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I plan on making a raw kale salad for a large group and was wondering if there is another technique besides massaging it with my hands, which will likely get sore after breaking down a large quantity of kale.
Other than cooking or slicing the raw kale, is there a shortcut or tool I could use to make easier work of massaging the fresh kale?
If you put batches of cut kale into a ricer like the Oxo one shown below, and give it a good hard squeeze until a little of the kale juice comes out, it will make easier work of the massaging process. You should see the kale come out broken down as much as when massaged by hand. If not, squeeze again.
I do it over the salad bowl to capture the juices as well as any dropped leaves. It seemed to work more easily with lacinato (dinosaur) kale than curly leaf.
Huffington Post, in their article on kale massage, says:
If rubbing your greens is not something you can get into, kale also calms its wintery ways if tossed in olive oil and left to sit overnight.
