- Okay now, ready? This is how you de-pit an avocado.
I learned it on TikTok.
(laughs) Ha!
All I did was take my thumb
and push it through from the back.
This one is very soft and perfect, so that happened.
(tongue clicking)
This is my therapy.
This is how I get my time to myself.
This is the only time I have to myself,
is when I chop. (laughs)
Hi, I'm Melissa Ben-Ishay, CEO of Baked by Melissa.
You probably know me for my cupcakes,
but on TikTok, I'm known for my salads.
Today we're making my kale Cobb. I'm gonna show you how.
The first thing you're gonna need are shallots.
These happens to be bigger shallots.
I like to cut them in 1/2
and then just slice them into thin ribbons.
They separate for you, because they're in the onion family.
I'm gonna put the shallots into this medium-sized bowl.
Then I'm going to get them fully coated in flour,
season them with salt and pepper.
The flour is going to help make them super crispy
for the topping of the salad.
I like to use avocado oil
when I'm frying or using high heat.
(gentle upbeat music)
(shallots sizzling)
I need to be patient.
You could take it off now if you want, but I'm crazy.
I live my life on the edge.
They could be browner, but they're good.
They'd be crunchy like this.
I'm playing with them too much.
I just have so much fun zhuzhing.
They're ready. I'm gonna take 'em off.
Tongs are great for this.
Spread 'em out.
Let 'em dry off a bit.
The base of the kale Cobb is kale.
And so what we're gonna do is take some kale.
First thing you do is de-vein the kale.
De-stem the kale.
I'm not a classically trained chef or anything like that.
I just love food.
And I get asked whether
or not I massage my kale on the regular.
I don't. I don't believe in massaging vegetables.
I cut them very fine.
I'm focused on the perfect bite every step of the way
and the way I do it,
I don't think it's necessary to massage my kale.
But you can massage your kale.
I think the reason I choose to cut it is
because I like to leave my leaves whole.
'Cause when you leave your leaves whole, with kale,
this is my kale strategy,
then you could layer, you layer your kale,
and then I, but I just bunch it and roll it,
'cause the more kale you can get in each cubic inch,
the quicker you can chop it.
I'm efficient. I'm a working mom, CEO.
I like to be efficient with my chopping time.
Very slow.
Now it starts to get easier.
And you're just making as thin a ribbon as you can.
Now you just go the other way.
Doesn't have to be...
If you have aggression, you could,
you know, go crazy.
(laughs) You could stop here.
But if you're like me and you enjoy the process,
this is my therapy.
This is how I get my time to myself.
This is the only time I have to myself,
is when I chop. (laughs)
It's not even for myself, it's for TikTok.
It's fine. It's fine.
Gonna be fine.
So this is what you're going for.
There is no need to massage that.
It's, like, already chewed for you. (laughs)
You wind up consuming a lot more greens
when you chop it this way too, because think about it,
if you ripped it, the bowl would almost be full right now.
This way, you're getting so many vitamins and nutrients.
Now we're gonna do the green onions.
These are already cleaned. Very important.
Look, it looks like Easter basket grass, delicious grass.
So now we have our tomatoes, our chicken breasts,
fresh mozz, avocado.
Okay now, ready? This is how you de-pit an avocado.
I learned it on TikTok.
(laughs) Ha!
All I did was take my thumb
and push it through from the back.
This one is very soft and perfect, so that happened.
(tongue clicking)
We're gonna chop 'em all up and add it to the kale Cobb.
(gentle upbeat music)
Add some lemon juice to keep it green.
Gonna gently salt it.
It's very important
that everything you add is all the same size-ish.
So we're gonna make them small.
And you could buy your own pre-cooked chicken breast
for the salad, 'cause it makes it so much easier,
but you could also make your own.
Oh, yeah.
Equally as important to the salad is the dressing.
This is my miso vinaigrette.
People don't know this. (laughs)
These are great if you know how to use them.
That's how you use them.
Every great dressing has a base of lemon juice, olive oil,
and then I usually add a vinegar.
Today we're doing red wine vinegar, white miso paste,
and nutritional yeast, which makes it creamy without cream,
garlic powder, dried oregano, salt.
Don't be shy.
(gentle upbeat music)
This is a crucial step.
(lips smack)
It's perfect.
I'm gonna add the dressing to the salad. Toss it up.
You'll know it's completely incorporated
when all of your greens are fully coated
with the dressing, no dry pieces.
This one looks pretty coated.
Oop, I found a dry one.
I could do this all day. I could do this all day.
I could eat it all day. I could chop it all day.
I just love it.
Ready to serve it and top with our crispy shallots.
This salad is the type of salad you crave.
It's healthy, but also delicious.
It's crunchy. It's satisfying.
You have the crunchy shallots, and kale,
and fresh mozzarell.
I'm sure it comes as no surprise
that I'm obsessed with the perfect bite.
Just like my bite-size cupcakes,
this salad gives you the perfect ratio of flavors
every time.
If you want this recipe, you can go to delish.com.
and for all of my recipes or to purchase bite-size cupcakes,
go to bakedbymelissa.com.
(gentle upbeat music)
(mouse clicks)
(gentle upbeat music)