August's First Veggie in the Spotlight: Kale - with TWELVE recipe ideas!

Kale is one of those ingredients that you rarely find outside of veg boxes and farm shops, in either its curly or flat-leaved form.

In season from late August through to the end of February, it’s not your typical supermarket veggie. Which is perhaps why so few of us know how to cook it, leaving it to be one of those guilt-inducing ingredients that lingers at the back of the fridge until it eventually goes limply yellow and trotts off to the compost bin.

So here are some super-quick, simple ideas for cooking kale:

1. Cook kale like cabbage. Wash it well. Trim the tough stalks off. Slice up the leaves. Boil or steam until tender – about 5 minutes. Really tasty. But serve immediately as it tastes grim cold.

2. Stir fry – trim the stalks and slice the leaves into strips. Stir fry in sesame oil in a wok for 5 minutes. Throw in a handful of sesame seeds and a little soy sauce or tamari.

3. Hot! Hot! Hot! Trim stalks. Slice leaves. Steam or stir fry until tender. Mix with a tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce.

4. Saute. Trim stalks. Slice leaves. Saute (covered) in a large pan in a little melted butter for up to 5 minutes. Stir often to prevent burning. Serve with some freshly grated nutmeg.

5. Creamy. Trim stalks. Slice leaves. Peel & crush 2 cloves of garlic. Cook gently in a little oil with the kale for about 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in 2 tablespoons half fat creme fraiche. Season to taste.

As with all kale recipes, serve them immediately – ideally on warmed plates (just like Grannie used to!). It goes cold really quickly and doesn’t taste so good then.

ANd here are some other brilliant tips from our readers:

Eveline says "as a Dutch person I love ‘Boerenkoolstamppot’, which is basically boiled kale with mashed potatoes (best to have it mixed up and then to have a bit more green then yellow). Traditionally you’d eat it with pieces of bacon and smoked sausage. Me being vegetarian I eat it with Baco’s (soy, bacon flavour bits, yummie) and with a veggie sausage.
Also I love to put some vinegar on it."

Sue recommends kale:

"With shiitake mushrooms, red onions and garlic – full of goodness – in a Marigold bouillon broth and a splash of shoyu sauce."

Rosie tells us that kale is:

"Delicious stir fried in a little olive oil with chopped onion and fresh grated ginger ( dried ginger is too harsh) I add a dash of black pepper – wonderful as a nice extra side dish."

Cat suggests we:

"Wash the kale, add some garlic salt and black pepper – put it in the oven (a high heat) for 20 mins until dries out and crispy – similar to crispy seaweed."

John loves kale:

"boiled, 4 mins tops (with lots of salt), with lamb and boiled or roast pots and good gravy, good gravy is important.

Also try it sauted with chorizo, add garlic, parsley, lemon juice & olive oil towards the end of cooking. If you need to bulk it up a bit add a tin of butter beans.

Cold kale - use it in bubble & squeak with any type of left over potato, great for a quick meal on Monday night if you have had a roast on Sunday, to have with either the cold meat left over, a poached egg or bacon."

Dawn:

"Fried off kale with garlic, black pepper, mushrooms and chopped bacon – tasty!"

And Gwen offers this:

"I LOVE KALE! One of the ways I offer to my nutrition clients is to eat kale raw. In this special salad the citrus softens the kales leaves:

KALE SALAD
This salad is actually a beautiful pink color due to the red cabbage. I’ve had kids call it the ‘pink salad’, and they liked it!

Ingredients:

1 head of kale, cut into bite sized pieces
½ head of red cabbage, chopped
2 large carrots, shredded
Big handful of parsley, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
¼ cup sesame seeds
1 cup cooked brown rice or quinoa
1 cup almonds, roasted no salt
1 block tofu (to be baked or buy it already baked)
¼ cup soy sauce of your choice

Dressing:

Juice of 5 lemons
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup Soy sauce of your choice
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp stone ground mustard
Black pepper to taste

Directions:

To bake the tofu: Heat oven to 160 C. Remove Tofu from the container and drain. Cut into one inch pieces, place in large bowl and stir ¼ cup Soy Sauce. Let sit for 10 minutes and allow soaking in. Place the Tofu on an oiled cookie sheet and bake for 40 – 45 minutes. (This step is not necessary if you find it already baked and marinated)

Meanwhile, cook the brown rice or quinoa and allow cooling.

Wash and dry Kale thoroughly. Combine all ingredients together and let sit for at least an hour (or as long as you can stand), as this will give the Kale a nicer mouth feel.

This recipe makes alot and will keep in the fridge for many days, or it can be halved.

Thanks to all our wonderful readers for these great suggestions. What a kale resource we've created between us!

So how about you, ooffers? How'd you like YOUR kale?

PS VegBox Recipes even makes it into the Wikipedia page on kale!