Kale, Orange, and Cannellini Salad - a zesty summer recipe from Leslie Budewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Not long ago, I spotted a reference to a kale and white bean salad with oranges, dressed with olive oil and a splash of orange juice. I thought it sounded like a great combo, but that it needed a little more zip. None of the recipes I found quite matched what my mouth and eye wanted, so I riffed off a basic recipe and came up with this. The citrus and citrus vinaigrette give this salad a refreshing, zesty spark perfect for this time of year. Make it into a meal salad by adding cooked shrimp or chunks of cooked salmon or chicken.

Now, I know there are kale haters in the world, and if you’re one, this salad might change your mind. Or not. Massaging the kale—simply rubbing it with your hands and a little salt and olive oil—removes the occasional toughness, and leaves it soft and tender. You can buy kale by the bunch or bagged and chopped kale. Baby kale is a good choice, if available. I’ve never grown kale—maybe next year. (The gardener’s refrain!)

You will note no almonds or feta in the ingredients photos. I didn’t think about adding them until I was putting the salad together. Sliced onion is impossible to measure. Eyeball it, keeping in mind that red onion can be strong and tolerance differs.

As my description suggests, this is a flexible salad so add anything your little mouth desires. Enjoy!

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

Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Kale, Orange, and Cannellini Salad

For the salad: 

1/4 cup sliced or slivered almonds 

5-6 cups kale 

1-15 ounce can cannellini or other white beans 

1/4 cup red onion 

1 orange 

1/4 cup crumbled feta, optional

For the dressing:

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil 

1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 clove garlic, minced 

1 teaspoon sugar

¼ teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste 

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more to taste 

Optional additions: 

cooked shrimp

chunks of cooked salmon or chicken 

Make the salad:

Heat the oven—a toaster oven is handy, if the weather is hot—to 300 degrees. Spread the almonds on a metal baking sheet and toast about ten minutes, then remove from oven. Remember that nuts continue to cook and take on color as they cool. 

Lay the kale leaves on a large cutting board and cut alongside the stems to remove the leaves, or simply tear them off the stem with your hands. (You can leave the stems on if you’re using tender baby kale.) Chop or tear into bite-sized pieces and rinse well in a salad spinner, then place in a large bowl. Add a teaspoon of olive oil and a good-sized pinch of salt, then rub the leaves together with your hands until the kale begins to glisten with the oil. 

Rinse and drain the beans. Slice the onion thinly. Peel and section the orange, then cut the sections into quarters or thirds. Add beans, onion, and orange to the kale. 

Make the dressing: 

Place all the ingredients for the dressing in a small, wide-mouthed glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake well until emulsified—that is, until it takes on a creamy appearance. 

Assemble the salad: 

Just before serving, shake the dressing again and add to the kale mixture. Toss well to coat. Add toasted almonds and crumbled feta, along with the shrimp or other additions and toss lightly. Serve. 

With almonds 

With almonds, feta, and shrimp.

Serves 6 as a side salad, 4 for a meal. Leftovers will keep a day or two. 

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .  

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills. 

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket. 

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf. 

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

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

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!

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. Watch for Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.

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. 

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.

Please Welcome Guest Daryl Wood Gerber! #Giveaway

Peg:  I am thrilled to welcome my good friend Daryl Wood Gerber (AKA Avery Aames) to the blog today.  At one time, Daryl was a founding member of Mystery Lovers Kitchen and I'm thrilled to see her back again today with a delicious recipe for a green smoothie.

 

DARYL: I’ve been busy the past year. A TWINKLE OF TROUBLE, the 5^th in the Fairy Garden Mysteries, came out in the spring.  Then MURDER ON THE PAGE, the 1st in the LITERARY DINING MYSTERIES came out in October. And now, in March, the 1^st in the AROMA WELLNESS MYSTERIES came out! Lots of writing. Lots of editing. Lots of fun.

