Kale Accountability

Still eating kale, but intake is down to about 1 bunch per week. Mostly because I've lost the routine of accountability by recording on blog. At one point in the last several years, I realized that most of what I do with kale is create "kale carriers" to get this green leafy vegetable down the gullet in a tasty manner. However, I do come back to my blog seeking recipes I've done and want to make again.

Kale Corn 'n' Ham Hot Salad

Yes, I'm still eating kale.  Just not posting the daily doings.  But, here is an easy summer dinner.

• Kale - 1+ cup, ripped up to bite size. Microwave on dinner plate, 2 minutes. 
• Corn on cob - 1 ear.  Microwave 4 minutes, cut the kernals off the ear and put on the kale.
• Add 1 tsp butter, cut up to the corn/kale.
• Ham 'steak' - 1 slice.  MIcrowave 1 minute. Cut up and put on the kale, corn mixutre.
  

Serve with ground pepper (1 tsp) and splash of Worcestershire sauce (1 tsp).

Enjoy!

Rated a 4.68 on the Kale Scale.

Kale with Moroccan Chickpea Soup (or Garbanzo Bean Soup)

Late winter soup. Very quick, easy and delicious.  This soup recipe makes 4 servings. For each serving, steam 1+cups of kale and mix in.

Make stock
1.5 cubes of vegetable bouillon
3 cups of water

Saute in a dutch oven or soup pot
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 carrot, grated
1 cup broccoli slaw
2 cloves garlic
1 medium onion, finely chopped

While this sautes, puree in Vita-mix or food processor
15 oz canned garbanzo beans (or chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1/3 cup tahini
1 cup of the vegetable stock
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Stir into the soup pot with the sauteed vegetables
Pureed mixture
Rest of the vegetable stock (about 2 cups)
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp thyme leaves, dried
.5 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
1/2 to 3/4 tsp Ras el Hanout
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp cried chopped parsely 

Cook 5 minutes or so, until heated through.

For each serving, ateam
1+ cups of kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Serve 
Put steamed kale in bottom of soup bowl, and add 1 serving of the soup. Mix up. 
Can garnish with toasted sesame seeds, or nuts.

Rated a 4.6 on the Kale Scale.

Yam and Split Pea Soup with Tarragon and Kale

Another winter soup. This one comes from the Joy of Mindful Cooking - a food blog network basedout of Portland. I didn't realize they were so close. I had gone looking for a bean soup recipe and they had several including this one. I added spices, wine, vinegar, ginger.  The soup, when simmered to completion was DELICIOUS! Wow!

So how does this relate to kale? Well, as I've mentioned, my kale recipes have turned into "kale carriers" - a way to get kale down the gullet in a more tasty fashion. I steamed a cup of kale and mixed it into my serving of soup.

Put in a soup pot and bring to boil, then simmer for 40 minutes:
- 4 cups vegetable broth (low sodium, nonfat)
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup yellow split peas
- 1 0z white wine
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 ba leaf
- 1/2 tsp dry mustard
- 1/2 tsp turmeric, ground
- 1 tsp herbs de provence
- 1 tsp chives
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper

Add and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes or so, till thick and done:
- 1/2 large onion, chopped up
- 1 tsp ginger root, fresh, minced
- 2 cups diced yam (1.5 to 2 smaller yams). Organic / wash / don't peel
- 1 tbsp or so of fresh tarragon (or 1 tsp dry)
- 1 cup of water, more, enought o help cover the yams a bit

Steam 1 cup of kale and mix that with 1 serving of the soup.

Rated a 4.69 on the Kale Scale.

Kale with Burrito and Eggs

This one requires cooking Amy's Southwestern Burrito first; and then cutting it up for the saute.  End result was pretty good. Not my favorite, but adequate.

Saute
2 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup onion, chopped
2 brussel sprouts, chopped

Cook separately, cut up and add
1 Amy's Kitchen Southwestern Burrito

Add, cover and wilt
1 cup Kale, ripped to bite size
1/4 tsp Cayenne
1/3 cup Salsa
Add other liquid as needed to wilt

Mix it all up, and then make space to
2 eggs, scramble into the mix

Rated a 4.2 on the Kale Scale.

Kale Salad with Pineapple and Pomegranate

A quick salad for a Friday night. Tasty. The yogurt works well for a dressing.

Microwave 1 minute
- 1 cup of kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Cut up
- 2/3 cup raw pineapple chunks

Prepare pomegranate
 - Use 'ready made' or dig out arils from 1/2 pomegranate

Toss all together.

Dress 
- Use up to 5 oz Dannon Light n Fit Vanilla yogurt. [ I use 5 oz which drenched the ingredients and then some - using up what I had.]

Top with
- 1/2 oz. chopped up hazelnuts

Rated a 4.6 on the Kale Scale

Thanksgiving Kale

Worked out this recipe using "legal" FODMAP foods - someone at the Thanksgiving table experiencing SIBO. I googled appropriate recipes, and dressings and from there cobbled this together. I relented and used a sweetener in the dressing, to keep it palatable to the rest of the people at dinner. If I was making it just for me, I would have left out the sweetener and also would have added something like yogurt in the dressing. Now, it's possible to do that with SIBO, but yogurt that you make yourself - that was more than I wanted to try for this meal!  The salad is delicious!!! I made enough for 10 servings at 6.5 oz each. The nutrition count is for one serving.


Ingredients, all organic:

• Kale, 2 bunches - about 285 grams when cut up
• Carrots, shredded - a bag. Was 284 grams.
• Yellow sweet pepper
• Purple grapes
• Pineapple, fresh. Use 3/4 of the pineapple in salad. Rest in dressing.
• Oranges, fresh (2). Use 1.5 in salad; the rest in dressing.
• Lime, fresh - juice it.
• Olive Oil
• Agave nectar
• Orange juice (from the 1/2 orange)
• Ginger root, fresh; grated..
• Lemon juice
• Filberts, ground - about 75 of them to get 1-2 tsp per serving.

Make Salad

• In a huge bowl, cut up the kale into fine strips. Leave out the heavy stems. Massage the kale for 2 minutes.
• Add the shredded carrots, and mix in.
• Dice yellow pepper and add.
• Cut the grapes in half and add. Mix in.
• Peel and core the pineapple, dice 3/4 and add to the salad. Mix in.
• Peel, segment the orange, chop up. Add.
• Mix all of this up, toss.

Dressing

• Put olive oil in a bowl
• Juice 1 lime. Add to oil.
• Juice 1/2 orange, and add of OJ as needed to get 2 oz. Add to oil.
• Add bit of lemon juice (dash to 1 tsp)
• Add 3 tsp agave nectar (or honey) to oil.
• Grate raw ginger - you'll use about 1 tsp and use the rest for something else. Add to oil.
• Put remaining 1/4 pineapple in a blender.
• Add the olive oil mix with fruit juices and sweetener.
• Add the grated ginger.
• Add 9 sprigs of cilantro - just the leaves. (about 1 Tbsp)

Put dressing on the salad, toss.

Serve with a topping of about 1-2 tsp ground nuts.

Rated a 4.78 on the Kale Scale.