Curried Chickpeas with Carrots and Kale

Curried Chickpeas with Carrots and Kale

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cans chickpeas, drained
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1/2 bunch lacinato kale, chopped
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 2-3 cups water
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• In a pot over medium heat, sweat the diced onion in coconut oil.  Add garlic and stir until fragrant.
• Add the rest of the ingredients (2 cups water if you like it thicker, 3 cups if you like more broth).  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.  Cook, uncovered, for 15 - 20 minutes until everything is tender.
• Serve over brown rice.

Kale and Bean Soup

It rained today.  Torrential downpours complete with thunder from 10am - 11am.  And it snowed/hailed in downtown Huntington Beach.  On the beach.  On the pier.  They got 1/2 inch.  Crazy.

No better day for soup.  This was a little random, thrown together with whatever I had in the fridge and pantry.  I had 1/4 head of leftover roasted cauliflower that went in.  You could of course use fresh or omit.  I also used pinto beans because that's what I had, but canellini beans would be good, too.

Kale and Bean Soup


Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 2 cans beans, drained
• 1/4 head cauliflower, chopped
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 3 cups water
• 1 large bunch kale, washed and chopped
• salt & pepper to taste
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• crumbled feta

Directions:

• In a heated soup pot over medium heat, add the coconut oil and sweat the onion.  Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds.  Add the carrots.  
• Mash half the beans with a fork, then add all the beans to the pot.  Add the cauliflower, vegetable stock and water.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.  Cook for about 15 minutes, uncovered, until the carrots and cauliflower soften.
• Add the kale.  Add salt & pepper to taste, as well as the lemon juice.
• Simmer for another 10 minutes or so.
• Serve hot, topped with crumbled feta.

I served it over brown rice and added some leftover roasted asparagus for garnish.

Garlic Butter Spaghetti Squash with Kale and Tomatoes

A meatless Monday meal.  This actually got two thumbs up from the hubs.

Garlic Butter Spaghetti Squash with Kale and Tomatoes


Ingredients:

• 1/4 stick butter
• 3 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 medium-large spaghetti squash, cooked and de-seeded
• 1 large bunch lacinato kale, washed, dried and chopped 
• large handful of grape tomatoes, halved
• pink Himalayan sea salt to taste
• shredded parmesan
• diced avocado
• salted, roasted pepitas

Directions:

• In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat.  Add garlic and stir until soft and fragrant, about 45 seconds.  Add in the cooked spaghetti squash strands and toss until coated with garlic butter.  Add the kale and cook for a few minutes until wilted.  Add in the tomatoes and salt to taste.  Stir until the tomatoes are heated through.
• Plate and top with parmesan, avocado and pepitas.  Serve warm.

Today I served it over some leftover brown rice and beans.

Massaged Kale Salad with Butternut Squash and Dried Cranberries

Most of my friends know how much I love massaged kale salads.  We have it at least once a week, often twice.  So last week my friend Melanie forwarded me this massaged kale salad recipe that includes roasted butternut squash and dried cranberries.  Looked delish!  I read through it once, but then promptly forgot everything except butternut squash and dried cranberries.  So when I went to make it for dinner tonight, I had the butternut squash and dried cranberries, but of course I didn't have any poppy seeds.  Or shallots.  Or lemons, even!  So I had to improvise and combined the two recipes together, and used a lime.  It was really good!  Thanks for the recipe, Melanie!

Massaged Kale Salad with Butternut Squash and Dried Cranberries
Inspired by this recipe.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 small-ish butternut squash
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• 1 large bunch of kale
• juice of 1 large lime
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons dried cranberries 
• several turns of the black pepper grinder

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.  Peel the butternut and cut into 1/2-inch cubes.  Toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil and some TSSS to taste.  Spread the squash out onto a baking sheet and roast until tender, about 30 minutes.
• In the meantime, wash and spin-dry the kale, remove the thick middle stem, and chop or tear the leaves into bite-size pieces.
• Place kale, remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil, lemon juice and salt into a large bowl.  Massage the kale with your hands for a few minutes until it becomes soft.
• Add the cranberries, roasted butternut squash, and black pepper and toss.

