The Basics: How to Prepare Kale

A tutorial on how to prepare Kale for a lighter dish, techniques on kale massage and how to tenderize this fibrous leaf.

Have you had Kale before or are you a newbie on the “Kale train” like me?  To be honest, it kinda weird-ed me out.  It reminded me of collard greens or something like that, so I tended to steer clear at all costs.  I didn’t want to eat something that had a strange texture or tasted bitter.  So when my mother-in-law told me she had this Kale Salad she wanted to make me I was a little skeptical.

The Kale definitely had a different texture to it, but to my surprise I liked it.  ALOT!  It was a little rougher than your typical romaine or spring mix.  One of my biggest pet peeves with salad is if left out for an hour or so with dressing on it, the lettuce immediately gets soggy and wilts.  Not the case with this fibrous leaf, it holds its own.  In fact, I recently made a Kale Salad and had quite a bit left over. Normally I don’t put salads in the refrigerator for leftovers but I thought I would give it a try. The salad still held up its crunch 2 DAYS later. Unheard of!  So, needless to say I am a Kale convert and you will definitely be seeing a few recipes in the near future.

One of the things I learned when making a Kale salad is that there is a way to “Prepare the Kale”.  Sure you remove it from its fibrous stem but you also massage the leaves until they are fragrant.  This makes the strong sturdy greens more tender and ready for a salad. 🙂

To get started, wash 1 bunch of fresh kale and pat dry. Separate the leaves from the center fibrous stem. Discard the stem.

Tear up the leaves into bite size pieces, place in bowl and add 1 pinch of salt to the bowl.

Massage the leaves with the salt until the leaves start to turn to a darker green and become fragrant. {about 5 minutes}

All done!  Your kale leaves are all prepped and ready to be used!

Please note, the massage prepping is for a salad or lighter dish in order to make the leaves tender. If you are planning on sauteing or steaming the kale you will not need to do this massage step! 🙂