Kale

How to Make Grilled Kale – Video

August 29, 2012 By sharib 5 Comments

I’m learning most of the roadblocks I created in the kitchen were mental roadblocks. I simply didn’t have the confidence to try.

With a little confidence (and patience) I’m not only cooking, but, I’ve moved away from my comfort zone of spaghetti and red sauce and I’ve ventured deep into unknown food territory.

For me, it’s been a complete thrill to cook with new foods that taste great and are easy to make!

This summer, my biggest “Aha moment” was my discovery of kale. And now, my entire family has adopted a new favorite veggie dish: Grilled Kale.

Check out this video to see for yourself.

Happy grilling!

Kale and Green Bean Salad

July 6, 2012 By sharib 2 Comments

Our new veggie discovery this year was KALE! It took about 5 tries and now both of my kids love kale. Of course, the first time I served it to them was as a chip, baked in the oven with a little bit of olive oil, sea salt and parmesan cheese. Now that they’re convinced they like kale, I feel like I’ve got full reign to try more dishes on them.

And, we’re growing three different kale plants in our garden too so I had to find more uses for this leafy green.

Since it’s been so hot, I figured I’d try to make a cold kale salad using our garden bounty and hoped that my son remembers how much he enjoyed the kale chips to give this a try.

This salad is too easy and too tasty to pass up. There’s no culinary skill required. You only need to make the dressing and drizzle it on top the kale and green beans and chill it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. I would recommend serving the green beans uncooked. I cooked mine the first time and they were too soft and flimsy in the salad. The second time around I used raw beans and their crunch was a nice compliment to the kale.

The lemony dressing makes the salad, adding a nice sweet tangy flavor to the crisp lettuce and beans. I had a bunch of dried cranberries laying around so tossed them in too, to augment the sweet honey flavor versus the tart lemon.

Without any hesitation, my son tried the salad and it immediately received two thumbs up.

It’s easy, light, refreshing and used veggies direct from our garden.

What could be better than that?

Marinated Kale and Green Bean Salad (adapted from Bon Appetit)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 large bunch Tuscan kale
kosher salt
1 lb. green beans
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan

Instructions:

Combine oil, lemon juice, honey in a large bowl.
Add kale, toss and coat.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Let kale mixture sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours or cover and chill.
Add green beans to kale mixture (either cooked or raw- we prefer raw), toss and coat.
Top with dried cranberries and grated parmesan cheese (add in almond slivers or any other dried fruit too).

Filed Under: Sides, Uncategorized, Veggies Tagged With: Kale, kale salad, kale salad recipe, summer salad 2 Comments

Kale Dip with Carrots

April 9, 2012 By sharib 14 Comments

We started making homemade kale chips just a few weeks ago and already my kids have asked if there’s anything else we can “do” with this new favorite veggie. I thought I was hearing them incorrectly at first. Never have they requested a vegetable-based dish. And, I certainly didn’t want my small window of opportunity to pass before I got a chance to create something new.

Last week I leaf-eared a very easy (and healthy) recipe for Kale Dip with Snap Peas in the April issue of Whole Living Magazine. It appealed to me because it’s quite simple to make, requires very few ingredients (all of which I had stocked in the pantry) and, looked light and refreshing. I welcome any dip recipe that doesn’t require extreme amounts of cheese. I noticed that the Kale dip is based mainly from cottage cheese which rests a lot easier on my conscience than Mom’s famous Hot Crab Dip —- which, by the way, is the BEST tasting dip but contains an entire package of regular cream cheese.

Within 8 minutes, 8 minutes (still within my window of opportunity with the kids), I whipped up a fresh batch of Kale dip.

Fresh, creamy kale dip

I grabbed some mini carrots to accompany the dip and cautiously placed it on the table.

“Ew, what is this?” my six-year old whined as he pointed (and leaned in to smell) the shredded pieces of kale in the dip.

“You asked me for more kale so I made a new kale dip!” I barked, defensively.

“Well, I was thinking more like kale fries since you’ve already made kale chips,” my son responded, disappointed.

“Oh.” I had no comeback. How could a cottage cheese dip ever measure up to salted kale fries?

Sensing my defeat, my son slowly picked up the smallest mini carrot he could find and barely touched the dip in front of him

He tasted the tiny bit and said, “THIS IS GOOD!”

I was thrilled.

“It has a lot of CHEESE in here, right MOM?”

“Um, of course it does,” I responded, knowing I was sort of telling a half truth. Well, it does contain a full cup of cottage cheese!

Both kids took my endorsement and gobbled up the remaining dip.

And everyone was happy.

Enjoy your dip.

Kale Dip with Carrots (adapted from Whole Living Magazine)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
3 cups thinly sliced kale leaves
coarse salt
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 cups mini carrots

Instructions:

Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Add garlic and kale and season with salt.
Cook covered, stirring occasionally until tender, 3-4 minutes.
Let cool.
Transfer to food processor. Add cottage cheese and puree until smooth. Stir in lemon juice.
Refrigerate up to 3 days.
Serve dip with chilled carrot slices.