The gospel according to kale

I am in the midst of a love affair with kale. I eat it every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I talk about kale, and get kale articles sent to me via email and Facebook. I am a kale nut. And I make no apologies! I get a little bit of a ribbing about it at work, but only because I eat kale salads in front of co-workers. If you don't want to be teased, eat in private.

Kale shows up in my smoothie every morning:

In salads I've enjoyed many variations. There's the one below (a twist with a basil-tomato-parmesan flavor) and a peanut-sauce dressed version as well:

And, finally, I recently broke down and made kale chips. These have been popping up as a healthy option, all over the interwebs. I've read a number of different takes on how best to make them, and decided I would give it a whirl, plain and simple, none of the fussy, flavored types.

I made a batch, and husband and I nibbled away. I made another batch the next day, and have made them a few times since. Each time I make them, they disappear. I love the flavor and the texture, I'll just be honest. Mock me all you want. :)

I used this recipe from David Lebowitz, and his rationale on heat made a lot of sense to me. I went with 350 for the temperature (rather than the widely touted 425) and it took about 35-40 minutes (with a mid-time rack switch) for them to crisp up to the desired chip texture. I would recommend playing with your oven and getting to know what temperature works, what timing works, etc.

Before and after oven time for the kale chips. Nothing like a little time in an oven to get the green out and crisp up!

Give it a try, and let me know how it goes. I would love to know what you think too. (And if you're local and need kale, give me a holler! We have kale to share.)

Green breakfast smoothie

nce upon a time, the breakfast smoothie/shake was a staple around our house. We enjoyed years of smoothies, really. But then, as with all tastes, you decide one day to try something different, mix it up a bit, and time goes by, new habits form, and before you know it, you can't remember the last time the Vitamixer was turned on!

Well, not quite... we have still enjoyed the occasional fruit smoothie to accompany the weekend breakfast extravaganza, but our regular habit has long gone by the wayside. Husband enjoys his steel-cut oats, Seth his egg and English muffin combo, and me, I waffle between hot cereal, granola, yogurt and breakfast cookies. But, as I reflected recently on our bumper crop of strawberries, and the overflowing kale as well, I thought giving a green smoothie a try might be worthwhile.

And it was!

Green smoothie
Serves 1 (approx 400 calories, if you care about that kind of thing)
1 cup strawberries
2 handfuls chopped raw kale (approx 3 cups)
1/2 cup yogurt
1/3 cup oat bran
1 cup orange juice

Place the strawberries in the bottom of the blender, followed by the kale, yogurt, oat bran and orange juice. Start out low on the blender speed, increasing until it's on high and the smoothie has mixed to your desired consistency. I pureed it pretty fine for quite a while, unsure how I would like the raw kale in this form. (Salad is one thing, but drinking it is quite another.)

I liked it, I really liked it. (Cue Sally Field.) It was fresh and not too sweet, and while the kale was strong, it wasn't too strong. If one wanted to tone down the kale further, a banana might help, but I tend to think bananas take over everything else, and wanted to get some strawberry out of the drink... and it was there, subtle, but there.

 I will definitely give this another go, and it just may become my summer standby, with the fruits varying with their availability.

Do you enjoy kale? Enough to give it a go in a smoothie? If you have any favorite smoothie recipes, please share--I've been collecting a bunch on Pinterest, and am always up for another!

Side kale note: If you have found the rampant proselytization of all things kale to be a bit over-the-top, you'll enjoy this article from Slate. I especially chortled around Day 6, of course!