Savory Fruit Kale Saute

The weather is finally cold again, and that encourages one to saute kale. The summer and early fall was just too hot to do that without heating up the house.


Using what I had in the fridge, comes this option for tonight.

Saute until limp
1-2 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup onion, chopped up

Add and continue saute
2/3 pear, cut up
2/3 nectarine, cut up
2 tsp pumpkin seeds, toasted

Add, cover and wilt as desired
1.5 cups kale, ripped to bite size pieces
2 tsp capers
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 Tbsp orange juice
3 Tbsp white wine

Mix it all up, simmer without lid to reduce the juices.
Serve and enjoy!

Rated a 4.66 on the Kale Scale

Kale Black Bean Salad with Feta Cheese

The idea for this came from a recipe in Cooking Light for black bean tacos. I made significant

variations - like no tortillas; no cilantro = no taco. This was very tasty, and a keeper!

Saute
2 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup onion, diced
2 tbsp green chiles, canned, diced
1 tsp garlic minced

Add and continue saute, adding water, as needed, to keep from sticking
about 1/2 cup of black beans, drained and mashed (i.e. use 1/2 can of black beans divided)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp Spanish seasoning

Combine and mix up, moisten (big bowl, spoon or clean hands)
1 tsp light mayonaisse
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup angel hair coleslaw
about 1/2 cup black beans, not mashed (i.e. use 1/2 can of black beans divided)
1.25 cups of kale, finely chopped

Combine into big bowl, mix up
Sauteed onion mixture
Coleslaw and kale mixture

Serve and top with
2 tbsp feta cheese, crumbled
 
Enjoy!

Rated a 4.72 on the Kale Scale.

Kale Pear Salad with Strawberry Mustard Vinaigrette

Inspired by, and not a replica of, a recipe in Eating Well magazine. The dressing was tasty - very nice!  Next time, I might use an apple in the salad and maybe some walnuts. But, overall, very, very good!

Use electric hand blender to mix the following to make Vinaigrette
- 3 big strawberries, cut up
- 2 green onions, white part diced
- 1/4 clove garlic, diced
- 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 3/4 tsp mustard (Portland Mustard, but use any not dijon)
- 5 sprigs of chives
- 3 tsp orange juice, 100% juice
- up to 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Toss together to make salad
- 1.25 cups kale, ripped to bite size pieces
- 1 pear, cored, diced.
- 6 green olives (castelvetrano), halved
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup angel hair coleslaw (actually finely shredded cabbage)

Mix together and serve
- Veggie mix
- Vinaigrette
- 1 tbsp feta cheese crumbles, sprinkled on top

Rated a 4.53 on the Kale Scale.

Happy Curry Kale

Started this with a Groupon for frozen food from from Happy Curry Foods.  I envisioned frozen meal
- pop it in the microwave and good to go. But, it turned out to be frozen food ready to be cooked...on the stovetop. And enough food for a small family!  The price was right, though.

Last night - I mixed the kale in with the rice and lentils (or dal). And had the chicken on the side. The food is Nepalese, and spicy. Spicy hot and spicy flavorful.  Very good!

Tonight - mostly the same, but what I did was put the rice, lentils (dal) and leftover chicken in a pot with water and wine, and simmered it all for about 30 minutes. Again - very good!!


No nutrition values for this 'frozen dinner.'

Rated a 4.69 on the Kale Scale.

Spiced Tofu &Chickpeas on Kale

I got this from Eating Well magazine, and proceeded to make some variations.  Spicy, and tasty.Seems like a bunch of messing around to get to the end product, but the result was worth it!
The recipe here, serves 4.

Combine, mix up in a big bowl
3.5 tsp paprika (sweet, hot or mixed)
3.5 ground cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp salt

Set aside 2.5 tsp of the spice mix

Mix into the rest of spices
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil

Add to spice mix, stir up, leave sit for 10-15 minutes or so
1 brick of tofu - 14 oz, drained and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 can (15 oz) - chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Spread tofu and chickpeas on greased baking sheet
Roast in 450 F oven for 20 minutes.
Stir once half-way.

While tofu and chickpeas are roasting, put the set aside spices into the big bowl and mix it up with
3 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp olive oil

Add 1 big bunch kale, ripped to bite size pieces
Massage kale in the spice, juice, oil mixture.  Kale will reduce in size as a result.

