The Kale Conundrum

From our CSA, I think we have gotten more Kale and Chard than anything else this season. These lovely vitamin rich leafy vegetables are a great alternative to spinach. When it comes to preparing your Kale or Chard, the standard method is braising and serving as a side, which involves a quick sauté in some chicken or vegetable stock and adding your seasoning of choice. However, I like options (especially in this heat!), so I wanted to share a couple of our favorite ways to prepare it:

Braised with Polenta cakes: sauté ½ cup onions and one chopped garlic clove in 2 T olive oil, then add any mix of about 4 cups of Kale or Chard (remembering to remove the tougher stems), along with about ¼ cup chicken or vegetable stock (red chili flakes optional). Cook until just wilted and tender. Season with pepper as desired. Remove from heat and let slightly cool. Remove excess liquid as needed. Mix in about ¼ – ½ cup crumbled soft cheese (we like both feta and goat). The cooler the mixture, the less the cheese melts, so it is your preference. Meanwhile, heat a fry pan with some olive oil, and then add slices of polenta cut about ½ – ¾ inch think. Cook until tops turn slightly crispy (flip to cook both sides). Serve the kale and cheese mixture on top of the fried polenta. (Source: a combination of recipes from The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without)

Kale, tomato and prosciutto quiche: preheat oven to 350 ⁰F. Prepare one single-pie pastry crust of your choice (optional to precook it). Shred about 6oz of a cheese of your choice (we like either a goat cheese or a stronger white cheese like Gruyere or Fontina). Chop about 2 cups Kale into large bite size pieces (remove the stems) and slightly braise, set to the side to cool. Cut or tear about 6 pieces of prosciutto into quarters and slice about 3 Roma tomatoes. Wisk together 4 eggs, ¾ heavy whipping cream and ¾ cup milk, or half-and-half. Add a dash of salt and pepper to taste. Layer all the prepped ingredients, except the egg mixture, in the pie crust. I like to end with the tomato slices since they are the prettiest. Pour egg mixture over the top. Put in oven and cook 40 – 45 minutes until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Note: this can be done with a variety of ingredients, so don’t be afraid to experiment!

Kale Chips: just tried this one out this week, and it was a hit (even BF was impressed)! Preheat oven (or BBQ when too hot inside) to 350 ⁰F. Remove the stems and chop any amount of Kale into large pieces (about half the size of your palm). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the Kale flat on top. Sprinkle with olive oil (I used a pastry brush) and season with salt (garlic salt is good too, but careful not to overdo it). Bake about 6 minutes (depending on amount) until mostly crisp but watch very closely as they will burn quickly. Serve as an appetizer, snack or side! (Source: LucyDelRey from Allrecipes.com)

Crepes: when our fridge gets too full, we often whip up a batch of crepes. You can really experiment with anything you’ve got, but our favorites, are of course, braised Kale or Chard, as well as left over steak or chicken, smoked Salmon, pepper jack cheese, goat cheese, cream cheese, etc. For the crepes, combine 3 eggs, ½ cup milk, ½ cup water, 3 T melted butter, ¾ cup all-purpose flour and ½ t salt in a blender. Blend 1 minute. Scrape down sides of blender and blend until smooth, about 30 additional seconds. Heat a small (8”) fry pan on medium heat and coat lightly with PAM. Pour about ¼ cup of batter into the pan and spread to edges. Flip as soon as the bottom is cooked (careful not to overcook or burn). Recoat the pan about every 5th crepe. Fill each crepe on one half with fillings of choice, fold over and return to pan to reheat and warm ingredients. By the way, these are fun to do with guests as everyone can build their own!

Please feel free to share your ideas as well!