Ah, the dreaded kale. Are YOU wondering how to cook kale? The first year I did a CSA (community supported agriculture, where you purchase a share and get 1-2 bags of vegetables each week from a farm) I had no idea what anything was. There was a large chalkboard indicating how much of each thing you were supposed to pick up. Luckily it was listed in order, so by process of elimination I could determine what the mystery vegetables were. One of the things that were most difficult to differentiate were the leafy greens.
At first I didn’t even try to keep the names straight. I just put “greens you’re supposed to cook” in one bag and “greens for salad” in another. Ever have a salad that made you cry and tasted like horseradish? I have. That was before I knew the difference between lettuce, arugula, radicchio, etc. But today we’ll focus on kale.
For three years, I chopped it up and used it in scrambled eggs. Or gave it away to our friends, who tried cooking with kale and decided it wasn’t for them. That stem sure is tough. Then last summer I took a “cooking with greens” class and discovered that you’re not supposed to eat the stem – or if you do, it needs to be cooked separately. That was a huge “aha!” moment. All the ideas below are for de-stemmed kale. My dog LOVES to chew on the stalks. Or you can save the stem for soup. So here, without further ado, is the
Top 10 Things to Do with Kale
- Chop it up, saute’, and scramble with eggs.
- Add a handful to yogurt, berries, and blend to make a green smoothie.
- For a healthful addition to a cold pasta salad, add chopped kale to the pasta the last 10 minutes of the boil. Drain. Add pesto or your favorite oil and vinegar dressing and additional chopped vegetables (a great way to get rid of those random vegetables!)
- Kale chips.
- Add to your favorite stir fry recipe.
- Add to any soup.
- Greens in peanut sauce.
- Saute’ and add to your favorite hummus recipe (pretty AND nutritious!)
- Confetti Kale.
- Kale Potato Soup.
What are your favorite kale recipes?
It all sounds delicious 🙂 Especially the potato soup. I don’t know if we have ever had that. Maybe I will pick up some kale at the market tonight.
.-= Life with Kaishon´s last blog ..Peaceful =-.
In making kale can i saute it in olive olive and fresh garlic will that be good
of course!
IMHO it’s the best way to make Kale. It’s my go to vegetable for quick suppers. I also add a little Lemon Pepper to lighten it up. Delicious!
Fried potatoes, with chopped kale added the last 5 min or so. Then I add a TBL of Marie Catrib’s seasoning. SO good! I toss some in homemade chicken soup towards the end of the cooking time. It has really become of my favorite veggies. And the whole 1st year I gave mine away or just didn’t take it home with me! Now, I’m anxious to tell others about the wonders of kale!
Mmmm, Marie Catrib’s . . .
Small chop kale (without leaf core) in a bit of water – once cooked mix into those special holiday mashed potatoes (you know that recipe you got from grandma) and add a bit of the water you cooked the kale in and YUM – healthy and tasty.
Exact same issue: I had no idea what to do with kale. I added it to a sald once then never bought it again. Thanks for all these great ideas!
.-= Powered By Produce´s last blog ..Meatless Monday #31: Mushroom Quesadillas =-.
I wondered if you didn’t like kale in the salad because of it’s texture or taste. By accident I planted dwarf kale last summer, but ended up glad I did. It’s more tender and mild, which makes it great for salads. You don’t even have to take out the stem.
Because of another kale discovery, I haven’t had to wait until this years kale grew big enough to harvest. We’ve been eating kale since the snow melted. Kale Survives the Winter
So sorry…I meant to finish the comment but got interrupted and then pushed reply.
Anyway, if you grow kale and leave it in the ground all winter, it will produce more leaves right away in the spring and you’ll have kale while you wait for the current year’s kale to grow big enough to harvest.
Kale has always scared me as a veggie but you’ve given me some ideas so I may pick up a bunch from our local farmers market and try it out.
Thanks for the ideas! Stopping in from SITS
~Kelli @ Smidgens
.-= Kelli´s last blog ..<a href=\ =-.
WOW! Who would have thought!! Thanks for the ideas & for linking up!
Oh Lovely Kale! We saute kale with pancetta (or bacon) and then give it a coarse chop, form it into a circle on a plate and slide a fried egg on top. Yum!
Stopping by from SITS
http://www.mommamaybemad.blogspot.com
.-= kerry bakken´s last blog ..Safe =-.
Oh good! Our CSA is starting delivery this week so I need to start researching all these veggies. I think I know most of them, but what to do with them is another story!
Thanks for sharing!
I’ve been rather intimidated by all the different greens at the market. These sound delicious and maybe, just maybe, I’ll be brave enough to try kale. Thanks!
.-= Amber @ Because Babies Grow Up´s last blog ..Top Ten Reasons I Love Birthdays =-.
Do, greens are so lovely! But I agree, they are intimidating at first.
I just bought my first bunch of kale. Thanks for the ideas 🙂
My first bunch is sitting in the fridge and waiting for my cooking imagination to strike…:) Not for much longer though. I’m going to drag it out of its exile! Thanks for cooking ideas!