 

In ESSENCE OF FOUL PLAY, Emma Brennan is opening a day spa along with a gift shop and café.  It’s located in a charming courtyard in Carmel-by-the-Sea. At the spa, customers will enjoy massages, facials, mindful meditations, and more. In the shop, customers can browse geodes, gemstones, and wind chimes, as well as aromatic candles and meditative guides. In the café, the chef creates “good-for-you” treats. Anything from protein bars and healthy muffins to chewy cookies made with honey and power-packed smoothies.  The whole vibe is supposed to bring calm to not only the spa’s customers, but to you, the reader, as well. Yes, a murder might be in the mix, but relax. All’s well that ends well.

 

You might not think this smoothie is for you, particularly because it’s a “green” drink. Also, it’s  made with kale, and kale can be quite bitter on its own.  But fret not!  The green is a minty green—quite pretty!  AND You won’t taste any bitterness. The pineapple, banana, and honey make sure of that. This smoothie keeps me going all day long. I hope you’ll give it a try.  

 

Big hint: I purchased a Ninja blender which is a perfect size for making single or double smoothies. It’s super powerful and easy to clean.

 

Enjoy.

 

Kale-Banana Protein Smoothie

 

 

(Yield: 1)

1/2 cup chopped ice

2 cups kale, chopped, no stems

3/4 cups milk

1 medium-sized banana chopped

1/4 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt

¼ cup pineapple chunks

1 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon protein powder (coconut protein powder is great!)

1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter, if desired

 

 

 

 

 

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  

 

 

Easy peasy.

 

Emma Brennan may have her head in a cloud of eucalyptus, but her feet are firmly planted on the ground in breathtaking Carmel, California, as she prepares to open her new spa business, Aroma Wellness. But all the reiki, shiatsu, and massage in the world can’t help her relax when she’s accused of murder . . .

                        

Everything is going smoothly as Emma prepares for the grand opening of the spa. The sales shop and café are stocked with meditative and delicious goodies, from essential oils to avocado masks and pricky pear massages. In fact, there isn’t a whiff of trouble until that morning when Emma is shocked to learn that a rival spa owner has been bludgeoned . . . with an item from the goodwill basket Emma gave her. Worse, a witness is pointing the finger at Emma . . .

 

With the police treating Emma like she’s the only suspect,

she’s left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Incensed by the accusation, but empowered by her cousin, her nana, and her trusted Birman cat, Vivi, Emma reviews the potpourri of possible suspects, determined to uncover the essence of foul play—before she’s cold-pressed for murder

 

BIO:

Daryl Wood Gerber is the Agatha Award-winning and nationally bestselling author of the Literary Dining Mysteries, Aroma Wellness Mysteries, Fairy Garden Mysteries and Cookbook Nook Mysteries. As Avery Aames, she penned the popular Cheese Shop Mysteries. In addition, Daryl writes suspense novels, including the well-received The Son’s Secret, Girl on the Run, and the popular Aspen Adams trilogy. Daryl has published a standalone Christmas romance, Hope for the Holidays, and her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies. Fun Tidbit: as an actress, Daryl appeared in “Murder, She Wrote.” She loves to cook, garden, read, and walk her frisky Goldendoodle. Also she has been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. You can learn more on her website: https://darylwoodgerber.com

GIVEAWAY

 

A choice of A TWINKLE OF TROUBLE, MURDER ON THE PAGE, or ESSENCE OF FOUL PLAY, paper or e-book to one commenter.

LINKS:

 

WEBSITE: https://darylwoodgerber.com

FACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/darylwoodgerber

BOOKBUB: https://bookbub.com/authors/daryl-wood-gerber

YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/woodgerb1

INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/darylwoodgerber

GOODREADS: https://goodreads.com/darylwoodgerber

BLUE SKY: @darylwoodgerber.bsky.social

AMAZON: amazon: https://bit.ly/Daryl_Wood_Gerber_page

https://bit.ly/3SenzVy

NEWSLETTER: https://darylwoodgerber.com/contact-media/

 

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.

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.