Lacinato Kale

Ok, so you just bought kale.

Lacinato kale actually. Now what?

Storage
Notice that the kale came wet and wrapped in wet newspaper. I store my kale wrapped in the wet newspaper and in the crisper/vege drawer of the refrigerator.

Cleaning
I have watched greens being washed at the farms when I visit and so I choose not to wash most greens again at home. Sometimes I will look at it and decide that it needs washed again, or will select out the leaves that I want to wash. Fill a clean sink or large bowl with old water, add the leaves, swish, let the mixture settle so the dirt falls down, then remove leaves.

Eating

1) The most useful for me is to chop it into tiny pieces using my food processor, put the kale into a zip top style bag, and throw it in the freezer. Then I can take out a small amount (like 2 Tablespoons) and add to pasta sauce, egg salad, tuna salad, pizza toppings, omelettes, or other foods. The lacinato kale is added to these foods without cooking or doing anything to it first.

2) Lacinato kale makes a good salad too. I prefer a creamy type of dressing with this green along with some sweet things like red pepper, carrots, apples, raisins, or cherry tomatoes. Since kale is a cold weather vege and tomatoes and peppers are warm weather, thereis little overlap. Mostly I go with the apples, carrots, raisins, oh! and dried cranberries.

3) Kale can also be sliced made into a nice pasta topping. After removing the thick portion of the stems, make a tall stack of kale leaves. Roll them up into a cylinder then slice thin to make kale ribbons. Slice and saute a small onion in some butter or oil, add garlic if you wish and brown, then add kale ribbons and cook till just turning bright green. Keep tasting the kale. It will get sweeter when it is done and bitter and yucky when over done.

Need more info on kale? Just let me know with a comment or email. Otherwise, enjoy!