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- 30 Mar 2017
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First, a disclaimer: I am not a kale evangelist. I don’t expect to convert anybody here to become a kale lover who hates it right now. And, to be honest, I’ll readily pick almost any other green instead of kale when I want to make something.
However, all the people stating how much they hate kale inspired me to try to do something to maybe shed some light on the poor, downtrodden, Brillo pad-consistency green.
Intro to Kale
First of all, kale is really healthy. It had better be, considering how hard it is to work with, right? It's high in antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamins A, C and K, Iron, and fiber, plus it can lower your cholesterol. So, it's worth the effort!
If you hate kale, there's a good chance you tried it in place of a traditional green in a salad. This is where things went wrong: you have to tame the rough texture of the kale before you can have it that way. The dressing on the salad alone isn't quite enough to do the trick. To get kale to behave in a salad, you first need to mix it with lemon juice, olive oil, and some salt. You actually massage the kale, which is a bit like kneading dough, for a few minutes, until the greens start to wilt. Then, make your salad.
I know...massaging kale: another reason to hate it! Hey...I wasn't the one who wanted to make a salad.
I considered making some sophisticated kale-based dish, but decided I just didn't have the energy. So, I decided to make two things: pesto and kale chips.
Kale Chips
Kale chips are very easy to make. All you need to do is wash the kale and dry thoroughly (very important: wet kale can cause it to steam instead of getting crisp. Coat with maybe a tablespoon of olive oil, then season as you wish. I used a mix of tajin seasoning and gochujang powder (yes, I said powder).
Bake in the oven at 225° F (105° C) for 10 minutes, rotate the trays, then bake for 10 more minutes, checking occasionally toward the end of the cook time to prevent burning.
Continue baking until the kale gets crispy:
They're very tasty. I once fried kale in the deep fryer. It was good, but there was so much oil that it squished with every bite. I like this better.
Kale Pesto
As for the pesto, I somehow missed @Frizz1974's excellent Kale Parsley Pesto recipe when I made mine. What I did was similar, except I used arugula (rocket) for the other half of the greens. Oh...and I decided to throw two habaneros into the food processor, too:
Yes, you will keep on seeing habaneros in my recipes, until they're gone or gone bad.
I added a teaspoon of szechuan peppercorns (buzzed in my spice-grinder, which is really a coffee bean grinder that I never use for coffee beans). This made the peppers - which I seeded first - more manageable. Still spicy, but not insanely so. I excluded the cheese, too, and used hazelnuts. And, this is what I ended up with:
It looks like a pesto, doesn't it? I wasn't sure about the lemon, but I do like how the acidity brightens the pesto, particularly playing off the spiciness of the peppers.
Does anyone have any other kale recipes they'd like to share? And, does any kale hater want to make one of these to see if maybe, just maybe, you might stop hating kale? Come on...give it a try!
However, all the people stating how much they hate kale inspired me to try to do something to maybe shed some light on the poor, downtrodden, Brillo pad-consistency green.
Intro to Kale
First of all, kale is really healthy. It had better be, considering how hard it is to work with, right? It's high in antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamins A, C and K, Iron, and fiber, plus it can lower your cholesterol. So, it's worth the effort!
If you hate kale, there's a good chance you tried it in place of a traditional green in a salad. This is where things went wrong: you have to tame the rough texture of the kale before you can have it that way. The dressing on the salad alone isn't quite enough to do the trick. To get kale to behave in a salad, you first need to mix it with lemon juice, olive oil, and some salt. You actually massage the kale, which is a bit like kneading dough, for a few minutes, until the greens start to wilt. Then, make your salad.
I know...massaging kale: another reason to hate it! Hey...I wasn't the one who wanted to make a salad.
I considered making some sophisticated kale-based dish, but decided I just didn't have the energy. So, I decided to make two things: pesto and kale chips.
Kale Chips
Kale chips are very easy to make. All you need to do is wash the kale and dry thoroughly (very important: wet kale can cause it to steam instead of getting crisp. Coat with maybe a tablespoon of olive oil, then season as you wish. I used a mix of tajin seasoning and gochujang powder (yes, I said powder).
Bake in the oven at 225° F (105° C) for 10 minutes, rotate the trays, then bake for 10 more minutes, checking occasionally toward the end of the cook time to prevent burning.
Continue baking until the kale gets crispy:
They're very tasty. I once fried kale in the deep fryer. It was good, but there was so much oil that it squished with every bite. I like this better.
Kale Pesto
As for the pesto, I somehow missed @Frizz1974's excellent Kale Parsley Pesto recipe when I made mine. What I did was similar, except I used arugula (rocket) for the other half of the greens. Oh...and I decided to throw two habaneros into the food processor, too:
Yes, you will keep on seeing habaneros in my recipes, until they're gone or gone bad.
I added a teaspoon of szechuan peppercorns (buzzed in my spice-grinder, which is really a coffee bean grinder that I never use for coffee beans). This made the peppers - which I seeded first - more manageable. Still spicy, but not insanely so. I excluded the cheese, too, and used hazelnuts. And, this is what I ended up with:
It looks like a pesto, doesn't it? I wasn't sure about the lemon, but I do like how the acidity brightens the pesto, particularly playing off the spiciness of the peppers.
Does anyone have any other kale recipes they'd like to share? And, does any kale hater want to make one of these to see if maybe, just maybe, you might stop hating kale? Come on...give it a try!
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