Plate the kale - divvy up for 1 serving (about 2.25 cups each)

Add to plated kale:
10 CastelVetrano olives, halved
1 red pear, cut up
1 Tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted 

Add 3/4 cup of the tofu and chickpea mixture on top of the kale bed.

Serve and enjoy!

Rated a 4.59 on the Kale Scale. 

Red Grapes, Red Pepper Kale Saute

Made this to go with a salmon fillet. Was pretty quick, and tasty!

Saute
3 tsp coconut oil
1/3 Cup onion, chopped
1/2 sweet red pepper, chopped
22 red grapes, halved

Make a simmer sauce
4 tsp white wine
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/8 cup orange juice

Add, cover and wilt as desired
1.3 cups of kale, ripped to bite size pieces
simmer sauce from above

Serve with a dusting of dukkah on top.

Rated a 4.5 on the Kale Scale.

Dayton Diva's Kale Salad

This recipe came from the self-proclaimed Dayton Diva, Evonne Foshee - one of the members of the Amity-Dayton Cohort/Ford Family Foundation Leadership Institute. We had a potluck meeting, she brought the salad,  everyone enjoyed it so much, we got the recipe.

Her recipe goes like this:

1 chopped up bag of kale chopped more
1 apple diced
1 handful of dried cherries chopped or a handful of cranberries chopped or some of both
1 hand full of chopped candied walnuts or pecans or as I often use some salted sunflower seeds.

optional...
add some chopped broccoli slaw and chop it up finer or finely chopped cabbage slaw.
raspberry poppy seed dressing or make your own with a little balsamic some creamy dressing of some kind and some poppy seeds and some sugar or sweetener.
As you can see you can be creative here an add and subtract as you wish give me any ideas that you had at all incorporated them into my recipe I'm always looking for something new and exciting.

Here is my interpretation, for a potluck to serve 12:

• Kale. I didn't have a bag. I had two huge bunches of organic kale. I chopped up 1/2 a bunch or about 6-8 big leaves of curly green kale and it turned into about 6 cups of finely chopped kale. I "chopped" using my kitchen shears. Seeing the mound of kale, I stopped chopping.

• 2 Apples and 2-3 tsp of Lemon Juice.  After getting the ingredients in the bowl and mixed up, it seemed to want another apple, thus I used 2. After chopping/dicing apple with my Pampered Chef Chopper and putting on top of kale, I sprinkled with the lemon juice to keep it from turning brown.

• Dried Cranberries, sweetened only with apple juice. I didn't chop these, just tossed them in whole. After about 1 cup, it seemed to be enough.

• Almonds, roasted, unsalted, no sweetener. Chopped up fine with the PChef Chopper. 2/3 C.

• Broccoli Slaw. Bought a package at grocery, and used about 1/2 of it. volume wise it seemed like 1.5 cups. I chopped it up finer, with PChef Chopper.

• Dressing.  A couple Tbsp of Light Mayo tossed on the salad. A couple Tbsp of greek non-fat yogurt (plain), tossed in salad. And 1/2 cup or so of Dannon Light'n'Fit Vanilla yogurt.  My intention was to moisten the ingredients, and not slather them up with dressing. Mix it all in.

Make the salad in a huge bowl, and keep stirring or tossing with a huge meat fork, salad tongs, whatever. Once it's all combined and mixed up, load up the serving bowl.

Enjoy!  The picture, from Christmas Dinner, shows it was a hit.

Rated a  4.85 on the Kale Scale.

Aged Havarti Sauce with Kale and Pomegranate

Wanted quick and easy, which this was. Tasty, and next time I think I'd add an apple or pear to balance out the flavors. But, this was workable as a side to a Salmon Dinner.

Steam, wilt as desired
1+ cup Kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Heat in microwave or on stove top til cheese is melted
1 oz aged havarti cheese, diced
1/4 cup soy milk
1 oz white wine
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Mix up Kale with cheese sauce and heat through.

Add and mix up
1.5 tsp coconut, shredded and unsweetened


Serve with
1/3 cup pomegranate arils on top


Rated a 4.54 on the Kale Scale

Summer Kale Corn

A simple serving for summer.  Delicious!

