Kale - How Do You Cook That?

Organic Basket Delivery Week 3

Kale - a huge bunch of kale was in the last organic box delivery and frankly I had no idea what to do with it. Kale and Holland are always connected in my memory. A Saturday morning trip to the nearby market in Den Haag always yielded fresh bread, a fresh pot of vegetable soup that contained kale, meat balls and various other vegetables, along with a fresh chunk of Gouda cheese on the table. One friend creates a beautiful kale pie made with cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, eggs and kale and it always tastes fabulous but I don’t know how to make it. The Irish Chef I work with has memories of kale chopped and steamed and then mixed with bacon, onions and mashed potatoes.

Kale is one of the best greens you can eat as it is one of the best sources of beta-carotene, and for a green vegetable it is unusually high in fibre. There are a variety of vitamins, especially vitamin A and calcium. Kale also can trigger the liver to produce the all important enzymes that detoxify cancer causing chemicals which we are all daily exposed to - a powerful antioxidant. So that means it is good for you and if we are trying to eat foods that bring us life, this would be a good one. Just how to prepare so we can enjoy it is then the next question.

The internet holds a fabulous library of recipes and makes it so easy to find out how to cook new foods, or find new ideas for giving old favourites a new flavour. Today it was the place to find out how to cook this batch of kale that had arrived in my last organic vegetable and fruit basket delivery.

Roasted Kale with Red Onions, a Better Homes and Gardens recipe, caught my eye. As I began to prepare it I decided to add a couple of other ingredients that seemed like they would fit. I am afraid that sticking to a recipe is like trying to colour within the lines with a child and their colouring book - I just can’t seem to do it very well! The basic recipe suggests caramelizing red onion, adding it to the chopped kale, tossing it together with a little olive oil and throwing it into a medium hot oven for 15 minutes. The variation recipe for kale -
Roasted Kale with Caramelized Onion and Apples

1 bunch of kale - chopped
½ large onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper to flavour
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 crisp apple, thinly sliced but not skinned
1 teaspoon of oregano

- Heat oven to 375F
- line a 9 x 13 pan with tin foil
- heat olive oil and when it is hot add sliced onion and cook for 5 minutes
- add brown sugar, stir constantly, and cook for a few more minutes
- add the balsamic vinegar and the oregano and continue to cook for 5 more minutes so that the sugar and balsamic have created a syrup for the onions.
- add the caramelized onions to the chopped kale and season with salt and pepper
- melt the butter in the pan you had the onions in and add it to the kale. Toss everything together so it is well coated.
- add the sliced apple
- place the kale in the oven and bake it for 20 - 25 minutes.

It will have a slightly crispy texture and the slightly bitter kale with the caramelized onions and sweet tender apples is a lovely burst of textures, sweet, salty and bitter all rolled into one bite. Caramelized onion always adds a burst of flavour to whatever you combine it with and the balsamic especially adds a stronger aroma to the onions. Apples, surprisingly, also add a delightful sweetness when they are cooked together with other ingredients. They do not have the tang of citrus but rather a more gentle infusion of their character that adds a lovely subtle change to any dish.

Next time the kale arrives in our organic basket we will search for another way to enjoy this very nutritious bunch of greens.