Kale and Avocado Salad

With three feet of snow outside and bitterly cold walks home from the hospital every day, most days I find myself craving warm soups, roasted vegetables, hot bread fresh from the oven. You know, winter foods.

And yet, every once in a while, I can't bear the thought of one more day of some iteration of winter vegetable soup.  I begin to crave fresh fruit and summer salads, things that aren't baked or roasted or boiled before being eaten.

That's where this salad comes in. It's wonderfully fresh, but still feels like winter. It's a "same old" winter vegetable (kale, which I love in almost all forms) infused with a new kind of flavor. It's January's version of a summer picnic's guacamole, disguised as a dressing for kale. It's absolutely delicious (in fact, my carnivorous boyfriend, absolutely insisted that I make this again).

Oh, and it's super easy and takes 5 minutes and looks impressive.

This recipe, like many, is adapted from one of my mother's. As with all of her recipes, when I asked her how to make it, she said "Oh, I don't know, I just throw together the ingredients. I don't really have a recipe". As with all of her recipes, it always turns out perfectly. So feel free to change it around amount-wise.

Kale and Avocado Salad

• 1 bunch kale, washed and torn into bite-size pieces (use the thinnest kale you can find, like dinosaur kale)
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 lemon
• olive oil, to taste/texture
• salt, to taste

Use your hands to mash the avocado up with the kale, olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Stir in the garlic. Serve.