For Those Who Detest Kale

[flowerbug]

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

fried until good and browned and add cheese on top and we're good.

i don't detest it, we just don't eat it. spinach and romaine hearts are our main greens here. Mom just won't tolerate much else. once in a great while she'll get a container of the baby greens, but she doesn't really like anything that tastes like a beet green so the other green that would grow well here she won't touch. too bad as i do like chards.

 

[Alasgun]

We’d not think of eating Kale raw and can imagine how easy it would be to detest.
However, we do eat kale daily, lightly steamed with vinegar/butter. Once everything is done in the garden, froze hard; covered in snow; the kale is fine if i put a piece of Agribon over it. 40 below, no problem!
Once the snow gets too deep i whack a whole plant and hang it under the eve on the back of the house and break off a couple leaves each day. When i first bring it in and it thaws, it’s pretty wilty but once its cooked i cant tell the difference from regular season Kale. This year we ate our own Kale until mid February!

 

[heirloomgal]

We’d not think of eating Kale raw and can imagine how easy it would be to detest.
However, we do eat kale daily, lightly steamed with vinegar/butter. Once everything is done in the garden, froze hard; covered in snow; the kale is fine if i put a piece of Agribon over it. 40 below, no problem!
Once the snow gets too deep i whack a whole plant and hang it under the eve on the back of the house and break off a couple leaves each day. When i first bring it in and it thaws, it’s pretty wilty but once its cooked i cant tell the difference from regular season Kale. This year we ate our own Kale until mid February!

I wondered how long kale could be picked into winter, I never went beyond November because that was usually all that was left on the plants. Good to know that. I had a friend who left her brussel sprout plants buried in the snow and harvested them all winter, even for Christmas dinner. I remember her saying they ate brussel sprouts for months, until her family begged for it to end.

 

[digitS']

Okay. I have never liked Brussels sprouts, even though I try them now and again. "Oh, try them with balsamic vinegar!" That stuff? I was surprised that a vinegar was around that i wouldn't care for. Whoa. Tone it down, please.

.

We were harvesting 2020 Scotch kale into May. A very mild winter but I remember digging a path through the snow to the kale during a winter when there were days when the thermometer didn't rise above 0°f.

Steve
Edit: I should say that even into spring, the kale maintains that tender, mild winter quality.

 

[so lucky]

My lacinto kale over wintered this year, and is of good harvesting size now. I see that one stalk sent up flowers, so I expect them all to, soon. The kale and potato dish looks good. I would be interested in the one with sweet potatoes, too, if you have time to post it.

 

[heirloomgal]

This is the way I use kale 75% of the time.

Kale Shepherd's Pie with Lentils
from 'The Book of Kale'

(* You could put the traditional ground beef bottom if you wanted)

Generous amount of oil or butter
Very large onion
Couple cloves of garlic
You can add herbs like, parsley or rosemary if you like them
1 1/2 cups lentils
Water enough to boil them, about 4 cups
Sweet potatoes and regular potatoes in whatever ratio you like, possibly 50/50
Butter, and milk if you like that in mashed potatoes
Many cups of shredded kale, I probably use about 4, you could use much more
Salt, as you like

Saute onion, then garlic and whatever else you might like in there re: herbs. I add parsley. Add lentils and water, cook until tender. Should be cooked up thick, not soupy. Salt to taste. Keep water to a bare minimum.

Separate pan, cook up the potatoes and sweet potatoes. (I boil them.) Then I mash them with lots of butter, salt and some water from the pot, personally I skip the milk.

The kale: steam it a bit (5 min) until the volume comes down a bit and it's tender. Butter and salt it too.

Put lentil mixture on bottom layer or a casserole dish, add the kale mixture, and then mashed potatoes.

You can bake it at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

I've made this many times, and people almost never know that there is any kale in there at all. The onions mixed into the lentils, and the buttery mashed potatoes virtually cover all the kale taste. The original recipe adds tomatoes into the pot with the onions and garlic. It's a good variation, but it's just as good without the tomatoes.

(Not my pictures)
Should look something like this with a more white potato top ...

Or a more sweet potato top...

 

[flowerbug]

This is the way I use kale 75% of the time.

Kale Shepherd's Pie with Lentils
from 'The Book of Kale'

(* You could put the traditional ground beef bottom if you wanted)

Generous amount of oil or butter
Very large onion
Couple cloves of garlic
You can add herbs like, parsley or rosemary if you like them
1 1/2 cups lentils
Water enough to boil them, about 4 cups
Sweet potatoes and regular potatoes in whatever ratio you like, possibly 50/50
Butter, and milk if you like that in mashed potatoes
Many cups of shredded kale, I probably use about 4, you could use much more
Salt, as you like

Saute onion, then garlic and whatever else you might like in there re: herbs. I add parsley. Add lentils and water, cook until tender. Should be cooked up thick, not soupy. Salt to taste. Keep water to a bare minimum.

Separate pan, cook up the potatoes and sweet potatoes. (I boil them.) Then I mash them with lots of butter, salt and some water from the pot, personally I skip the milk.

The kale: steam it a bit (5 min) until the volume comes down a bit and it's tender. Butter and salt it too.

Put lentil mixture on bottom layer or a casserole dish, add the kale mixture, and then mashed potatoes.

You can bake it at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

I've made this many times, and people almost never know that there is any kale in there at all. The onions mixed into the lentils, and the buttery mashed potatoes virtually cover all the kale taste. The original recipe adds tomatoes into the pot with the onions and garlic. It's a good variation, but it's just as good without the tomatoes.

(Not my pictures)
Should look something like this with a more white potato top ...
View attachment 41092
Or a more sweet potato top...

View attachment 41091

all of that looks good to me.

 

[baymule]

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.

 

[flowerbug]

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.

to me it's like the sparkling water of plants. it's supposed to be "good for you", but you have to dress it up so much to eat/drink it that all those "supposeds" are long gone. it grows easily and can handle the cold. i'd consider it food for famine or hard times. you can eat it, it won't kill you, but you'll eat something else as soon as you can.

 

[ninnymary]

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.

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.

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

Mary