It's All About Kale (Going Greens)

I thought Id share some yummy Kale recipes I've collected or created, in response to queries like "What do I do with stuff?  I've heard it's so good for you."  Well, that it is!  Kale is one of the healthiest cruciferous vegetables you can eat! What are cruciferous vegetables you ask? Only the best and the brightest vegetables of the bunch, with the most impact for great health!  Read more here (http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/super-veggies-cruciferous-vegetables) Back to our Rock star, Kale. It is loaded with vitamins, especially K, A and C, and has 45 different flavonoids with both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.  It also lowers cholesterol and is proven to help reduce one's chances of cancer.  What's not to love?!  Oh, and the taste, I'm loving it!  Kale is also wonderfully versatile.  You can sautee, steam, dehydrate into chips, add to soups or eat it raw, just to name a few.  Today, I'm going to share a few of my favorite recipes that are really easy to make and super tasty.

Sauteed Kale/Greens

You can have a lot of fun with this one.  I always try to keep some fresh Organic Kale in the fridge because I love how useful it is and eating cruciferous vegetables at least 2-3 times a week is ideal to keeping one really healthy.  Besides, I like it ;)

Kale has rather leathery leaves and come in various varieties.  Typical green Kale will work splendidly for most recipes, but have some fun with the other varieties too, which come in various colors or style of leaf shape and size. All are very good for you and taste great.  As I was saying you can have fun with sauteed Kale because you can add a variety of other greens with it, such as spinach, Swiss chard, collard greens, beet greens, turnip greens, etc.  You can also play around with the ingredients you add while sauteing.  I'll give you two different ways to make this dish, for starters.

Catherine's Garlicky Greens With a Kick!
 (This also works great with Swiss chard or Beet Greens)  

                 Example of greens starting to cook in the pan, don't cut them too small
Ingredients:


8 large Kale leaves
1-2 Tablespoons Olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced Garlic
1/4 teaspoon dried chilies
1 Tablespoon soy sauce (or alternative)
1-2 Tablespoons lemon juice

Remove the stems from the leaves of the Kale.  If you chose the use the stems, chop them into 1/2 inch sections and set leaves aside.  Saute the stems in the olive oil on medium heat until the start to become tender,  about 10 minutes.  Coarsely chop the leaves (I use a 1 inch chiffonade cut).  Add the garlic, peppers Kale leaves and soy sauce and cook until tender.  This goes pretty fast, do not overcook.  They should still be a brilliant green.  Turn off the heat, add the lemon juice and toss.  Enjoy!

                                                   Made with red Kale
 

 A variation:
I substituted the Kale for beet greens from 4 beets and 1/2 bag organic spinach.  I've made this same recipe with 10 Swiss chard leaves also (definitely use the stems) and it came out beautifully.

                                                       

Catherine's Garlic Ginger Greens with Pine nuts

Ingredients


4 large Kale leaves
5 Rainbow chard leaves, or equal amount of another green. 
1-2 Tablespoons Olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced Garlic
1-2 Tablespoons soy sauce (or alternative)
1teaspoon dried ginger (fresh would be awesome too!)
1/4 cup Vegetable broth
1/4 cup pine nuts


Remove the stems from the leaves of the Kale and Swiss chard (leave spinach leaves whole if used). Chop stems into 1/2 inch sections and set leaves aside.  Saute the stems in the olive oil on medium heat until the start to become tender,  about 10 minutes.  Coarsely chop the leaves (I use a 1 inch chiffonade cut).  Add the vegetable broth, garlic, ginger, greens and soy sauce and cook until tender.  Once again, as soon as they seem tender and are still a lovely green, remove from heat, add pine nuts and toss well.  
*Note:  I used the sesame seed oil based "un-soy sauce" from a previous blog and this smelled and tasted Amazing!!

Another variation:

                                  Kale, Rainbow Swiss chard and spinach, with Garlic
                                                            Isn't it Gorgeous?!

I seriously considered adding my fresh Kale salad to today's blog, since we're in the spirit of Kale BUT, I think we'll add that to salads (you're going to love this!)....coming up SOON!  I've got to alter Mom's lovely Kale soup also, but that will be another day ;)
Now go out buy yourself some lively looking,Organic greens and get creating.  Have some fun, add some color, and eat to live, one bite at a time!