Wilted Baby Kale – Simple Sides

Weeknight dinners call for fast, easy cooking.  Packed with vitamins B6, A and C, plus potassium,  iron, magnesium and calcium, kale is one of nature’s super foods, Wilted Baby Kale is barely cooked, leaving all that nutrition intact.

Most of us are familiar with kale in it’s mature state, but now mainstream grocery stores are starting to carry what before could only be found in healthfood stores so it’s likely you’ll run across organic, baby kale in your grocer’s isles, if you haven’t already.  Much like spinach, kale has an earthy, lomy taste and is a hearty cold weather leafy green vegetable, that grows well into the cold months.

It’s dark rich green or purple colour gives life to a plate and packs nutrients into a meal.  And as with spinach, when you cook kale you lose a tremendous amount of volume, so always start with more than you think you’ll need.

Wilting a leafy vegetable takes almost no time at all.  You can use any fat you wish, I love it with a hint of salted butter, if you want to amp up that nutrition quotient, use flax oil, which is perfect for light cooking.

Here we’ve used a good quality olive oil to lightly sautee some shallots on medium high heat, for about 3 minutes.  Then just toss in a couple big handfuls of kale, and about a half a tablespoon of water for some steam. Lightly toss it the baby kale with the oil and water so that the leaves begin to melt and soften, remove immediately from the heat and serve.

A well balanced addition to any winter meal, and ready in minutes.  Try Wilted Baby Kale with our Sweet Potato Fork Mash with Brown Butter and some Cider Braised Pulled Pork for a comfort food meal that will have the neighbours talking.

Stay warm, eat well.