Sunday, April 4, 2010

First harvest of the year

I harvested some kale today from the alley garden.  My neighbor planted it last fall and it looks fantastic. We share the alley garden, so it's fine if I harvest some of the produce that she has planted.


I decided to make toasted kale with my first harvest.


 First, I chopped the thick stems off of the kale and tore the clump into individual leaves.



Then I rinsed them off and I gently patted them try with a clean dish towel.



Next I put the leaves into a bowl and tossed them with 1 teaspoon of olive oil, spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet, and LIGHTLY sprinkled seasoning salt over them.  Kale will shrink considerably in the oven, so a tiny bit of salt is enough.


Finally, I baked the kale in a preheated oven at 350F for 12 minutes. They came out crunchy with a sweet/salty twist.

10 comments:

  1. That looks lovely! I haven't prepared kale in that manner, but I will want to try it when we get our first fresh harvest in a month or so. We had a meal of kale that over-wintered successfully, to our surprise, but I simmered the kale for a long time to make sure it was tender.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This kale was overwintered in zone 5b. It tasted great and the toasting really brought out the sweetness.

    How do you usually cook your kale? I'm new to kale and am looking for good recipes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've heard of people roasting kale before. I'll have to try it sometime as it looks wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a wonderful idea to share with us!! My refrigerator and garden are full of kale and chard right now. I have to harvest it or lose it as it's getting hotter every day here. I've been trying to think of different ways to cook it and ways to preserve it. This is so cool I'm going to try this for lunch today!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That looks like a great way to prepare kale. My crop is done for now, but I'll have to remember this when I start harvesting kale again in the fall.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great ideas for cooking Kale. I'm growing it for the first time this year so I'm looking forward to trying some of your recipes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have never heard of roasted kale before. It looks lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Toasted kale, what a great idea. I usually just stir fry my kale, I also never hear of toasted kale before. I'll try it, definitely. Sounds yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  9. We eat a lot of kale at our house. These are some of our favorite ways:
    * stir-fried, quickly, alone or with garlic or onions and a generous helping of soy sauce
    * simmered in broth, usually with a smoked turkey wing or leg, for about an hour (we serve it with cornbread for an excellent cold-weather meal)
    * two bean soup with kale
    * colcannon (mashed potatoes with kale)

    Some of our recipes are on the 20minutegarden.com website.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for sharing, Jan. I'll have to try some of your recipes.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails