For Those Who Detest Kale

[heirloomgal]

Kale - the 'superfood' vegetable that tastes like cardboard. Or worse. Kale will probably start trickling in from the garden and I finally found a way to cook it to make it more than palatable, even really good. And it's simple. About 3-5 ingredients. The trick is to stuff the kale in a food processor until it is quite shredded. I won't get into finicky details, just the basics.

Put into a shallow pan potatoes, preferably new potatoes from the garden, but any kind will work. Cut 'em up into smallish chunks. Add garlic or onions, or both. Add in a pile of shredded kale. And add some kind of oil or butter for sauteing everything. Stir occasionally until it's all cooked. Add butter, salt and pepper.

Put the ingredients in whatever proportions you like. Prepared this way, much of the aweful-ness of kale, the texture especially, is hidden and the 'tastleless-ness is made up for with potatoes and any allium ingredient. You may find over time you'll actually want to add more kale.

It will look something like this -

 

[seedcorn]

Again, why grow cardboard when they will give you all you want? Grow a green that actually tastes good and has the same positive affects-spinach, Swiss chard, etc.....

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Thank you for this, I will share it with DW. Kale has been her muse for some years.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Again, why grow cardboard when they will give you all you want? Grow a green that actually tastes good and has the same positive affects-spinach, Swiss chard, etc.....

I can grow kale. Spinach and Swiss chard give me trouble. It’s also one of the most cold hardy things so sometimes it’s the only thing that will grow in winter.

 

[digitS']

@heirloomgal , that looks delicious. Good presentation!

What's in a name? Growing a different variety of kale than Scotch may be an answer. Grow Siberian kale and it's a different species!

Kale couldn't be much closer genetically to cabbage. Grow cabbage and call it kale . Collards. My answer to a less-than-enthusiastic kale attitude is to grow Portuguese kale. I like it!

I can understand some of the anti-kale thinking. I was probably one of the very few kids in my elementary school who was eating kale at home in the 50's. Instead of anti-kale, I became anti-chard and then turned that around in the last few years . Variety choice .

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some people like the taste of a mature chicken, some can't stand it. We are all different with different tastes.

I personally do not enjoy fresh kale on a salad, not even the baby leaves. Cooked, it's pretty good. But that's just me. A good friend and my daughter-in-law both really enjoy raw kale in a salad. I try to give them the younger leaves but I don't think they really care.

 

[heirloomgal]

I know what you mean @seedcorn. In my case I grow it for it's practicality above all else. I do grow Swiss Chard too, but chard some years the leaf miners are a big problem, and many years we have very little spring weather, it just goes from cold to hot. The spinach always bolts way too quickly because of that. I've tried Malabar spinach and New Zealand spinach to get around that, but I don't care for them. Lacinato kale I can plant in May, and harvest it deep into November, and it actually is in very good condition still. None of the other greens, even lettuce, can produce for anywhere near that long. It's probably my longest producing veggie.

 

[heirloomgal]

Thank you for this, I will share it with DW. Kale has been her muse for some years.

I have a great kale Shepherd's Pie recipe I'm going to post too, that uses sweet potatoes as well as kale. It's really good!

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal , that looks delicious. Good presentation!

What's in a name? Growing a different variety of kale than Scotch may be an answer. Grow Siberian kale and it's a different species!

Kale couldn't be much closer genetically to cabbage. Grow cabbage and call it kale . Collards. My answer to a less-than-enthusiastic kale attitude is to grow Portuguese kale. I like it!

I can understand some of the anti-kale thinking. I was probably one of the very few kids in my elementary school who was eating kale at home in the 50's. Instead of anti-kale, I became anti-chard and then turned that around in the last few years . Variety choice .

Steve

I love the Lacinato kale, and that variety isn't available at the grocer's. I tried Portugese kale years ago and thought it was great too, somewhat like Lacinato in having a less crinkled leaf foliage. Nice and dark coloured leaves.

 

[heirloomgal]

Some people like the taste of a mature chicken, some can't stand it. We are all different with different tastes.

I personally do not enjoy fresh kale on a salad, not even the baby leaves. Cooked, it's pretty good. But that's just me. A good friend and my daughter-in-law both really enjoy raw kale in a salad. I try to give them the younger leaves but I don't think they really care.

I find raw kale pretty tough stuff to chew. You gotta really have an appreciation for fibre to eat raw kale in salad. But I've made it, and with a really exceptional dressing, it was good. Toasted nuts helped.
As you said, we all have our culinary preferences.