Kale is a dark green leafy cruciferous vegetable, rich in vital nutrients that provides several health benefits. You can eat it raw in fresh salads or you can try other ways, such as add them to your soups, sauté them, bake them or steam them.
You can use the kale as per your desire crispy or the sauté form. The different varieties of it have its own benefits, taste, texture and shine, let’s find more about different types of kale
Baby Kale: it is a delicate form of kale or you can say the young leaves of a kale plant. It is soft and mild and can be chewed raw with a stem. It is rich in calcium, iron, vitamin C and K, baby kale leaves are most widely used in raw salads.
Curly Kale: it is the most popular form that is consumed by people. The leaves are stripped off from the stems and cooked well before eating. It is rich in fiber, antioxidants, calcium, vitamin C, K and iron. It is dense in nutrients and prevents various health problems, consuming antioxidants from the kale helps in removing the unwanted toxins from the body.
Lacinato Kale: it is also known as Tuscan kale. It can be enjoyed raw or cooked. It has a slightly sweeter and more delicate taste. It is rich in several nutrients such as vitamin B6, manganese copper calcium and magnesium.
Purple Flowering Kale: it has a sweeter and less bitter taste, than other types of kale; it has a beautiful purple color. It is a nutrient-dense kale, but it is not enjoyed by people due to its taste.
White Flowering Kale: is nutrient-dense and tastes similar to cabbage. The peppery type of kale is best for cooking, that softens the leaves.
Nutritional Value of Kale
|
Nutrition |
Value |
|
Dietary Fiber |
5% |
|
Protein |
4% |
| Vitamin A |
206% |
|
Vitamin K |
684% |
|
Vitamin C |
134% |
|
Calcium |
9% |
| Magnesium |
26% |
| Potassium |
9% |
| Copper |
10% |
What Are the Benefits of Consuming Kale?
Consuming kale in your daily diet provides numerous benefits they are listed below:
- It is rich in iron that helps in the formation of hemoglobin and transporting oxygen to various parts of the body, it also helps in providing growth of the cells and proper functioning of the liver. Iron is good for women’s health. While cooking it, add food rich in vitamin C which boosts your body’s ability to absorb plant-based iron.
- Antioxidants are essential for the body that protects the body from free radicals, also contains Carotenoids and flavonoids that protects against various cancers.
- Kale prevents inflammation, adding 1 cup of Kale 10% Omega 3 fatty acids help the body to fight inflammation.
- One of the best benefits of eating Kale is that it supports cardiovascular issues and prevents heart diseases. It is rich in vitamin A that improves your vision and skin.
- Kale is rich in vitamin C that protects the body from several diseases, deficiency of Vitamin C can lead to easy bruising, low iron levels and bleeding gums. Kale is a rich source of vitamin C, consuming it slows aging.
- Calcium is a mineral which is important for strong bones and carrying out several functions that involves muscles and nerve movement and also helps blood vessels to transport blood through the body, it is necessary that you consume calcium in good amount. Kale is a good source of getting high calcium.
- Consuming Kale promotes healthy digestion and removes pollutants from the bloodstream, it is rich in fiber and sulfur both great for supporting the body’s natural digestion process and keeping your liver healthy.
- Kale is rich in fiber, its fibrous green leaves aids in healthy digestion.
How To Cook Kale
Steaming: there are varieties of ways you can cook Kale, steaming is the most wonderful way to handle the dark green leafy vegetable, prepare it well before cooking, place a pot of boiling water over a place, place steaming basket and cook it until it is soft and tender you can cook it for approximate 5 to 10 minutes when it is cool completely then squeeze out the water you can flavor it with seasoning. You can Cook kale in a frying pan over a medium flame just prepare it before cooking make sure that it is washed properly, in a pan heat butter, add garlic, salt, pepper and add chopped leaves of Kale in a pan, sauté it for 5 to 6 minutes for great taste, eating kale is a best choice to have for dinner.
How To Cook Roasted Kale?
Place kale in an oven tray for 5 minutes and remove it from the oven. You’ll find the leaves are roasted and crispy. Add basil with some olive oil and sprinkle salt, pepper, chili flakes and other seasonings increase the flavor.
How To Cook Crispy Kale?
Preheat the oven first at 325 F in an oven tray, dazzle olive oil on Kale leaves and cook it until it becomes crisp, remove it from the oven adds cheese seasonings to increase the taste.
How To Cook Braise Kale
wash it properly and chop it, take a small pan light the flame medium and place the pan over it add Kale leaves in two tablespoons of water now let cool on a slow heat for few seconds, you’ll find that leaves are soft and tender you can add other veggies and bacon to increase the braising flavor.