Microwave til done, then cut off kernels and mix with 2 tsp butter
2/3 ear of corn

Steam about 2 minutes
1+ cup of kale, finely cut with French knife

Layer on plate
Cooked kale
Topped with buttered corn kernels
10 grape tomatoes, halved

Serve with 
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce


Rated a 4.68 on the Kale Scale.

Sunchokes and Kale

Sunchoke, Jerusalem artichoke ... something new for me. This mish mash started with the 'chokes and then I remembered the asparagus that needed to be used; and the snow peas; and then the pineapple.. and so on. The meal worked ok, but not my favorite.

Saute
1.5 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup onion, chopped
2 sunchokes, sliced thin

Add and continue saute
5 spears of asparagus, cut up
6 snow peas, cut up
1/3 cup pineapple, cut up
1 Tbsp fig basalmic vinegar
1 oz wine
1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp Mrs Dash

Add, cover, wilt
1+ cup kale, ripped up to bite size pieces
1-2 Tbps liquid

Create a spot in the middle of the pan
Fry one egg

Serve with a dash of worcestershire sauce.

Rated a 3.99 on the Kale Scale.

Kale Steamed With Parmesan and Dukkah

A quick side dish to go with a hunk of salmon. Very good, fast food!

Steam
1 cup kale, ripped to bite size pieces

Toss steamed kale with
7 grape size tomatoes, halved
8 green olives - castelvetrano, halved
2 tsp capers
2 Tbsp shredded parmesan
1-2 tsp Dukkah (see previous blog entries too)

Serve with
1.2 tsp worcestershire sauce

Rated a 4.68 on the Kale Scale.

Beef Not with Kale

Beef Not is a dried soy product, and quite good, by Dixie Diners. The recipe below made two servings for me (not on the same day, of course).  This is something I found in my notes while cleaning up around here - one of my Kale meals from 2011 that never made it to the blog til now. Nonetheless, delicious and worthy of note.

Ingredients
1 Cup Beef Not
1 Cup Boullion (a cube with 1 cup water)
1.3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1.3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sherry
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp Mrs Dash
1 can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup corn
1 red pepper, chopped up
2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 2 T cold water
2 T water
2 cups kale, chopped up and divided - 1 cup per serving

• Reconstitue the Beef Not following instructions on package.
• Saute, and simmer:
• Beef Not and all ingredients through red pepper for 10-15 minutes.
• Add, and continue simmer until sauce thickens a bit:
• Cornstarch mixed with water.
• Steam:
• 1 cup of kale
• Serve by topping the kale with 1 serving of beef not mixture.

Rated a 4.7 on the Kale Scale.

Hotsy Totsy Steamed Kale

Quick and easy this was. The hotsy totsy part is adding 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of chili powder to this concoction. But that paired nicely with the pineapple and Ras El Hanout.

Steam 1.5 minutes in microwave:

2 brussel sprouts, cut up
1/2 cup pineapple chunks, cut up
1 clementine, peeled and segmented, those cut in half
4 green onions, white part sliced thin
1 oz white wine
1/2 tsp Ras El Hanout
1/8 to 1/4 tsp chili powder
2 tsp dukkah (the Egyptian nut crumbles)

Add, and steam 2 minutes more in microwave:

1+ cup kale, purple and green, ripped to bite size pieces.

Serve and dust with a bit more dukkah.

Rated a 4.65 on Kale Scale

Purple Kale Saute

For holidays, I spiced some mixed nuts and this involved warming the spices in fying pan in olive oil (cumin, ginger, cinnamon, curry, chili powder, cayenne).  This left a nice spicy residue in the saute pan into which I put the ingredients for this dish. Yummy!  I did not account for the bits of left over spice in the nutirion count.

Saute
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup onion
2 brussel sprouts, chopped up
1/2 cup pineapple, fresh and chopped up
1 fingerling potato, chopped up

Add and cover, lower temp and cook 5 minutes or so
1.5 Tbsp of pomegranate juice
 
Uncover, and let the water that condenses on the lid, go into the pan.

Add, cover, and steam until wilted to your desire
1 cup purple kale, ripped to bite size pieces
 
Serve!

 Rated a 4.67 on the Kale Scale.

