Another Kale Blog Shout-out

A recent article "365 days of everything: daily creative projects" published in the on-line newspaper AnnArbor.com highlighted blogs that are focusing on doing something every day of the year, i.e. all 365 days. I appreciated having this blog included! Even though I don't post everyday (far from it), the goal of my blog is to provide information and inspiration for myself and my readers to eat some kale or any of its many delicious Brassica relatives every day of the year.

Never fear. There is no need to eat that full grocery-bag of kale that you just picked up at your local farmers' market in one sitting, although it is surprising how that much kale could easily be reduced to a large bowl of kale chips and also how quickly those chips could be consumed. Choose a variety of my recipes to try over the next week or so, even including freezing some of the kale if you really are the lucky recipient of a windfall per se!

One reader recently asked for my favorite kale recipe. Oh dear, that would be like choosing a favorite among your children! Simply impossible. :-) However, here are 5 that I make over and over again, in no particular order.

1. Garlic Kale Sweet Potato Soup
2. Kale Chips
3. Spicy Lentil Kale Sweet Potato Patties
4. Kale 3-Bean Salad
5. Garlic Scape Kale Pesto

My husband and I have been traveling for the past week, and I found that I really missed eating kale and other Brassica vegetables on a daily basis. The first thing I did after getting home last night was to make a big salad from local hoop-house spinach and radishes along with some cabbage and a bit of salad greens. No kale, but both cabbage and radishes are Brassicas and so are an acceptable stand-in for kale. Wow, did that taste good. After politely asking my husband if he wanted a second helping, I eagerly finished it up.

I send best wishes for a happy and healthy 2011, filled with kale and other delicious Brassica vegetables and whatever you enjoy doing each of the 365 days of the coming year!

Where kale continues to be more than decoration on my plate!

Diana Dyer, MS, RD