Kale = Awesome!
Recently my little local wholefood co-op has been getting in a lot of kale and I feel like this year I have really discovered just how great it really is. I've had it steamed with stuff before, fried up with garlic, in bubble and squeak, but this year it's been the main feature of my meals. Two recent successes have been kale curry and kale soup.
Kale, potato, white bean and roasted garlic soup.
I roasted 4 heads of garlic for 30 minutes, fried two onions very gently for ages, added some chopped potato, some butter beans and some haricot beans, some veg stock and let it cook until the potato was soft. Added the roast garlic and pureed it all, then added the finely shredded kale and cooked it for another 5-10 minutes until the kale was soft.
It was so amazing, the beans made it all creamy, the potato pureed down to be all velvety soft, the garlic was warm and rich, and then the kale! Such a good meal. And I may have called it a soup, but you could have eaten it with a fork it was so full. Actually, leave out the potato and it would be amazing over pasta or with rice. Actually it would be good with just about anything.
And then, Kale Curry:
Photo one as it's made, photo two in better light as it reheats the next day.
It was onion, flavour (a mix of turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, garam masala and cayenne pepper), chick peas, aduki beans, green lentils, tinned tomatoes, creamed coconut, and a bucket of kale. And it made a vat of curry, enough for three days. Oh my it was good. So very very good. So very good that I have made two more vats since, so that'll be nine dinners of kale curry so far and many many more to come!
More precisely:
Makes six very generous portions, or eight to nine reasonable ones.
3 large onions
6 cloves garlic
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
3 tsp garam masala
0.5 tsp cayene pepper (or fresh chilli)
3 cans tinned tomato, chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can aduki beans, drained and rinsed
1 can green lentils, drained and rinsed
kale - a small carrier bag full, probably about 18 large leaves, rinsed and chopped
0.25 block creamed coconut
2 tsp sugar
Fry onions slowly in a very large pan for about 15 minutes until cooked but not brown
Meanwhile, wash and chop the kale
Add the garlic and the spices and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes
Add the tinned tomato and the pulses
Stir well then add the kale, bit at a time, stirring well each time until you can cram the whole lot in (this might take up to 5 minutes)
Cover and let cook for another 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently until the kale has shrunk down and softened
Stir in the creamed coconut, cut into tiny chunks, so it melts in and then stir well
Add 2 tsp sugar, stir well then serve with rice/naan bread/poppadoms/baked potato/anything else
The aduki beans and lentils get a little lost in it, but I like that, they add texture to the sauce. If you're making it in smaller portions and just want to use one kind though I'd recommend just using chickpeas.
Also, the kale is quite approximate, I'm just trying to remember how much was there. That doesn't really matter though, using more or less will just make it more or less kale-y.
Kale, potato, white bean and roasted garlic soup.
I roasted 4 heads of garlic for 30 minutes, fried two onions very gently for ages, added some chopped potato, some butter beans and some haricot beans, some veg stock and let it cook until the potato was soft. Added the roast garlic and pureed it all, then added the finely shredded kale and cooked it for another 5-10 minutes until the kale was soft.
It was so amazing, the beans made it all creamy, the potato pureed down to be all velvety soft, the garlic was warm and rich, and then the kale! Such a good meal. And I may have called it a soup, but you could have eaten it with a fork it was so full. Actually, leave out the potato and it would be amazing over pasta or with rice. Actually it would be good with just about anything.
And then, Kale Curry:
Photo one as it's made, photo two in better light as it reheats the next day.
It was onion, flavour (a mix of turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, garam masala and cayenne pepper), chick peas, aduki beans, green lentils, tinned tomatoes, creamed coconut, and a bucket of kale. And it made a vat of curry, enough for three days. Oh my it was good. So very very good. So very good that I have made two more vats since, so that'll be nine dinners of kale curry so far and many many more to come!
More precisely:
Makes six very generous portions, or eight to nine reasonable ones.
3 large onions
6 cloves garlic
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
3 tsp garam masala
0.5 tsp cayene pepper (or fresh chilli)
3 cans tinned tomato, chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can aduki beans, drained and rinsed
1 can green lentils, drained and rinsed
kale - a small carrier bag full, probably about 18 large leaves, rinsed and chopped
0.25 block creamed coconut
2 tsp sugar
Fry onions slowly in a very large pan for about 15 minutes until cooked but not brown
Meanwhile, wash and chop the kale
Add the garlic and the spices and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes
Add the tinned tomato and the pulses
Stir well then add the kale, bit at a time, stirring well each time until you can cram the whole lot in (this might take up to 5 minutes)
Cover and let cook for another 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently until the kale has shrunk down and softened
Stir in the creamed coconut, cut into tiny chunks, so it melts in and then stir well
Add 2 tsp sugar, stir well then serve with rice/naan bread/poppadoms/baked potato/anything else
The aduki beans and lentils get a little lost in it, but I like that, they add texture to the sauce. If you're making it in smaller portions and just want to use one kind though I'd recommend just using chickpeas.
Also, the kale is quite approximate, I'm just trying to remember how much was there. That doesn't really matter though, using more or less will just make it more or less kale-y.