Kale with halva and raisins

Winter

It’s pretty easy to grow kale at home. Even if you don’t have much of a garden, it’ll get along perfectly happily in big flowerpots. Growing your own means you can pick it whenever you fancy and the leaves are usually really tender. I’m using young curly kale leaves in this salad. They have a deep, iron-y flavour with a hint of bitter (it’s not lettuce). I find kale irresistible, but occasionally it likes something sweet to carry it over the finish line. That’s where the halva comes in – and what a win, what a win!

Serves 4

Ingredients

50g (1¾oz) raisins

50ml (1¾oz) apple juice

a large colander of young curly kale leaves

juice of ½ lemon

75g (2½oz) halva

2–3 teaspoons sesame seeds

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the dressing

1 tablespoon tahini

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

½ garlic clove, finely grated or crushed

1 teaspoon runny honey

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Method

Place the raisins in a small bowl, add the apple juice and allow the raisins a little time to plump up.

Meanwhile, strip the kale leaves from the coarser stalks and tear up any larger leaves into smaller bits. Give the leaves a wash and spin them dry. Pop the kale into a bowl and add the lemon juice and some salt and pepper. Tumble the kale around the bowl and give it a light scrunching with your hands. Set aside.

Spoon all the ingredients for the dressing into a jam jar with salt and pepper to taste. Drain the soaked raisins, reserving the soaking juice and add this to the jar. (Set the raisins aside.) Put the lid on the jar and give the jar a good shake to combine.

Spoon half the dressing over the kale leaves and tumble everything together. Turn the dressed leaves out onto a large platter. Crumble over the halva and sprinkle over the raisins and the sesame seeds. Finally, spoon over the remaining dressing, season and serve.

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