When you have a large crop of kale from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include it in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use it up before it goes bad without getting sick of it. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve kale:
- Use it as a Base or Partial Base of an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!) Keep in mind that you may not want to consume raw kale if you are sensitive to glucosinolates, which are significantly reduced by cooking.
- Add it to soup. Kale makes a great addition to almost any soup, but it especially complements hearty autumn and winter soups and stews like potato-leek soup.
- Add it to smoothies.
- Add it to pasta dishes, both stovetop and baked.
- Add it to baked or mashed potatoes as a topping.
- Bake it with chicken and potatoes or sweet potatoes. You may prefer a layered dish with potatoes or sweet potatoes on the bottom, kale in the middle, and chicken on top.
- Pair it with sweet potatoes and lime juice. Add a cayenne-based hot sauce if desired. This combination can be baked, or the kale can be sautéed separately and added as a topping for the sweet potato with the lime juice and (optional) hot sauce as additional sweet potato toppings.
- Sauté or stirfry it with garlic and mushrooms.
- Sauté or stirfry it with ginger and garlic.
- Sauté it and toss with apples and almonds or walnuts. This combination can also be used for a Simple Salad if you prefer raw kale.
- Make kale chips.
- Can it. Kale is best suited to pressure-canning techniques, as opposed to water bath.
- Pickle it. Kale works well for both traditional and quick-pickling methods, alone or with dill, cucumber, and/or fennel.
- Ferment it. A close relative of cabbage, kale is a great choice for fermenting recipes like creative twists on sauerkraut and others.
- Dry or dehydrate it to save it for later. It can then be powdered and added to smoothies or as a thickener for soups, baked goods, and other dishes.
- Blanch and freeze it. Kale retains its quality and nutrients best if it is blanched before freezing. Learn more about blanching here.
Further Reading
Growing kale? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Kale is also featured in these articles:
- Quick Facts: Growing Kale
- The Interesting Salad Protocol: How to Build an Interesting Salad
- How to Preserve Your Harvest: Freezing