Purple Kale Citrus Salad

Wanted a quick side salad to go with salmon.  I used organic purple kale. Deep purple.

Toss, layer or mix up, then serve:

1 cup Kale, ripped to bite size pieces
2/3 cup pineapple chunks, cut up
1 clementine, peeled, halve the segments

Serve with 2 Tbsp Fig Balsamic Vinaigrette

Rated a 4.45 on the Kale Scale.

Dukkah Dusted Kale

Dukkah, pronouced do-ah, is an Egyptian/Middle Eastern dipping spice - often used when dipping bread in olive oil, and then dipping in the dukkah.  Often made with hazelnuts, it can be made with a variety of nuts and spices. It's more that the final result is a jar full of a crumbly spiced nut topping.

Someone asked me if I had ever tried any, and no, so I got to researching. This is the best explanation I've found to far.  I pulled out the Egyptian cookbook I bought in Egypt (which is written in Spanish as it was the only version left at the airport souvenir shop), and found its recipe for Dukkah, which I chose to follow, more or less.

I used walnuts, as I thought that was what nueces meant in spanish, and I would use hazelnuts next time. I mixed sesame, coriander seeds, walnuts, cumin seeds. Toasted in oven for about an hour at 175-200f. And then put 1/3 at a time in the blender and ground it up, but not pulverize.

I made the dukkah yesterday, and used it today for this recipe.

Steam, 2 minutes in microwave
1 cup kale, ripped to bit size pieces
2 tsp cooking sherry

Mix steamed kale with
5 cherry tomatoes, halved
6 green olives (castelverano)
3 black olives

Serve mixed up kale and veggies on plate and
Dust with 2 tablespoons of kale.

Rated a 4.7 on the Kale Scale.

Fast Food!

Friend made big pot of soup and gave a frozen portion to me. I saved it for this week. Made two servings. No calorie count.  Dinner was served within 5 minutes.

After soup thaws, put portion in glass bowl. Top with 1 cup kale, ripped to bite size pieces.

Microwave for 2.5 minutes. Stir kale into the soup.

Microwave again 1 minute.

Serve with a few Ak-Mak crackers. Yum!


Rated a 4.8 on the Kale Scale.

Warm Sweet Potato Quinoa Salad

I was on the hunt for a "mexican salad" for a potluck, and found this. Turns out this warm salad works perfectly paired with a bed of kale.

This recipe is cut in 1/2 from the original. I get about two 1. 3 cup servings - it took that much to provide the proper kale coverage for my liking.

Make quinoa
1/4 cup quinoa
3/4 cup water
Bring to a boil, then simmer til water is absorbed.

Cook sweet potato
1 big sweet potato (about 1/2 to 2/3 lbs. I used one weighing 300 grams).
Peel sweet potato, dice into 1/2 inch pieces. Cover with water, bring to boil; cook til tender about 15 minutes.  Drain well.

Toss the quinoa, and sweet potato with
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1.5 tbsp green onion, chopped fine
2 oz can of sliced olives
1 avocado, diced
1/4 cup mined fresh cilantro
6 cherry tomatoes, halved

Whisk together and mix into the vegetables
4 tbsp lime juice (the juice from 2 fresh limes)
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp chipolte chili powder

Serve on a bed of 1 cup steamed kale.

Rated a 4.7 on the Kale Scale.

Sweet Potato Kale #3

Third and final serving variation on recipe from Sunday. Tonight, I ripped up pieces of kale, put them on dinner plate and then put the serving of sweet potato on top. Sprinkled around some water, put the steamer cover on on the plate. Microwaved 2 minutes.

Yum.

Rated a 4.66 on the Kale Scale.

Sweet Potato Kale Redo with Brussel Sprouts

Working with the leftovers from yesterday's recipe. I added 2 brussel sprouts, chopped up, to 1 serving of Sweet Potato with Fresh Kale. Instead of putting the serving on top of fresh kale on a plate, I mixed the kale in with the leftover serving, and heated it all in the microwave for 2 minutes.  I'm doing a picture, mostly to document, indeed, that bright green is brussel sprout parts.

Added a Tbsn of white wine and a bit of water to help wilt the kale and heat it all as it was being cooked.

Rated a 4.6 on the Kale Scale.