Green leafy goodness?? I am not so sure.

Kale. Just the thought of it sends hundreds running from that aisle in the grocery store looking for something more familiar. Like…say…iceberg lettuce. Either that or people wonder who took the decorations from the local buffet.  Leafy and green. Bitter and tough. REAALLY healthy for you. Yuck, eh?

Well, in an effort to expand my palate (a strange kick I very occasionally get on) I decided to join a local CSA. That stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Which stands for I buy veggies from someone else’s garden. 🙂 Which means every week I get to pick up a prepaid surprise bag of different veggies from a local farmer. The upside is later in the summer I will have oodles of fresh tomatoes to make caprese salad with. YUM. The downside? Strange veggies I have no knowledge of other than seeing them as decoration in the buffet line. Enter the veggie for the week. You guessed it KALE!

Exhibit A Kale

It looks kind of pretty. But it also looks like it might have belonged to a very BIG dandelion weed. (Which I heard are also edible, but I am not expanding my palate that much) I have read kale is super good for me. Dark green veggie and all. I have heard that it makes good chips when you bake them. On the other hand my sister in law says they taste like dirt. Hmmmm.

You can saute, bake, steam or juice them. They taste a little like spinach. They are a little bitter.

So since I am expanding my palate and all…oh yeah… and because I already paid for them and would feel very guilty for NOT eating them…I decided to try some for lunch today.

I heated up a little olive oil in a pan and plopped some chopped garlic in to saute. (Have you ever noticed that anytime anyone saute’s garlic people go “oh..what are you cooking? It smells great!”) Garlic goes with everything right? Someone told me kale is good with rosemary, which is my favorite herb ever! Remind me sometime to tell you about the rosemary hedge at my aunts house! Seriously. I thinly sliced the kale into itty bitty strips and tossed out the thick stems. I sauteed them for a few minutes until it looked like spinach. Added a touch of salt. And….

Well. It wasn’t too bad actually. It did taste a little like spinach. A little more texture than spinach. I think maybe next time I should add some lime. (Which totally goes with anything that needs garlic!) All in all I would say that is good. There will be a next time. 🙂

Tomorrow I will tackle something I have only seen in Chinese soup…Bok Choy.

Bok Choy