Hail the Kale — The Dirt on Vegetables

Five years ago, if you told me that kale would be one of the most popular vegetables at the market in the near future, I never would’ve believed you. Yet, here we are… and thank goodness! Turns out, kale is so delicious and comes in different tasty varieties such as Lacinato or Dinosaur, Tuscan, Curly, and Russian. Kale is the queen of leafy greens and the good news is that it's loaded with everything you want and nothing you don't. It is stacked with nutritional credentials and it's low in calories.

Kale has more iron than beef, more calcium than milk and more vitamin C than spinach. It’s also packed with vitamin A, vitamin K, potassium, omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, beta-carotene, chlorophyll, protein, antioxidants and much (much) more.About the only thing it doesn’t have are carbs, fat and calories (it’s very low in each).Kale is a specific healer to the liver immune system, according to The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia by Rebecca Woods, and its juice is medicinal for treating stomach and duodenal ulcers.Not sure how to prepare kale?5 Ways to Prepare Kale

Kale Chips – Simple to make and so delicious. Get your hands on some yummy vinegars, like a fig balsamic, and make some salt and vinegar chips. I buy my olive oil and vinegar from The Filling Station, located in Chelsea Market. Now that I am a Cambridge, MA resident, I order their Lemon Olive Oil and their Pomegranate Vinegar online and mix it up with my kale when making chips... oh man, it's heavenly! Skip the potato chips and the popcorn and go to this great snack, anyway you want to prepare them.
Sautéed Kale – A perfect hearty side dish. Sautee some shallots, sliced baby bella mushrooms and garlic before adding the kale to the pan,
Kale in Soup – Want to add a leafy green to your soup? Kale is the one to choose. I use it in my white bean, mushroom, and farro soup and it is fabulous.
Kale Juice – Here in Cambridge, I am affectionately known by some (mostly the staff at "my" Trader Joe's) as "The Cleanse Lady." Anyone who has tried my 3-Day Detox Cleanse knows that I am keen on using kale in my juices since it is quite possibly the healthiest thing to juice. Mix it with apples, carrot and a little lemon or in a smoothie with blueberries and mangoes.
Kale + Grains – Kale is of my favorite ingredients to add to farro, barley, brown rice, pasta or any kind of noodle.

I recommend using young baby kale in salads. The older kale gets, the more its bitter tone increases. It is a hearty leafy green, so if you've had it in the fridge for a while, it will require more cooking time.Kale is very versatile and can be prepared in many ways. When using it in a salad, I often bake half of the kale required for the recipe and leave the other half raw. I have so many kale recipes that I can't wait to share with you all (they are so yummy)! My goal is to get children to like kale. If anyone has a good kid-friendly kale recipe, let me know.How to Buy Kale:Choose crisp kale with bright, fresh color and no signs of yellowing, holes, decay or wilting.Curly Kale- This is the kind that is probably the most popular in grocery stores. It has a dark green color and is very hearty and pungent in flavor. Best to sauté with olive oil.Lacinato- A variety with narrow, sweeter, milder, blue-green, heavily crinkled strap leaves impart excellent flavor, especially harvested young and after first frost.Russian Kale- Delicious grey-green leaves turn purple in cold weather. Much larger than regular kale (2 to 3' tall), the stems are purplish and the leaves are shaped like big oak leaves and colored a velvety gray green. The purple colors become richer after frost, when the flavor becomes sweeter. Surprisingly, the big leaves are very tender and delicious.Garden Hints: Kale requires good cultivation; mulch or hoe frequently to keep soil loose and weed-free. Plants may be left outdoors all winter. Frost improves flavor.How to Store Kale:To store, wrap kale in paper towels and place in a plastic storage bag removing as much of the air from the bag as possible. Store in the refrigerator where it will keep for 5 days. The longer it is stored, the bitterer its flavor becomes. Do not wash kale before storing because exposure to water encourages spoilage.This is kale (amongst other produce) from my Dad's garden. He taught me the importance of growing your own vegetables through his passion of gardening since before my time... he has been planting produce for 35 years! His birthday was yesterday and he is my favorite green thumb in the whole wide world, so this post is dedicated to my old man.