Lemon and Kale Inspiration Brightens Up My Leftovers

Kimberly Wilson, the founder of my yoga studio and home away from home, Tranquil Space, has a wonderful blog called Tranquility du Jour.  Recently, she added a new feature to her blog, Meatless Mondays, that features a vegetarian friendly dish every, well, Monday.

This Monday's recipe was Kale + Quinoa Pilaf, which looked scrumptious.  Since I've been promising my husband to make better use of our leftovers, I decided to incorporate the flavors from the pilaf into a dish that used the farro I made earlier this week.

First, I made a dressing with one finely chopped shallot bulb, the juice of half a lemon, two tablespoons of olive oil, freshly ground black pepper and sea salt.  Next, I chiffonaded some tuscan kale into ribbons.  Once the kale was ready, I put the farro in the microwave for one minute to warm it, stirred in the kale, and microwaved it for another minute.  I then poured the dressing over the hot kale and farro and stirred it well until it was well combined and I could smell the lemon.

The lemon and olive oil dressing is extremely simple and makes a huge difference in flavor!  It's bright, crisp and light, and made our whole kitchen smell like lemony goodness.  Husband ate and enjoyed as well.  Note to self - use lemon and olive oil dressings more often!

This dish is a great example of how you don't need a ton of time to prepare a healthy meal.  It took a whopping five minutes to put together.  Having the some farro pre-cooked definitely helped, but if I had made this with quinoa, it wouldn't have taken much longer.