How To Cook Blanching Kale?
to soften the texture and reduce its bitterness, blanching is important. Place a medium size pot with kale on a stove on a high heat, add water and let it boil for a few seconds. Drain the leaves in a large strainer and bring it under cold water immediately, the bitterness is removed completely and it has become more flavorful if you wish you can add other veggies, butter and seasoning to the kale.
How To Prepare Kale for Cooking
Kale is available in the winter, it is easily available in the market while buying make sure that it is a nice green color, avoid the ones that are yellow or brown spots. If it has nice green color that means Kale is fresh, if you are not going to cook kale immediately you can store it in a refrigerator for about a week do not wash Kale before storing as any water will shorten its lifespan, while storing it in the fridge keep it in a plastic bag wrapping them in a paper towel will be best. When the Kale begins to wilt, yellow, it’s time to throw it out.
Let’s learn the process about preparing Kale for cooking
You must remove the thick stem of the kale as it is bitter and fibrous and must be removed before cooking for making salad from it, cut along with the edges of the stem with the tip of the knife or you can take it away directly from your hands.
After collecting all the large parts of the Kale leaves, wash it properly under running water and keep it aside for a few minutes so that unnecessary water drains out.
Collect the leaves and chop it into smaller pieces, whether you are going to boil, blanch it or roast it make sure that the leaves are of appropriate size, go for the smaller pieces.
If you are about to eat salad, then you must try to remove the bitterness and toughness of it without cooking it, just massage the leaves to break down the fibers. Take a large bowl and add the leaves dazzle with some olive oil and lemon juice and massage it with your hands for three to five minutes to make it tastier.
How To Cook Kale in Different Ways?
Kale can be cooked in various ways lets learn a few methods from below listed list:
Add its chopped leaves in soup: to give a nice flavor and unique texture to soup, add its few leaves when your soup is cooked, simmer the flame and let it cook it for a few seconds.
Enjoy Kale Chips: as it has low water content it is best for roasting, roast them in an oven and enjoy the delicious, healthy snack, chop the Kale into small pieces, toss it with oil, add seasoning, spread it on the oven tray and bake it at 325-degree heated oven for 20 minutes.
Try Kale pasta: when you are eating something healthy, something new that adds vitamins and minerals to your health, add flavors to your tongue combine two parts of kale with one part of boiled pasta, add vegetables of your choice sauté them add salt as per taste and other spices as per your liking if you want to increase the taste grate parmesan over pasta.
Try recipes for how to cook kale. Let’s try various recipes to cook kale –
How To Cook Kale For Salad
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients Required
5 cups of Kale
½ teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups broccoli
½ cup cheese
½ shredded carrots
¼ cup red onions
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup cranberries
For lemon dressing you may require below mentioned to ingredients
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
one tablespoon of garlic clove
half teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of honey
¼ cup of olive oil
Instructions To Prepare Salad
Take a large bowl and add all the ingredients required for lemon dressing, mix them properly and keep it aside
Take a bowl, add kale, a little olive oil, and pinch of salt rub them with your finger until it becomes soft and tender
Take a large bowl and add massaged kale, broccoli, cheese, carrot, onion, cranberries, sunflower seeds and lemon dressing on the vegetables and toss it wisely to coat it well.
Your salad is ready to serve.
How To Cook Kale On Stove
To cook kale on a stove you need a medium size saucepan
Let’s try cooking kale on a stove
Ingredients required
2 bunches of kale
3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
half cup water
Salt and Pepper
1tsp. vinegar
Method Of Cooking Kale On Stove
Remove the kale leaves from the stem, wash it properly and dry the leaves.
Now heat olive oil in a medium pan over a medium heat, add garlic and cook it until it turns brown.
Now, turn the flame level to high heat, add the vegetable stock to Kale and toss it to combine well and cover it with a lid.
Remove the cover and continue to cook until all the liquid has evaporated, keep stirring it until the evaporation takes place. You will find that the leaves have become crisp, add vinegar and sauté until it is dry, season it with salt and pepper as per your taste.
How To Cook Kale In Oven
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serving: 6 people
Ingredients required to cook kale in oven
1 bunch of Kale
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. season salt
Nutrition fact: 58 calories, protein 2.5 grams, carbohydrates 7.6 grams, fat 2.8 grams and sodium 185.1mg
Instructions To Prepare Kale In Oven
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius).
Prepare an oven tray with a non-insulated cookie sheet and parchment paper.
Prepare the kale for the oven, remove the leaves from the stem and cut them into bite size pieces, wash it thoroughly under running water and dry the leaves.
Lay down the leaves of Kale in the tray prepared for roasting dazzle olive oil and sprinkle salt on it.
Bake the leaves until the edges are brown and not burnt for 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove the tray from the oven and you will find kale cooked in the oven as per your taste.
