Sunday, October 19, 2008

Open to Suggestions

I now have a huge bagfull of fresh kale.

What should I do with it?

It's been chilly here lately, so I'm thinking of some hearty, comfort food kind of recipe. Maybe a soup, stew, or pasta dish?

I also have low-sodium chicken broth, onions, garlic, baking potatoes, chicken, cannellini beans, whole wheat pasta. I may do some searching on the Internets for recipes that use some of those items, but I'd totally love any suggestions from the Friends of the Blog.

Thoughts?

3 comments:

DC Food Blog said...

If you have access to a food processor (and you can probably buy some at Whole Foods), grind the chicken and add chopped kale and shredded carrot to make meatloaf. You can use egg beaters and about 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs to complete the meatloaf. For flavor add wostershire sauce. Giada has actually a great recipe for spinach and canneli bean dip. It's just spinach, sauteed in olive oil and garlic, cannelini beans, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.

Onyah said...

One of my favorite cold weather staples has always been "beans & greens." It's crazy-easy:

Saute a whole freakin' bunch of minced garlic in olive oil in a big pot, then add a little chicken broth. Toss in the kale (I break off the stems and tear the leaves into smaller pieces first), cover, and cook on medium-low heat until the kale is all shrunken and smooshy. Then I add the cannelloni right out of the can (I pour off the excess water, but I don't thoroughly drain or rinse them). Keep heating until the beans are warmed, and I also usually add fresh ground black pepper. If you bought sodium-free broth or beans, you may also need to add a little salt. Which defeats the purpose of buying something sodium-free, but without any salt at all, it'll be pretty bland!

If you added a lot of chicken broth, it's soup. If you added a little, it's like a side dish. I've tried adding all kinds of things to the mix (stewed tomatoes, penne pasta, parmesan cheese), but it's awesome as-is.

Stef said...

Thanks, guys! I think I'm going to do some variation of Onyah's "beans & greens" - adding tomatoes and potatoes, and making a bit of a soup out of it. It will definitely be a big experiment, so stay tuned! I promise there will be pics.

If this works well, then I'll add kale to the regular routine.