’s part of an unsavory scheme of corruption—and who might be the next victim.

Between her quest for an elusive herb, helping her parents remodel their new house, and setting up the Spice Shop’s first cooking class, Pepper’s got a full plate. Dogged by a sense of obligation to find the rightful owner of the hidden treasure, she keeps on showing up and asking questions.

One mistake, and she could find herself cashing out. . .

Available at Amazon  * Barnes & Noble  * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * And your local booksellers!

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 books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former 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.