For Those Who Detest Kale

[ducks4you]

"Kale - the 'superfood' vegetable that tastes like cardboard. "
'nuf said.

 

[flowerbug]

Ridge, have you ever tried the kale salad at Costco? It's really good. The trick to kale in a salad is that you have to massage the leaves! That's right just move the leaves back and forth in your hands. This breaks up the fibers. Learned that's what they do to it in restuarants.

massage therapy runs about $60/hr... but i do have to admit that i've liked the fried/dried chip kind with seasalt on them for about 10 bites or so and then i've had enough.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

massage therapy runs about $60/hr... but i do have to admit that i've liked the fried/dried chip kind with seasalt on them for about 10 bites or so and then i've had enough.

Must... Resist... tossed...salad...joke...

 

[digitS']

Steve, they had kale back in the 50's? Wow, didn't know that. Was it easy to find in stores?

I don't believe so, Mary. Mom shopped at the health food stores. We had several interesting foods as a result. Kale was also grown in the family garden.

Ridge, have you ever tried the kale salad at Costco? It's really good. The trick to kale in a salad is that you have to massage the leaves! That's right just move the leaves back and forth in your hands. This breaks up the fibers. Learned that's what they do to it in restuarants.

Having learned that kale is a good deal more tender with winter frosts and right on into the spring - maybe, I should have tried it in a salad. DW puts kale in her sandwiches .... I'm not gonna take a chance on a sandwich . One thing about a salad, you can "eat around" what you don't like. Pulling something out of a sandwich, defeats one of the purposes of the meal. Kinda like scraping the mayonnaise out. Come on - make it yourself!

Steve

 

[heirloomgal]

I grew kale one time and it was a flop. I can, however, get plenty of free cardboard. So if I get really hungry or need lots of fiber, I’ll be in good shape for that. LOL This makes me want to try growing kale again. Maybe even eat some to see what all the hoopla is about and why grow and eat something that you have to work so hard to prepare it to be edible.

I get such a kick out of the 'kale' topic
I find it so funny, the cardboard description. I WISH it tasted like cardboard, I think cardboard would probably be superior in taste. I find the stuff truly ghastly eaten steamed or boiled with butter and salt. But, because it is so darn easy to grow and lasts so long here, like nearly 2/3 of the year, with no disease, virtually no bugs, harvest in the snow even, it is hard to avoid temptation to grow it out of sheer practicality. (I'm never eating dandelions though, no matter how practical or superfoody that might be) But, if you put it with other good tastes, like onions and potatoes, it can become so yummy.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ridge, have you ever tried the kale salad at Costco?

No Mary, the salad I eat is generally from the garden. That's mostly lettuce but occasionally I'll add beet greens or chard to the lettuce. My daughter-in-law will serve a salad she bought, usually at Costco, which has many different greens in it, call it mesclun instead f kale salad. They are OK but not my favorite.

I'm OK with the taste of kale boiled, I want it cooked so I can chew it. If I serve it to guests I'll boil it until it can be chewed, then drain it. I saute onions and garlic in oil, then add the cooked kale and saute it, mainly trying to dry it instead of cook it. Then add some paprika and serve.

 

[catjac1975]

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 -
View attachment 41066
View attachment 41067

The Portuguese around here make Kale soup. Sooo good.

 

[baymule]

I get such a kick out of the 'kale' topic
I find it so funny, the cardboard description. I WISH it tasted like cardboard, I think cardboard would probably be superior in taste. I find the stuff truly ghastly eaten steamed or boiled with butter and salt. But, because it is so darn easy to grow and lasts so long here, like nearly 2/3 of the year, with no disease, virtually no bugs, harvest in the snow even, it is hard to avoid temptation to grow it out of sheer practicality. (I'm never eating dandelions though, no matter how practical or superfoody that might be) But, if you put it with other good tastes, like onions and potatoes, it can become so yummy.

Disease free? Practically no BUGS????

PEOPLE!!! We are totally missing the boat here! Grow your own BUG SPRAY!! Run that kale through the blender with a little water, strain, add few drops dishwashing liquid and SPRAY!

@heirloomgal since you are already growing kale, I appoint you to make kale bug spray and spray squash plants! If that stuff will keep away the squash bugs, we’ll all be growing kale! Super food and super bug spray?