Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Kale Krazy

Aarti's Massaged Kale Salad
I've always loved kale and cooked a lot of it when I was receiving the CSA bags of veggies. But for some reason, it was always too chewy. I just didn't have the knack for doing it right. But I recently watched an episode of Aarti Party, the newest Food Network Star's program, and she had a fabulous, easy kale recipe I just had to try. This was exactly what I was looking for, a way to make kale tender, tasty and healthy.

Although this recipe called for mangos, I also made a dish without the mangos and added a little Parmesan cheese. This turned out wonderful also and reminded me of the kale from True Food in Phoenix. Wonderful topped over their egg-white omelet. I highly recommend it.

Thanks again to Aarti Sequeira for this massaged kale recipe. With simple ingredients...mango, kale, pumpkin seeds, lemon, olive oil...it's a cinch to make. The only thing I did differently was to use a little less olive oil and add a little garlic powder to the dressing. Other than that, do what she says, make sure to massage the kale for at least 1.5 minutes to really soften it up and there you have it. While you're massaging the kale, or basically squeezing it over and over, you'll lose volume in the kale and that's expected.

For my second try, I just skipped the mango and sprinkled with a little Parmesan before eating. Either way, this is tremendous and fantastic!

Oh, and make sure you don't chop the stems of the kale. They're too hard and fiberous...but they do make an excellent dog bone... my boys love them!
Tucker and his kale bone

Enjoy!

4 comments:

Valerie (m.) said...

Have you tried baking kale as chips? Yum!

comma girl said...

Valerie, I have. I don't think I did it right since they were too crunchy. I tried again and much better, but they always seem to taste better when someone else does them. What do you do?

Stephanie said...

I just discovered Kale this past spring. My husband will actually eat it, so it'll be a staple this fall. I'll have to try this recipe (also without the mango, as I'm not a fan).

I wonder if our dog would eat the stem. She doesn't like veggies or fruit unless they have something fattening on them, but I'll offer it to her next time. Thanks for the ideas!

comma girl said...

I might add something like raisins for a little sweetness if you want. And try the stem with the dog, you might be surprised. Thanks for trying it and let me know how you like it. What do you do with your kale?

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