Kale. It’s almost a cliché to write about it on this blog. It seems that everyone is talking about the restaurant-garnish-made-famous veggie. Kale craze is still raging. Just another crazy food trend? Actually, it’s a pretty incredible vegetable. Here’s why:
First off, essentially it’s a primitive form of cabbage that doesn’t form a head. As a garden crop, it’s the least demanding in terms of care and nutrients of the greater cabbage family. It tastes good and it’s a nutritional superstar.
Kale makes every top-10 list of nutrient-rich vegetables we’ve ever seen. You can assume any dark-green, leafy vegetable contains appreciable amounts of Vitamins A and C; kale though, is loaded with them. So much so, it has 10x more vitamin C than spinach. It also contains significant amounts of vitamin K, calcium, potassium, folic acid, lutein, carotinoides, and antioxidants. This nutritional powerhouse is good for your eyes, skin and bones. It reduces the risk of heart disease and cancer, lowers cholesterol and is low in calories, fat and carbs.
So you’ve got to wonder, any crop as healthy and good-tasting as kale has to have an attitude, right? Wrong. It’s about as non-fussy a plant as you could hope to grow. So yeah, we are total fans.
Siberian kale is the specific variety available at our veggie stand this week. It is exceptionally tender with light green leaves, white stems and ruffled edges. Delicious and very versatile. Steam it, sauté it, throw it in salads, whatever! But we don’t recommend it for making kale chips; Siberian kale is a little too leafy and tender to make satisfyingly crunchy bites.
A tasty recipe we found on vegetariantimes.com is this modern version of the traditional Irish dish: Colcannon.
The classic recipe varies from one county to the next; some cooks using cabbage in place of kale, others use leeks or onions for extra flavor. This one adds garlic and mushrooms.
Rancho Buen Día 