Recipe Wednesday - For the Love of Kale!

Recipe Wednesday means I bring you a great recipe to consider for your collection.  My intention is to bring you delicious recipes featuring better food choices.  Let's face it, if it doesn't taste good, you won't eat it no matter how good it is for you.  Today's feature is Kale!

You've heard Kale is good for you, but how good?  Zero fat, high fiber and low calorie, it can help lower your cholesterol.  It can help you get calcium and iron into your diet and even help you detox!

Kale Soup photo retrieved from AllRecipes.com

Kale Soup - "I merged the best of two family recipes, then fiddled a bit. Pretty easy. Very Spicy if you use hot Portuguese sausage. Both the sausage(chourico or linguica) and jarred peppers (Pimenta Moida) are available online if you don't have a Portuguese market in your town. I prefer linguica for flavoring soups because is has just a little more fat. If you are trying to limit the fat, stick with chourico." - Scotty via allrecipes.com

Servings: 12
Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound Portuguese chourico, broken into large chunks
• 2 (15 oz) cans kidney beans, drained
• 1 (15 oz) can garbanzo beans, drained
• 5 Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed
• 2 pork chops
• salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons Pimenta Moida (Portuguese hot chopped peppers)
• 1 bunch kale - washed, dried and shredded (don't use the stems!)
• 1/2 head savory cabbage, shredded

Directions:

1. In a large soup pot, cook onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until soft.  Mix in choirico, beans and potatoes, and then add pork chops to the pot.  Season with salt and pepper, then add enough water to the pan to cover all the ingredients.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, and simmer until the potatoes are tender.
2. Once the potatoes are tender, taste the soup, add Pimenta Moida and more salt and pepper.  Stir in kale and cabbage, increase heat to boil gently.  Kale only needs about 5 minutes to cook.  You may add some water if the soup got too thick, I like this soup on the brothy side.

- Variations: when we had kale soup we used a spicy itallian sausage and didn't use pork chops or peppers (we didn't have any on hand).  We also used chicken broth and thickened the soup slightly with corn starch and milk.  Don't be afraid to play in the kitchen, use what you have on hand!

Kale Chips photo retrieved from AllRecipes.com

Baked Kale Chips - "These are a low calorie nutritious snack. Like potato chips, you cannot stop at just eating one. They are great for parties and a good conversation topic." - LucyDelRey
 Watch the video to see how easy this is! 


Servings: 6
Ingredients:

• 1 bunch kale
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt

Directions: 

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a non-insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Tear off pieces or use a knife or kitchen shears to carefuly remove the leaves from the thick stems, then tear into bite sized pieces.  Wash and dry kale with a salad spinner.  Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.  Best when served immediately.

Resources:
Top 10 Health Benefits of Kale
Kale Recipes from AllRecipes.com