Goat Cheese Alfredo with Roasted Red Peppers, Artichokes and Kale

ETA on 5/21/13 - I made the basic recipe today (no artichokes or kale) and used the immersion blender to puree it.  O.M.G. sooooo good!  Blending it really brings out the sweet roasted red pepper flavor.  I will be pureeing this from now on.

Sooooooooooooooo good.

As usual, I made some changes from the original recipe:  fat free evaporated milk instead of half & half because that's what I had on hand, 12 oz. instead of 1 cup because a can of evap milk is 12 oz. and I didn't want to store leftover milk.  5 oz. goat cheese instead of 4 oz. because the log I bought was 5 oz., and again I didn't want to store a smidge of leftover cheese.  Since this increased the amount of sauce, I added an extra pepper.  14 oz. artichoke hearts because that was the size of the can.  And I added some leftover roasted kale I had in the fridge.  I didn't use the immersion blender (too lazy to find it and pull it out) so I minced the roasted red peppers on my cutting board.  Because I added so much extra, this easily serves 4.

Goat Cheese Alfredo with Roasted Red Peppers, Artichokes and Kale
Adapted from this recipe.

 Ingredients:

• 3 red bell peppers
• 1/2 lb. whole wheat fettuccine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (12 oz.) can fat free evaporated milk
• 1 (5 oz.) log of goat cheese
• 2/3 cup grated parmesan (plus more for topping)
• 1 (14 oz.) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 2 cups roasted kale
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F.  Roast the peppers for 30 minutes, turning them halfway through.  Remove from oven and cover with foil.  Let sit for 10 - 15 minutes until cool enough to handle, then peel and discard the skin and discard the core.  Mince the roasted peppers and set aside.
• Prepare pasta to al dente, per package instructions.  Drain and set aside.
• In a large skillet, sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until soft.  Add the evaporated milk and goat cheese.  Stir frequently until cheese is melted.  Add parmesan and continue stirring until melted.
• Add the minced roasted peppers, chopped artichoke hearts, roasted kale and TSSS to taste.  Stir until combined and well heated.  Add the cooked pasta and toss.
• Serve topped with more parmesan.

If you want a deeper red color, add the peppers, then puree the mixture with an immersion blender before adding in the artichokes and kale.

Roasted Kale

This recipe came as an accident while I was making kale chips one day.  I overcrowded my pan because I was too lazy to spread the kale out over two pans.  So the leaves ended up crisp in some parts, and chewy in others.  The combo of textures was awesome.  The next time I made this on purpose, I cut way back on the salt, added some garlic, omitted the parmesan and spritzed it with a little lemon juice, which made it even more awesome.

Roasted Kale

Ingredients:

• a giant bunch of kale
• olive oil in a mister
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic
• 1/2 lemon

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Tear the kale into bite-size pieces.  Wash thoroughly and spin dry.
• Place the kale onto a baking sheet.  Mist with olive oil, sprinkle lightly with TSSS and TSGG, and spritz with the juice of 1/2 a lemon.  Toss everything with your hands until evenly coated. 
• Spread the kale out across the sheet, but you don't need a single layer.  It's fine (and actually preferred) if the kale is just mounded on there, that way you'll have some crispy pieces (from the corners and outer edges), and some chewy pieces (from the center and bottoms).
• Roast in pre-heated oven for 15 minutes.  (10 minutes if you prefer it mostly chewy.)

Massaged Kale Salad

Ok, as much as I love kale, I must admit I was quite apprehensive when my friend Dinah forwarded me this recipe.  Raw kale is YUCK.  Sautéed, great.  Baked into chips, great.  Boiled in soups and stews, great.  But until now, I would never have even entertained the idea of eating kale raw.

But curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to make a batch of this today (with a baggie of arugula salad in the fridge on stand-by).  And so I take back all my negative preconceptions of raw kale.  This salad is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS.  Did I already say DELICIOUS?

