Sunday, February 15, 2009

Nutritious Punch with A Bunch of Kale

Kale is special to us. We love kale. And this winter season we've eaten so much kale.

Why do we like kale so much?

1. It's not as bitter as other greens.

2. It's not as soft as other greens like mustard greens or spinach.

3. But then it's not as tough as collard greens or chinese cabbage.

4. You can eat it raw or cooked - so you can have fresh raw salads, or when it starts to wilt you can cook it up. Much easier than buying a huge lettuce and not being able to cook it up once it starts to wilt :)

5. Makes easy meals, because even though it's great with vinegrettes, etc, we love it as is or with some olive oil and garlic. So easy!

6. Last but not least, it packs a punch of nutrients!


According to the World's Healthiest Foods, Kale is a low-calorie food, but with a high profile of nutrients.

"Kale has more nutritional value for fewer calories than almost any other food around. One cup of cooked kale contains just 36.4 calories, but provides 192.4% of the daily value for vitamin A and 88.8% of the daily value for vitamin C." Kale also packs in lots of manganese, fiber, copper, calcium, vitamin B6, and potassium."

And nutritiondata.com shows that raw kale provides over 200% vitamin A and over 130% vitamin C, with 9% calcium and 6% iron!


So, some easy ways to use Kale:

1. Add to Asian rice bowls with garlic, spices, soy sauce/Braggs, tofu or beans, bell pepper, and onion.
2. Add to vegetable soups or pasta.
3. Makes salads!
4. Use on sandwiches or in wraps or pitas.
5. Add it to tofu scrambles or stir fries.
6. Use as you would spinach or cabbage.

Meals we've had with kale:
A raw meal - raw kale with garlic, sundried tomatoes, and olive oil; served with raw mushroom soup!

Raw kale salad, with carrots, creamy avocado, sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, and spicy salsa!

And more ways to eat - see previous post here!

Go eat some nutritious food! LK

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for all the amazing ideas, I love kale too.

Anonymous said...

It's my favorite green, too--some great ideas here!