Up until a few years ago, I’d never even heard of kale, let alone tried it – yet today, it’s a standard item on my weekly shopping list and a vegetable I use in all sorts of meals and one of my ‘go-to’s’ in order to ensure I’m getting a well balanced meal and getting my veg quota in.
Having done a bit of research, kale has been around in the UK since the 14th century, up until around 2010, it was used more for food decorative purposes than eating ones but at that point, it suddenly took on the mantle of a ‘superfood’, became trendy to eat and before you knew it, kale has its own ‘Day’ (7th October if you want to make a note in your diary!).
Health Benefits
Kale is rich in nutrients and has a wide variety of health benefits.
It contains fibre, calcium, vitamins C and K, potassium iron as well antioxidants which help the body remove unwanted toxins.
There’s a whole list of potential health benefits adding kale to your diet can bring including protection against diabetes, supporting heart health, reducing chances of certain cancers, supporting bone health, aiding digestion and helping with maintenance of good skin, hair and eyesight.
So, how do I cook it?
For me, kale is one of the easiest ways to add lots of green to a meal (and obviously all the nutrients my body needs to) and the fact it takes only a matter of minutes to prepare, means its often one of my ‘quick and easy, can’t be bothered cooking’ staples.
My favourite is simply: Crispy Kale
I even had a dedicated baking tray just for Crispy Kale!
Ingredients
– A bag of kale (most supermarkets sell it and usually found near to the cabbage / broccoli)
– A spray oil of your choice
– Seasoning of your choice (you can be inventive here, my favourites are garlic salt, onion granules or chilli salt – just watch your salt intake)
Method
– Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees / gas mark 6
– Lay your kale on a baking tray in a single layer
– Spray with oil and sprinkle seasoning over
– Put in the oven just before you are ready to dish your meal as it really doesn’t take long to cook. I’d say 5-8 mins if your oven is hot when you put it in. It needs a careful eye keeping on it as it can turn from ‘crispy’ to ‘burnt’ in a matter of seconds!!!
And Serve!
I like to use crispy kale as a crunchy element to lots of meals – particularly curries and other rice dishes and you can tailor the seasoning you add to it according to the meal you are serving it with.
Here I’ve used kale with a Nigerian dish
With salmon, lentils and broccoli
and with leftover nasi goreng
Other uses
I’ll often add a big handful of kale to a stirfry (it doesn’t shrink like spinach does) and steaming is good too. I’ve added the smaller leaves raw to salads (though that’s not my favourite). If you type ‘kale recipes’ into a search engine, there’s thousands of uses of it so get experimenting!