Kale. A cold-hardy, leafy green vegetable of the cabbage family. Kale became popular as a superfood in the 2010s, given its reputation for being nutrient-rich with many health benefits. Though I didn’t do so this year, I’ve twice grown kale in my garden. It usually comes in packs of six, sufficient to meet my needs and plenty to share with neighbors.
So it’s like something to make into coleslaw?
I’ve never had it that way, 9, but there are recipes. Maybe I’ll try one this weekend as I happen to have half a bunch of kale and no real plan what to do with it.
Kale Tales: Tuscan kale, aka dinosaur kale!
And you have a surplus of kale because. . .?
Good question, Lily. Circling back to last week’s topic, kale is an excellent vegetable for promoting calcium absorption. Unlike another leafy green, chard, of which there are four monster plants thriving in my garden.
Kale Tales: investigating chard, high in oxalic acid, a calcium no-no!
I don’t get it? They’re both leafy and green.
They key is oxalic acid, a naturally occurring organic compound found in plants. When consumed by humans, it forms insoluble crystals with calcium in the digestive tract, reducing absorption. Though both vegetables have many beneficial nutrients, chard is high in oxalic acid, whereas kale is low. Kale also has lots of Vitamin K, which activates proteins that direct calcium to bones and teeth.
This sounds promising.
I think so too, Lily, but I haven’t used kale much in my diet and don’t have a deep bench of recipes that call for it. Plus, there’s the lingering memory of the first time I encountered kale.
It happened at a new Cajun restaurant in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, c. mid-1980s. The restaurant had great reviews. I was there with a bunch of friends that I knew from my rock-and-roll bass playing days. We were young and adventurous, with cast-iron stomachs. Red beans and rice, a super-spicy hunk of cod and this springy curling leafy green thing the size of a number 10 envelope arrived on my plate. Kale, a vegetarian in the group said. It sounded like a challenge. . .
Uh-oh. . .
A very chewy challenge and my jaws were pretty darn tired after dinner. Did eating the vast leaf if kale, stem and all, make me feel stoic and virtuous? Of course! But I didn’t seek it out for decades afterward, in spite of learning kale has a long history as an ingredient in traditional Irish dishes (Irish being the largest component in my genetic profile).
My next exposure to kale happened in 2018, in a dish at the Palomino* restaurant in Seattle. The kale this time was lightly sautéed in olive oil and garlic, finished with a grating of fresh Parmesan, pine nuts and raisins. Absolutely delicious! I replicated this at home with reasonable success, but it never became a staple on my cooking roster.
Before I learned that chard is a calcium binder I’d planned to use it in a recipe involving pancetta and scallion, two ingredients I rarely use. The day I intended to make this dish I learned about the high level of oxalates in chard. Though I also learned cooking the chard would mitigate much of this, I was still figuring out my calcium protocol for better absorption and abandoned the new recipe. For a couple of weeks I’ve been staring at the pancetta every time I open the refrigerator. I’m not a huge fan of pork, but. . .Wow, there are quite a few recipes online that use both calcium-friendly kale and the hugely grease-yielding pancetta!
The one I chose had all kinds of other lovely ingredients as well- -chopped apple, halved grapes, toasted walnuts, Romano cheese. It sounded so very promising, but when I tried the recipe last night it turned out to be one of those salads where all the interesting bits fall to the bottom of the plate, making them difficult to integrate with the kale.
Half a bunch of the Tuscan kale, aka dinosaur kale, remains. Maybe I’ll return to the sautéed approach, and add what’s left of last night’s other ingredients, finishing it with a creamier dressing than olive oil/lemon juice/Dijon. Or kale slaw (visions of chopping it to near-paste in the food processor dance in my head). As with so many things in life, the possibilities are limited only by my imagination.
Can you imagine some dessert to go with that?
Pretty sure I can, 9. Maybe something dairy-based with chopped figs added in.
That sounds perfect to me.
I was thinking more like fudge?
Keep thinking, 9, keep thinking. . .
*The Palomino, sadly, is now permanently closed. It lives on in book three of my fantasy/mythology series, Beyond Big-G City. . .
