Does reading or hearing the word frighten you? Do you get anxious, confused, or even a little bit angry? Does the sight of its curly, frilly leaves leave you curled up shaking in the corner? Do the broad, bumpy leaves of Dinosaur or Lacinto Kale send a reptillian chill straight to your bones?
This seemingly formidable green falls into a class of greens that I describe this way: edible according to someone, but you can't eat it in a salad. That is to say, it's a leafy green you can eat (dark greens are good for you!), but it's too tough to eat it raw like a head of romaine or red leaf lettuce, so you have to do something to it first.
Fortunately, this whole class of greens (the tough, dark ones), and Kale in particular, are great for soups! And vegetable soups are an excellent way to play catch-up or make headway on a full vegetable crisper. I'll leave the details of your soup up to you, but here's a quick note on how to incorporate Kale (or chard, or collard greens) into your next soup.
First and foremost, wash your Kale and chop or rip (easier, in my opinion) the leaves into soup size pieces (but not too too small!).
For this next step, my wife disagrees with me, and her argument has simplicity of dishes in its favor. She prefers to add the kale directly to the soup for the last 5-10 minutes (depending on how tender/tough the leaves are) of the soup's simmering.
I prefer to blanch (boil quickly and briefly) the Kale for a few reasons: it softens it up a little bit extra, and it rinses away a slightly acidic undertone that tough greens can give off (it's for this reason that you shouldn't ever steam those tough greens, either put them into a liquid or go straight to the sauté). If your soup already has tomato products in it, you'll be in slightly-acidic-town anyway, so go crazy.
Slightly cross-posted from another blog I contribute to for Local Harvest Delivery
I love kale! I've been making kale chips of late, which is really just kale broken into small pieces and baked on a low heat for a good hour or so. It comes out very crisp.
ReplyDeleteWe've tried kale chips before much to our disgust.
ReplyDeleteCould you elaborate the particulars of your process?
I wonder if you had some bitter tasting kale. Our grocery store just started carrying a different kind; it looks different, and tastes more bitter.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I just rip the kale into small pieces, removing the stems, and toss with olive oil and salt...then on a baking sheet at 150 for an hour or more, till they're crisp. That's it! Of course, you can use other spices or even put cheese on them, etc., but my favorite way is just the oil and salt.
Ok, we will have to try it again. I think we had the temp waaaay too high because they were just crumbly nastiness when we attempted the chips. :)
ReplyDelete