Kale is everyone’s favorite go-to “SUPER VEGGIE!”…that is until they actually try to eat it. Sure, they’ll say “oh it tastes great, I love it,” but ask them to say that to your face while looking you in the eye. LIES, I SAY!
If you want to read up on its super powers, I’m not going to list them here. Click on this link.
But they’re not all wrong, kale can be tolerable, tasty even. If done/used correctly.
Let’s examine kale a few different ways.
First, lets look at the Kale Salad.
Kale by itself is a difficult salad component. Why? Because it’s tough and chewy. How do we solve that? Two options. One, you soak the kale in some lemon juice and vinegar. This will help break down the tough components of the kale and will make it amenable to your traditional salad. Two, you can do what I normally do, which is saute the kale with some butter or olive oil. Don’t overcook it so the color change is dramatic. Just cook it enough for the colors to brighten and then remove it from the burner.
From there you can treat it like a normal salad, pictured above I just sauteed the kale with some butter and tossed it with some parmesan, olive oil, mayo, and lemon juice. I also topped it with a soft boiled egg, which I think gives it a nice, rich (almost decadent) flavor.
You can also try the same kale with some fresh apples, blue cheese, and candied walnuts for a nice warm salad as well.
Second, let’s look at kale in shakes.
Breakfast shakes or power shakes are all the rage these days. Even I did a post about one. What is becoming increasingly popular is the Green Shake. A shake so green, the green crayon would be jealous.
What I like to do with kale primarily is make it a major component of my breakfast/post-work out shake. You have two options with kale, you can freeze it as-is in little baggies and break off pieces into your shake when you make it. Or you can run it through a food processor and make little kale bricks that you can freeze. From there you just break off pieces of these frozen kale bricks and put them into your morning shakes. When the kale is that frozen/cold, the harsh flavors do not come out as much, and they serve almost as pseudo ice cubes.
