Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Kale is Now My Friend

Kale is the one power food that I just have not been able to prepare right (except for throwing in smoothies)--until today! Hallelujah! The trick is to chop it off the stem into really small pieces and cook it with other good stuff. Here's the recipe I used today:

Bean and Kale Scramble

Ingredients:
8 cups kale (about 2 bunches), chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (I don't like them, so I used 4 fresh tomatoes)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, coarsely chopped (I cheated and just used white button mushrooms.)
3 cloves garlic
water, as needed (I used chicken broth)
1 T. no salt soup base or seasoning (I used Cajun seasoning, only a sprinkling)
1 cup canned, beans, no salt, any type, reserving liquid (I used kidney beans.)
1 1/2 T. of a sweet vinegar like raisin (I used rice vinegar.)
1 T. Dijon mustard
red pepper flakes, to taste
pasta sauce, as desired
1/4 cup any type of nut, chopped

In a large skillet, water saute the kale, tomatoes, onion, mushrooms, and garlic in a little water over medium heat for 5 minutes, adding water as needed so it doesn't scorch. Add bean liquid, soup base, and enough water to keep from scorching. Cover and steam for 10 minutes. Add the beans, vinegar, mustard and res pepper flakes, then cook for 3 more minutes or until mushrooms are tender and liquid cooks out.

I topped with pasta sauce. The recipe recommends sprinkling nuts, but I didn't see the point. Oh, and I didn't add the mustard.

I haven't been eating meat lately, so I'm much more gung ho about vegetable chopping since I don't have animal flesh all over my kitchen. I'm enjoying meal preparation so much more. I didn't even realized it bothered me so much until I stopped doing it.

If you want to know why you should even bother to teach yourself to like kale, read here.

6 comments:

Sheralie said...

I have had a hard time with kale, too. But this looks good. Will try it, and without the kale stem, good tip :)

MT Missy said...

I'm definitely going to have to try this. I tried the pasta with kale in the Green Smoothie Girl's cookbook and I think I scorched it. It was either that, or I didn't like the taste of Bragg Amino's with it.

Tiffany W. said...

interesting article. I will have to give it a try. I don't think I have ever even tried kale!

Jecca Lee Ivie Johnson said...

I tried and failed at kale, too. Until I found a recipe for lettuce wraps that calls for it. I'll try this one too.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the tip. I have a ton of Kale in my garden. Your Dad can't abide kale. I will try this.

Nancy said...

interesting. Maybe i'll try it. kale is definitely one of the more difficult power foods/superfoods. bananas and blueberries and soy and spinach go down so much more easily.