In keeping with my earlier proclamation about not giving a rat’s arse about what anyone else thinks, behold the uninhibited Rachel looking like a dork and wearing pyjamas.
I ate all that green stuff just after the photo was taken. It’s produce from my plot at the allotment which is where I went in the pouring rain earlier in the day. Going to the allotment is like going to the grocery store but you don’t have to pay anything to take some food away.
I can’t say I particularly like raw kale but something I have come to realise lately is that the stuff we like and the stuff we need are not the same. Unfortunately we need green vegetables more than chocolate. It’s a painful fact and one I will have to accept.
But never fear! I still had my fill of sweet treats for the day because as part of my donation to the Bonobo Kickstarter campaign I got a free cake which we picked up today. They made me a vegan sponge cake which was superb. Ben went and picked it up but carried it home in his backpack so it doesn’t look quite as good as it did originally however it’s still delicious.
rachel.blog 
Let your freak flag fly, I say!
Kale lightly steamed with a bit of olive oil and salt to taste (I use none)? Seems to bring out the sweetness. In any case delish IMO.
Oh yes, important to remove the stems and use them separately, or put them into the steamer sooner.
I usually chop kale up finely and put it in curries and stews and it’s quite nice then. I have also tried it oven-baked with olive oil and it’s not bad but I wan’t that keen on it.
Apparently your problem is a weird genetic mutation. Carry on. 😉
But the acidic dressing idea is interesting. Olive oil is a bit acidic IIRC, but maybe not enough by itself.
Random connection: I was reading up recently about a horrible Roundup-related problem in the central US, where in response to its (over)use pigweed acquired resistance to it, and dicamba, the preferred alternative herbicide, is having pretty bad consequences (those being that it kills almost everything it touches, trees included).
As it turns out pigweed is an amaranth species with edible seeds and leaves. Maybe they should just start growing it instead of soybeans, although I suppose that’s unlikely so long as active eradication efforts continue. I wonder if there’s an amaranth species that grows in Scotland.
I wouldn’t say that I hate kale. I just don’t love it like I love spinach and rocket. I still eat it and when it chopped up and cooked it’s nice.
I’ve never heard of pigweed but I often think we should be eating more wild food. There’s so much stinging nettle here for instance and it’s very nutritious.
You’ve done really well with your produce.
Kale! I make a lot of soup – any veg sold off cheap at end of day, I grab it all and turn into soup. Kale is the only thing that doesn’t blend up nicely. It’s just… different. Lots of bits instead of smooth, however long you boil it for. The kids half joke/half rolling eyes about my kale soup.
It is stringy and chewy. It’s so tough. Maybe a juicer is the way to go?
Try harvesting just the new tender leaves, new ones should grow weekly to replace the ones you harvest (Leastways, that how I harvested mine last winter. Also, I believe you’re supposed to wait to harvest until you start getting frosts (Maybe you are already ?) If not pop the leaves in the freezer for a few hours. that might break down the fibres.
Couple of recipes for Kale in the commentshere. One requires gorgonzola cheese, sorry – perhaps there’s a vegan equivalent … ?
Oh I didn’t know I was meant to wait until the frosts. I’ve been eating it all summer 🙂
Thanks for the recipes!
Hmm. Really, when I steam kale I don’t get anything like stringy. A little chewy, but not in a bad way. I much prefer the consistency to spinach prepared the same way. Again, it’s important to lose the (central) stems.
Young leaves certainly are more tender, but I eat the big ones happily. No frost in the kale-growing areas in CA, and we have… just a bit of it. 😉 It’s available year-round since it’s also a winter crop here.
Why is it important to remove the stems? Is it just for taste? I always eat them. It doesn’t taste so bad raw and dipped in hummus.
Correction: No frost any more near the coast, but the Salinas Valley where most kale is grown still gets a bit. But apparently kale is tolerant of even hard frosts, so no problem.
Stems take longer to cook.
Hilarious photo and quite a range of veg produced there! Well done.
Thank you!
It is funny when you say you no longer care what anyone thinks and then post this very honest, funny, uninhibited picture which actually makes you even more appealing, not less.
Awww thank you! That’s so nice.