Kale

Believe it or not, I've never eaten or cooked kale. I googled and found saute-ing garlic and olive oil, then a bit of water and add the kale. Sounds tasty enough.

Does anyone have a tried and true recipe?

Thanks!

Oh... and Happy Easter to those of you so inclined.

Happy Easter Patti.
I grow the Italian, black dinosaur kale - Lancinato and since it grows so well here blanch and freeze a lot of it. One of the best uses for this frozen kale is in soups.
One of my favorites is a hearty soup made with a spicy sausage- andouille or Spanish chorizo, onions, garlic, smoked piementon, potatoes.
Fresh kale is great sauteed with onions, garlic, hot pepper as is or used in a fritatta or in a savory pie baked in a fillo or puff pastry crust. Small pieces are great crisp fried as a garnish for
soups or potato dishes.
I love its' mineral-ly taste.

Thank you Christina. I have a lot of options!

Happy Easter to you too!

[Jenise]

Happy Easter to you too, Patti. Just posted a great introduction-to-kale recipe for you that would be a great dish for a first-timer. It's won many a heart.

Happy Easter Jenise!

And thank you. That looks delicious!

I prefer to blanch the kale in boiling water for 1-3 minutes, depending on how rough and firm the leaves are. Shorter for black tuscan kale, longer for the heavier-leaf types. This helps soften the texture and eliminate some of the earthiness. I refresh the blanched kale in cold water, drain, squeeze some liquid out, and then coarsely chop. Then I add to whatever I'm doing, be it garlic/oil, lentil or bean soup, pasta, fritatta, etc.

One of our favorite side dishes is roasted kale. Incredibly simple - toss with a little olive oil, garlic, salt, place in a large roasting pan, put in very hot oven- stir a couple of times, maybe 8-10 minutes in oven.

Portuguese Kale soup is probably my favourite use of this veggie - it's basically just a bean soup made with navy beans. You add the kale right at the end, about 10 minutes before serving. I take the pot off the heat, add the chopped kale, and let it sit for 10 minutes, which results in kale with quite a bit of crunch. If you want it softer, leave it on low heat and let the kale cook for 10 or 15 minutes.

[Jenise]

Melissa, me too. Love the crunch and the flavor that's closer to raw than real cooked.

Our favorite preparation is one given to us by a Kenyan grad student. We simply sauté the kale in olive oil and add chopped tomato into the sauté after a few minutes. We then lower the heat and continue cooking with stirring until the tomato has "melted" and the kale leaves have completely softened and shrunk. The sweetness of the cooked tomato pairs very well with the bitterness of the kale.

Mark Lipton

I use a Mark Bittman recipe; saute Kale (or any other braising leafy green) with olive oil and garlic, when soft, add a tablespoon of tahini and some lemon juice. Stir, serve.

I use a Mark Bittman recipe;

Hell has frozen over!

I like kale as one of the "greens" in Beans & Greens soup.

I use a Mark Bittman recipe;

Hell has frozen over!

do you not like MArk Bittman? hes a bit of a showman but I like his podcasts

Thanks everyone!

Great ideas all.

I use a Mark Bittman recipe;

Hell has frozen over!

do you not like MArk Bittman? hes a bit of a showman but I like his podcasts

Never watched the podcast, but I use Bittman "Everything" book a lot, and often stuff from his column. The whole minimalist approach works well for me - I have less skills (and attention span) than most of the cooks here. I was just teasing Jacques, who has told Betsy he finds Bittman boring in the past.

Dale

Do you use iTunes? If so go in - look up podcasts and download (it is free) his podcasts. They are 3 or minutes each and really good - usually kind of casual and amusing as well

I like kale as one of the "greens" in Beans & Greens soup.

Howie, I like kale in the B&G soup too, and sometimes I will even use spinach if I have that and no kale. I learned from Stuart that kale goes well in minestrone too. Man, I might need to make some of both even if hot weather has returned. I also need to do some wing on Hot mama. I have the linked recipe below for some time now but haven't gotten around to them. I have the wings, and all the fixin's so tomorrow I hope. Will report back.

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/chickenwings.htm

Check out the picture, and click on the wings.

Hi Patti,

I grow Kale in my garden every year. It is really winter hardy and I usually get two crops, a fall one and after wintering over, a spring one before it bolts. My kale is now putting on new leaves this spring. I prefer the curled leaf variety and grow both green and red kale, which is really a deep violet.

My favorite dish, like others here have already professed, is Portugese kale soup made with chorizo (sort of mixed culture recipe). My wife loves it sauteed with garlic and olive oil. We also put it in other soups and stews occasionally. It is quite nutritious and delicious .

I use a Mark Bittman recipe;

Hell has frozen over!

Funny that you remember that! I started reading his blog about a year ago and got more and more into his philosophy (not just cooking, but the basic {very basic} nutrition ideas). I admit to being wrong, some of his minimalist stuff works well.