I first experienced the joy of kale massages at a retreat for student food activists on an anarchist farm in Sebastopol, CA, in 2010. Yes, I fell in love with it so head-over-heels that I still remember exactly where I learned it, and who taught it to me (an adorable deadlocked girl from San Luis Obispo named Anna).
Why did she teach me to knead these dark green spiky leaves? When kale gets a massage, it releases oils that help lubricate it and make it delicious to eat raw (untouched and uncooked it can be a bit abrasive). When you add lemon juice and olive oil, these soak into the leaves, since they’ve been punctured by your kneading. This means every bite of kale is covered in flavor!

Ingredients

Recipe by Chaya-Ryvka Diehl of www.theLivingVision.com (Chaya@theLivingVision.com)

If you have not yet found yourself a full on kale chip addict I am hoping to get you on the wagon. If you are already submerged in the world of kale chips and the cravings that go along with them, I am here to give your pocket book some serious relief as well as introduce you to the wonderful world of cashew free kale chips that will  ROCK YOUR WORLD!!!

Kale chips are so very easy to make, and they do not have to be cashew based to be super delish. These crispy, crunchy, mouthwatering and nutrient dense snacks are a revolutionary addition to anyone's diet! Not to mention that if you find yourself sneaking some deep fried chips every once in a while these are an excellent replacement that WILL hit that scrumptious comfort food snack spot.

Remember that game "telephone" that you'd play as a kid?  One person whispers something into the next person's ear, and that person would whisper what they heard to the next person and after 10 kids, you'd have a totally different phrase?  I love how recipes work kind of like that.  Each person translates some version of a dish that they've learned in the past, and then the next person creates their own rendition... over time we've got a beautifully diverse spread of dishes representing various locales, cultural specialties, dietary needs and creative explosions.

I have the awesome luck of living next to Chandra Gilbert, one of my favorite chefs of all time, and our Director of Operations at Cafe Gratitude.  Chandra is one of those people who appreciates every vegetable that comes into season and knows how to rock simple ingredients into a knock-your-socks-off kind of dish that keeps the flavors of the original ingredients roaring.  In Chandra's neverending generosity, she spent an evening showing me this heart-warming and tantilizing soup recipe and introduced me into making the holy trinity of mirepoix- the base for any soup or sauce from scratch.  I share this recipe with you as a sort of rendition of what she showed me that evening. 

Here is a Free Form version of my favorite Miso soup. It contains many healing, cleansing and supportive foods from the list of beneficial foods as listed on my website, and is SO yummy…taste as you go and make it your own!

Kelp Noodle Miso

1. What lead you to want to become a chef?                        -I loved experimenting with food when I was a little kid; making crazy concoctions that were unrecognizable as food.  Then when I was in my second year at college, all I wanted to do was cook food to bring together my community.  I spent all of my time finding new exciting recipes and preparing meals.  I ended up dropping out of school that year to go to culinary school.  I followed that up with a nutrition education at Bauman College, where I really learned how to feed myself and others in a way I could feel good about.

2. What do you love about food in particular and how has it changed your life?
-I love how food brings people together to create community.  I love thinking about people gathering around food across the ages and our differences and similarities to how we do it today. I also love food as a medium for art.  It is a temporary art that awakens all of the senses.  Food has changed my life in so many ways.  My relationship to food is always growing as I experiment, learn about new ingredients and new methods of preparation.  I love that there is always more to learn too.

3. How long have you been in the industry?
-I started working at my first restaurant when I was 18 and now am 22.  There have been so many facets of the industry to play with.

4. Have you been a chef before?
-I have been a personal Chef, and had my own catering company for a while which was a lot of work and very fun at the same time.  

5. What were you doing before you came to Cafe Gratitude and what do you plan to do next?
-I was teaching cooking classes, which I am still doing.  I just started a new series in Windsor that is for Cancer Prevention and survival through the non-profit The Cancer Project.  I want to continue these classes for a long time; they are very rewarding and fun.  

6. What is surprising and unique about you that most people would not know about you?
-I am a circus performer at heart.  I love doing headstands and spinning fire poi.  I would still love to run away to the circus!

7. What's your favorite vegetable and fruit?
-My favorite vegetable these days is kale because it tastes so good, is so versatile and is SO nutrient dense.  My favorite fruit right now is...well, all citrus fruit because I am so excited about the abundance on the trees right now.  I love citrus season!

8. Thank you for sharing and I loved hearing your inspiring story!
-Thank you for asking the questions!  It is fun telling my story once in a while and realizing how far I've come in the past few years.  And my relationship to my story always changes, which is so fun to watch. 

We are home from Costa Rica where we led our Kindred Spirit workshop. It was amazing! So many wonderful people joined us from around the world. We love the generosity of folks that allows for the work we share to be deep and transformative. How fortunate we are. We also drummed to the dolphins (over 400 one day) from a boat in the most beautifully clear blue water ever! Thanks Sierra for sharing your passion for the dolphins with us all. 

We leave for Los Angeles and the opening of the first Cafe Gratitude there early tomorrow morning. Take a look at eaterla.com for a first time view of the new Cafe.  Lisa Bonbright headed up the design team and over saw the construction and she did a fabulous job, wait until you see all the details, thank you so much, Lisa. We are so pleased to be partnering with Chris and Lisa. The LA team is ready to go and we are so proud of them all. 

Ingredients:

• One bunch of kale (any kind)
• 1 cup of cooked quinoa
• 6 dry or fresh shitake mushroom
• 4 - 5 slices of ginger (1/4 of the normal size ginger root)
• 1 Tbsp black sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp of tamari
• 1 tsp of himalayan salt
• Lots of love :)

Now that the holidays are almost over, my attention has shifted from sharing warm, hearty cooked meals with family to preparing light, cleansing foods by myself in my sacred space.  My partner and I, both members of the Cafe Gratitude community, are preparing to do a juice fast together to ring in the new year and to help prepare our bodies for a whole new season of growth, release, and lessons.  Amanda and I are both thrilled that Terces, co-founder and community leader of Cafe Gratitude , will be joining us as she begins a second year of the Juice Club.  In 2010, she committed to a full year of juicing for the first week of each month. This year, she has decided to renew her commitment and continue to juice (and to invite her community to juice) into the new year.  It is amazing how wonderful it can feel to drink juice and feel your body go through the experience of cleansing and renewing.

Terces has blogged to the community throughout her journey, recounting her daily experiences of juicing to encourage and inspire those who have joined her in the Juice Club:

"I shared with one of our managers today that one of the things I notice when juicing is that whenever I pass by a mirror or window and see my reflection I am surprised that I look "better" than I think I am going to.... and when I am not juicing I often experience myself as not looking better than I think I will. I am not sure what it is, I just notice that I have that experience."