My mother always made kale. And always the same way. 🙁 As an adult, I want to love it- or at least like it- because its good for me. As a gardener, I want to love it, because its many forms are beautiful in my garden and I’d like to justify giving it space there. I will definitely try some of these recipes. Thanks so much for posting this!
I add it to smoked sausage and skillet potatoes. I love it because it’s super simple and it uses one pan!
I learned to love kale thanks to Bobby Flay’s simple saute recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/sauteed-kale-recipe/index.html. Good stuff! Thanks for the tips – now I can’t wait to try it in eggs too.
Great post and great sounding recipes – also check out my kale blog http://www.365DaysofKale.com, My tagline is “where kale is more than decoration on my plate!”.
Also appreciate someone’s comment about Marie Catrib’s seasoning. She is catering my son’s wedding reception this summer, so I’ll be sure to ask about that to purchase to bring home as a momento!
I realize I’m late to this party, but just wanted to add that when kale is small and tender, in the spring and the fall, it is excellent raw in salad. My favorite kale salad has raw kale (or you can steam it if it’s tough), ripped up small, then add shredded carrots, shredded beets (raw – or cooked if you must), peanuts, and a homemade peanut or tahini dressing. Yum! And so good for you!
Super easy way to de-stem Kale: grab the end of the stem in one hand and loosely pinch with your other hand where the leaves meat the stem. Then, gently exerting pressure against the stem, pull down the length of the stem away from the stem end, “pulling” the leaf off and away from the stem. This is a messy way to get the leaf off as it leaves it looking ragged, but if you are going to chop the leaves anyway, it doesn’t matter so much. Very fast and much easier than painstakingly trimming each piece with a paring knife or chef’s knife.
My favorite kale recipe is to steam or bake sweet potatoes, cut them into small pieces and add them to some kale that I have stir-fried till soft, with more water than oil. Add a bit of cinnamon!
Wow! I wrote a similar article of kale ideas, but you and your commenters have some I never thought of! I linked to your article at the bottom of mine. I really like the idea of mixing it into hummus.
One of my favorite things about kale is that you can chop it and freeze in small bags as a convenient ingredient to add when cooking all sorts of things. Oh, and it’s affordable year-round since it grows well in greenhouses.
Thanks for sharing your kale ideas post! It IS a super versatile ingredient, isn’t it?
I just came back to this article and realized I had posted the link before I moved my site to WordPress. Here is my updated kale article–I’ve added a few ideas!
I get my second week of CSA today and am hoping for kale. Last week we got so much lettuce, which just isn’t as versatile.
Yum! I just love kale. I make a soup that’s quite similar to a minestrone but has lovely grass-fed ground beef in it. Kale is the star ingredient, in fact we call it kale soup around here. Carrots, celery, onions and garlic, kale, beef, tomatoes, cannellini beans all topped with raw parmesan cheese. Delish! I’ll blog the recipe soon. 🙂 We also add it into smoothies and make kale chips. So versatile!
yum, that sounds awesome!
Also, love the site, I’m adding you to my blog roll!
Found this while checking out the bread link from Naturally Organic Michigan. I think everyone says “Yikes! What do I do with this” as a first-time CSAer. I googled like crazy, found it (or chard) goes well w/ white beans, maybe with a little meat. The very favorite at our house is a one-pot meal of potatoes and kale cooked with sausage. Mash taters and kale together, serve up with the sausage, (nice mustard or horse radish for same) and good hearty dark bread. (Recipe in new Food for Thought in a couple weeks.) Kale-potatoes combo (sometimes w/ meat) appears in several n. European countries and sometimes called Ireland’s national dish, colcannon.
yay, can’t wait for the next issue of Food for Thought!
The Portuguese make a wonderful Kale and linguisa soup. Search for it. it is great
Kale chips !! I ‘d kill for these! The mostversitile chips because you can season the kale with any flavourigs. We love cheddar kale chips but I also use salad dressings too..yum!!!!!!
Thanks! I accidentally posted my reply to this blog under your Costco entry. I liked it too, just forgot where I was. Tonight’s dinner: confetti kale!
So glad! Hope you liked it.
i WOULD LIKE O KNOW HOW TO COOK KALE BY ITSELF
I AM LOOKING FOR A RECIPE FOR KALE.
By itself, I like to just remove the stem, roughly chop, and stir fry with a little garlic and onion. Add 2 Tbsp water and steam.
I made the Kale in Peanut Sauce and it was delicious! I didn’t have any cloves or coriander in the house… so I used a little extra cumin (2 tsp … not 12?) and ground black pepper. C’est wonderful. I paired it with whole wheat cous cous with butter and cumin and my boyfriend loved it. (He’s a huge peanut butter fan.) We are vegetarian and thes is a good, filling veg meal. Great recipe! Much thanks!
so glad you liked it!
I used to dread when I got the bundles and bundles of kale in my CSA box. Now I can’t wait!
Polenta Gratin with Kale and Cremini Mushrooms…and wheat free!
http://wp.me/puWta-fY
Great blog by the way!
I am currently trying to change my eating habits in a healthier direction. I was told that kale is an awesome green vegetable to add to my healthy foods. I bought some kale yesterday and was then stuck with the question “what do I do with this”. Thank you so much for the ideas I will definitely try these. 😀