This is an heirloom Italian variety of kale called 'Lacinato'
My favorite way to eat kale is by roasting in the oven until it gets crispy. The texture is unbelievable. I don't know how to describe it other than airy and crispy. Better than popcorn.
Preheat oven to 375 (set to convection if you can).
De-vein kale and rip into bite sized pieces.
Toss with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt.
Let roast until crispy (about 10 minutes, unless you have other things in the oven, in which case it will likely take longer due to steam).
When these bolt, be sure to harvest the raab! I probably already carried on about this to you, but this spring Nash's was selling kale and cabbage raab -- we were getting it every week from Spud for quite a while. It's great roasted, too -- since the stalk is present, it doesn't get entirely crispy, but is a bit more like roasted asparagus.
ReplyDelete(It's especially good roasted in bacon fat. I have a spaghetti carbonara recipe that I make often as comfort food, and I cook the bacon in the oven since that requires less attention, and I found that simply dropping the chopped raab onto the sheet after I took off the slices of bacon, tossing to coat with fat, and popping it back into the oven was a great way to utilize drippings that often get thrown away, while making the kale about as excellent as can be!)
what do you do with it after your roast it? Is it a snack? I love kale. I made a creamy salmon pasta with kale for dinner tonight. yum! And yes- I hope you plan on eating the kale florets when it bolts. the best!
ReplyDeleteGood question Lara. I eat the crunchy kale either as a snack or as a side of greens with dinner. The other day I tried adding it to some cooked quinoa with poor results. The moisture from the quinoa made the kale soft again... not what I was going for...
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