I Ate Kale!

A couple weeks ago there was an entire section of my newspaper devoted to kale, a very green member of the cabbage family. I’d never grown kale in my garden–it just looked so other-worldly, and never interested me.

I was wrong.

Kale has garnered a lot of attention lately because it has climbed to super-food status, which means it is exceedingly healthy for me/us. Actually it didn’t rise to that status–its always been there, but who knew?

I like cabbage, I reasoned; I make cole slaw don’t I? I steam cabbage, or splatter my salads with thin slices of the purple variety. But kale ? Its leaves look so tough and prickly–and all that curly curled my lips, so I always passed right over it at the grocery store. I’ve never cared for lacy stuff.

Nobody I know eats kale, nobody I know serves it. Restaurants don’t offer kale on menus (perhaps only in America), so I had no experience with it. 

I’ll be brief here. I chopped and tossed together the shredded kale with olive oil, walnuts, bleu cheese crumbles, red onion slices, and, yes, balsamic vinegar. I omitted a few thin items, and added some others that seemed to complement my idea of the recipe. The result: A fabulous salad. It was tender, tasty, unusual and very, very inviting on the plate in a green kind of way, not cabbage-ish at all. And they tell me it’s exceedingly good for me/us. I can believe it.

Now I plant it in my garden and share it with the world.