How To Cook Kale In An Oven, In A Large Amount
Ingredients required
6 bunches of curly Kale
6 garlic cloves, chopped finely
1 teaspoon of Kosher salt
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Preparation time 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
No. of servings: 8
Instructions To Cook Big Batch Of Kale In Oven
Remove the leaves from the thick stems of the Kale bunch, wash and dry them, keep the kale aside and prepare the oven.
Preheat the oven at 325 degrees Fahrenheit and position the racks in the middle of the oven for perfect baking.
Take a large mixing bowl, add kale, garlic, salt and half cup of oil and toss them so that all the ingredients get mixed finely.
Prepare two trays with parchment paper.
Divide the mix into the two trays and bake, toss it half way through until the leaves are tender and edges are crisp and slightly browned for about 20 minutes
After cooking it properly, transfer it to a large bowl, add remaining oil and salt and toast properly.
After it is cooled, you can transfer it to the snack container.
How to make kale taste good this one thought whirls your mind when you are about to cook kale. Eating only green leaves of kale with salt and pepper will make it boring and annoying for you to have it in your diet, you can add a variety of flavors to it by adding different vegetables such as carrots, capsicum, onion tomatoes mushrooms, you can add cheese or processed cheese in moderate amount to increase its taste. You can add a variety of lentils, nuts and seeds to the kale to make different salads. Boil some pasta or noodles and add them to the salads. This will increase your interest in enjoying kale octenyl and the taste improves with different ingredients, provided you go for everything in moderation.
How to make kale taste good completely depends on you can try below listed ways of cooking kale:
Try easy massage Kale salad
Garlic salad with chickpeas
Kale salad with cashew dressing
Roasted vegetables lentils in Kale salad
Crisp nachos and kale
Cheesy Kale chips
Kale salad with roasted seeds and nuts
How to make kale taste good with different techniques?
Kale may not be your favorite vegetable, but it has numerous health benefits, but if you will try various techniques for how to make kale taste good you will surely crave for it.
Massaging Kale: Before reaching the massaging process, prepare the Kale, like strip leaves off from its hard stem, chop it finely, wash it and keep it aside for a few minutes, take a large mixing bowl, dazzle it with olive oil, lemon juice and massage it with your fingers to make it more tender.
Sauteing: this is one of the best ways of making Kale taste good, sauteing provides nice flavor and increases its versatility, you will love the flavor that evolves after sauteing.
Try Kale Chips: while cooking kale shrinks down, a crispy texture appears, add pepper and salt to Kale chips and enjoy the crunchy taste, your children will surely love Kale chips.
Add them to salads: finely chop the kale leaves and add them to various salads of your choice, add in moderation and must be used for dressing only.
How Long To Cook Kale?
If you are boiling kale, then its cooking time differs from other ways, the motive behind cooking kale is to get soft and smooth leaves for eating. Put the required amount of chopped kale in a medium size pot and pour water, cover it with a lid and allow the water to boil, slow down the flame and cook kale in boiling water for 5 minutes, let it cool and then drain it in a strainer now with the help of fork check that leaves are tender and ready to eat.
How long to Cook kale with the steaming method?
Place a medium size pot on a flame with a few inches of water and fit a steamer basket and cover it, when the water reaches a boil, remove the cover and add required amount of Kale to the steamer basket and cover it, let it steam for 10 minutes turn down the flame and carefully remove steamer basket you will find kale is cooked soft and tender.
Roasting Method
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, prepare Kale mix in a bowl, add roughly chopped Kale with 3 tablespoon of olive oil, red pepper and salt as per your taste and half spoon of lemon juice and toss it properly so that the ingredients are mixed properly spread this mixture on a bake sheet avoid overlapping of the leaves so that the leaves turn crispy, roast for 20 to 25 minutes until each leaf is crunchy
Braising Method
It is the most simple method to get tender and flavorful taste this dark leafy vegetable in your plate, prepare the kale leaves beforehand, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add onions and sauté it until it turns brown, add garlic, chili flakes and kale, stir until it is dry, add stalk and soya sauce, cover and cook over medium low heat until it is tender, remove the lid and increase the heat to medium-high and cook until liquid has evaporated turn off the heat and stir in rice vinegar and black pepper. Braising is a method of cooking that combines dry heat and moist heat cooking.
Bottom Line-
Including Kale in your diet is a safe and healthy choice. It is an excellent food that gives you several vitamins and minerals and various plant compounds that protects you from certain cancers. With varieties of ways of cooking kale, you can make it tasty. You can try various ways, such as bake Kale, chips, salad, Kale soup etc.
It’s an important nutrient filled with fiber and sulfur that supports the detoxification naturally and keeps your liver healthy. Try to consume this super food in your diet if you’re having hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid then consult your doctor before consuming it.
