Cooking kale

We grow and eat kale and cavolo nero. I usually steam it or stir fry young leaves and shoots. You can serve it tossed in melted butter with some grated nutmeg.....Deeelish!!

Same as Merlotg and add a sprinkle of garlic, a dash of balsamic and pinch of sugar - yum

Same as above for me, it is a lovely vegetable, also what I like it is packed with vitamins and iron.
Also makes a good change to other veg, we eat !

If you mean the curly kind, you need to shred it fine and boil it to death.

Unless, like merlot, you grow your own and can pick young leaves. So long as you can locate it through the clouds of whitefly that appear when you wash it. #shuddersatmemoryofveggrowingdays

I recommend ready washed spinach from Waitrose. Tip it from bag, microwave four minutes, and voila! All the vits and minerals you could ask for.

Oh yes. I forgot to mention picking off and squidging the caterpillars otherwise you get a bit of extra protein!

I think we downed quite a bit of whitefly when my girls were little. Never actually did us any harm!

When my DM saw kale in the supermarket she said 'Kale?? for people to eat?? Kale is for cows! What IS the world coming to!'

I'm just about to cook some. If the leaves seem a bit tough, strip them off the inner rib. It's quite easy to pull it off if you fold the leaf in half. (I grow loads of cavolo nero!)

Then give it a rinse and put in the microwave for just a minute. THEN slice it into narrow strips before frying in a mixture of whatever. Tonight I shall be frying it with finely sliced leek and garlic in a mixture of butter and olive oil, with a pinch of nutmeg. Or maybe thyme instead. I try all sorts of things.

As the others say, the central leaves don't need the advance cooking.

JANER that sounds the Bee"s Knees, my mouth is watering!!

Any chance of an invite to supper ?

laugh !

Thanks everyone, I'm about to try again this evening, like the sound of frying it with leeks. I had bought a bag from Tesco and still have half left, you've given me more ideas. I just tried boiling it before and it seemed very boring and tough. I'll also see what our local farm shops have and see if the leaves from them are smaller and tastier

nonu as anyone who grows their own veg will tell you, you don't waste a scrap after all the blood sweat and tears you put into it, so soon find a way around things like tough leaves! Tonight I have also been braising fennel that was a bit tough and stringy when roasted some the other night, so tonight we are having the very last one sliced and braised in orange juice with shallots. The orange juice softens it, but you can't tell what it is. All with sweet potato chips and pork steaks casseroled in red wine with mushrooms. All now eaten, and very yummy.

Oh right, so I assume a supper invite has gone done the pan !!

Any helpful tips for cooking home-grown Swiss chard? The leaves have a lot of holes in them so I have been discarding them and steaming the stems or putting them in stir-fries, but I have a veggie patch full of them and need some inspiration! The leaves are improving now so I will be using them soon.

We are all on our way to janer for a week or two after reading some of her posts!

Love curly kale. I treat it like cabbage and steam or stir-fry it. Yummy.

Yes, it's great in stir-fries.

Swiss chard - braise the stalks separately from the leaf, cut into 3" lengths. I only really like them with cheese sauce. Or the young ones can be used with dips, like celery, only they aren't anything like as strong, so excellent for people who don't like celery.

The leafy part is then cooked in all the ways you would normally cook spinach. So holes don't matter at all, just cut the stems out neatly, wash and cook the leaves in a little water and oil for a minute, take out, chop very finely and drain well, fry in butter with finely diced onion, salt and pepper and add a little nutmeg. Or stir some cheese sauce into it.

Gwyneth Paltrow is a kale fan , she makes all sorts of things with it - why not have a look at her website?

Oh dear Tegan I was all set to try kale, but the mention of Gwynnie has put me right off

Thanks, janer I will try that. The cheese sauce with the stalks sounds nice. I do like the look of them, so pretty, but we could get a bit fed up by the end of the winter. Two packets of seeds (one red and one multi-coloured) and they seem to have all germinated!

Some people are allergic to celery so using chard with dips is a good idea as well.

Here you are, some lovely recipes from Gwynnie:
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/07/gwyneth-paltrow-juice-recipes

Probably quite nice really

I know what janea means though...

Has anyone got time to do all that chopping and blending of all those ingredients? Gwynnie has slaves, I don't!

And does anyone really want to drink it after all that?

Perhaps she makes the whole family drink and eat stuff life that no wonder Chris left I bet Chris was longing for a roast dinner

He said he was!!