I admit that I can have a temper. I'm improving on the intensity and frequency with which I react though. Much, much better. But like us all, I still have my moments. That would be regarding the rant I left on the new moon (June 25th) about my neighbor tattle tailing on me. We've since made amends. She even said I could harvest and eat the kale she planted down in the garden below. Ok, now she's my best friend. Kale is the most direct way to my heart. For those of you not in the know, KALE, a garden green, is ultra nutritious containing even iron (something most women need more of). A macrobiotic diet trick I learned makes KALE irresistibly delicious. If you want to know how too, read on. It's super easy and super yummy.
Delicious Way to Eat Kale Greens
Ingredients:
Organic Kale, Eden “Ume Plum Vinegar”, Organic olive oil, Eden “Gomasio with seaweed flakes” (optional)
- Buy or grow some fresh organic kale.
- Soak the leaves in clean water for 15 minutes to over an hour if you wish to get the parasites and other gritty stuff off the leaves
- Remove the kale leaves from the soaking bowl, rinse them again quickly with clean water (this is where a water filter by the sink comes in really handy).
- Put all the leaves in the same direction bunched together and lay them on your cutting board.
- Using a large sharp, non-serated knife, chop the kale greens. I start at the top of the leaves and work down toward the stems. I personally like the stems – they are rich in the vitamins, and I find them tasty when prepared along with the leaves. So I cut horizontally all the way down until the stems get gnarly – usually about the last inch or two – I compost the last of the ends.
- Once I've got all the kale in strips and have removed the gnarly stems from the cutting board, I make vertical cuts through the strips, effectively turning the kale into kinda sorta square pieces. But nothing near perfect. That's just the idea.
- Depending on how much kale I am cooking, I will fill the bottom of the pot (saucepans are great) with clean water up to about 1/4 inch. Then I put all the cut kale into the pot and add a little more water if I need to – just so the entire bottom of the pot is covered in water and the bottom kale greens are resting in the water.
- Put the lid on the pot and the pot on the stove and turn the heat to medium. Let the kale steam in the water for about 15 minutes – but watch it the first few times because your stove or conditions might be different. It's not unusual if I put too little water to catch the kale just before its burned (or not – oops), but ideally you'll have some green colored water and some cooked down kale leaves. DO NOT Overcook! It leaches all the vitamins out of your kale dinner and maybe kills enzymes / healthy critters.
- Maybe get a forkful of the steamed greens to taste them for tenderness. If its all good to you, it's time to fix the kale up to code here:
- Sprinkle the olive oil across the greens, then the ume vinegar splashed across the kale greens. Then, sprinkle the gomasio over the greens – YUMMY!! You never tasted kale like this ever.
Forgiveness is sweet and gets easier with practice ; )