Even the hubs, who was a meat-and-potatoes guy when I met him 13 years ago, ate every single bite I put on his plate.  So thank you, thank you Dinah.

The only changes I made to the original recipe were to 1. omit the cayenne because I don't like spicy, and 2. added a little bit of shaved parmesan because, well, I love cheese.  Oh, and I toasted the pine nuts first.

Massaged Kale Salad
Taken from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 large handful of pine nuts
• 1 large bunch of kale
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• several turns of the black pepper grinder
• freshly-shaved parmesan

Directions:

• Spread the pine nuts on a small baking sheet and toast in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes until it begins to turn light brown.  Remove and set aside.
• Wash and spin-dry the kale, remove the thick middle stem, and chop or tear the leaves into bite-size pieces.
• Place kale, olive oil, lemon juice and salt into a large bowl.  Massage the kale with your hands for a minute until it becomes soft.
• Add avocado, garlic, pepper and pine nuts and toss.
• Top with some freshly-shaved parmesan.

I know pine nuts are very pricey, but I had to try them today per the original recipe.  I'm thinking this salad would be just as yummy with walnuts instead of pine nuts.  Especially since walnuts are 1/4th the price of pine nuts.  ;-)

Sauteed Kale and Tomato

Kale.  It's my new favorite green.  Seriously.  It's robust, flavorful, and chewy and crunchy at the same time.  I had some beautiful tomatoes today so I thought I'd sauté them up together.  I loved it.  Hubby didn't care for the tomato part, so I'll try this again another time without the tomato (maybe with mushrooms?).

Sautéed Kale and Tomato

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 3 medium tomatoes, sliced and seeded
• A big bunch of kale, chopped into bite-size pieces, washed and drained
• Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
• Tastefully Simple Onion Onion

Directions:

• In a large pan, drizzle a couple tablespoons of olive oil.
• Add the tomato and sauté on medium-high heat until soft (approximately 5 minutes).
• Add the kale, a few dashes of TSSS and a few dashes of TSOO. 
• Sauté until the kale is soft but still slightly crunchy/chewy (approximately 3 minutes).
• Serve immediately.

We had this tonight as a side to some Simple Snapper and yams.

Kale Chips

You're probably thinking "Kale?  Eewww!"... but before you diss it, you've got to try it.  Seriously.  It's good!  Even my 21-month-old loves it, and here's the proof:

Kale chips are nothing like what you know kale to traditionally taste like (in stews or as a bitter mushy side dish), or what you would imagine kale to taste like if you've never had it before.  Granted, they don't taste like potato chips because, well, they're not made from potatoes.  They're made from kale, silly.  But they're light and crispy, and in this case, taste like parmesan and seasoned salt.  Not a bad combo.  And it's a quick and easy way to get in that extra serving of veggies, the especially-good-for-you leafy green type of veggie.

We devour an entire batch in one sitting, every time without fail, and that 21-month-old I mentioned above, well, she eats her fair share.

Kale Chips
Adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• A giant bunch or two of green kale
• olive oil spray
• salt (your favorite seasoned brand, or, I use pink Himalayan)
• grated parmesan

Directions:

• Thoroughly wash the kale (they grow in the dirt so tend to be, well, dirty.  HA!).  Remove the thick stems and cut the kale leaves into bite-size pieces.  Dry them in a lettuce spinner or by spreading them onto a few paper towels on your kitchen counter.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Spray a baking sheet or two lightly with olive oil.
• Spread the kale out on the baking sheet(s) in a single layer.  Spray the tops lightly with olive oil.
• Sprinkle lightly with salt.
• Grate some parmesan over the whole thing, as much or as little as you like.
• Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until the kale is crispy (it may be lightly browned but should still be mostly dark green; if you get to mostly brown, or all brown, it's burned and will be very bitter). My oven has hot spots, so I like to rotate the pans halfway through the cooking time.

Be careful and watch it towards the end, there's only about a 2-minute window between crispy and burned.  After you do this the first time, you'll get a feel for how long it takes in your particular oven and won't have to hover so much towards the end.