Spinach, Kale and others

#1

Is there a way to make these sexy that doesn’t involve HWC please?

#2

Butter? Bacon grease? When I used to eat Kale, I made kale chips with olive oil and salt. Satisfied the chips/crunching urge now and then. Flavor was good, too, but I don’t eat kale any more and they were too much work for the payoff (destemming).

(Allie) #3

Well personally I feed them to my hens who turn them into really tasty eggs which I eat, oh but, even my hens refuse to eat kale.

#4

Not a fan of Kale at all, but spinach I’ll put in pretty much anything ; )

Alone, or as a side, I like it best just wilted off in some butter or ghee with a little garlic.

#5

@PrimalBrian bacon and butter, of course, that fixes everything! I like the sound of kale crisps, you make a good point about destemming kale, perhaps I’d find it more palatable if I made that effort!
@Shortstuff smart hens! The local cows declined my kale too!
@ElgynsToy I was hoping you’d have a magical kale recipe to make it beautiful! I like spinach but I keep getting a weird toe ache the day after eating it which is really bizarre!

I’m going to try and create a kale,bacon, butter and cheese side dish and cremate it under a grill

#6

I’m neither an MD nor even close, but google pain, spinach, and oxalates.

#7

Ha…reminds me of my favorite kale story ever: https://www.today.com/food/trends/pizza-hut-kale-large-purchaser-rcna23528

[quote] “Up until 2013, Pizza Hut was the largest buyer of kale in the U.S.,” he wrote. “They used it to decorate their salad bar.”

“It was actually used to cover up the ice that was used on the salad bar to keep everything cold," a spokesperson for Pizza Hut told TODAY. “It was a common practice back then.” According to the spokesperson, kale was used to make its meals more presentable. Back then, because the chain had not yet begun to use refrigerators to keep its salad bars fresh, ice was the way to go and kale was used to conceal it. [/quote]

#8

Try scissors…

(Edith) #9

Look up recipes for southern style greens. Many use bacon or ham hocks. They are very tasty and you can replace the collard greens with kale.

#10

@VirginiaEdie
THANK YOU! Wowzer, brilliant idea! This has revolutionised my food; this is a great way of consuming 200g of spinach quickly and with tons of flavour. :sunny:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #11

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#12

For what it’s worth, I’d kill to be able to get ahold of kale where I live to make a soup my sister makes that I adore. It’s got kale (yes, destemmed and chopped), ginger, tofu, peanut butter, and chicken stock. Will undoubtedly sound weird or horrible to some, but for anyone who loves Asian flavors, it’s the bomb!

(Kirk Wolak) #13

I would try wearing them… And yeah… WITHOUT the HWC! (LOL. Clearly Kidding)

– Spinach… I used to make a warm spinach salad.

In a HUGE pan, load the bottom with 1/8 - 1/4 inch of oil (I love coconut, bacon fat works).
I would slice garlic on a mandolin, paper thin, then slice a whole onion just a touch thicker.

Heat the oil, and put the garlic “chips” in there to cook, just as they start turning dark (long before burning). Throw the onions in, and cook them until they are soft, not brown… But not “strong” tasting onions.

remove from heat, the residual heat in the pain is enough. Fill the pan to the top with spinach. Stir it into the fat/onions/garlic chips. to SWEAT it down (it will shrink, but don’t go to soggy), keep adding more spinach as it shrinks, until the entire bag is in there.

I finish with Salt and Pepper… And then Fresh Lemon Zest.

This stuff is sooo good… You will eat it COLD as a leftover!

Loaded with fats. So much flavor. I give myself Kidney Stones just thinking about it!

For Broccoli/Cauliflower, trim the stems off, throw in a big metal bowl POUR some oil on top. TOSS to cover. Salt/Pepper. Bake on Parchment (important), until they brown. We love the slightly burnt broccoli. (you can see about adding Onion and Garlic Powder if that’s in your program).

For asparagus… Marinade in Oil and Lemon Juice, salt & pepper for like 1hr.
Plenty of liquid. GRILL them or broil them (and then put them back in the liquid).
They will rehydrate and capture even more flavor. OMG… Almost worth the migraines.

HTH

(Pete A) #14

1/2 cup frozen spinach, kale, or broccoli in a tablespoon of butter or ghee every day. In the microwave for a minute.

#15

I eat baby spinach leaves just as salad greens. And I love baby spinach just tossed in a pan with a spoonful of butter, a hot pan so the corners of some leaves get crispy. Sprinkle with garlic powder and black pepper. I eat this as a side dish or topped with a poached egg. I also make spinach omelettes/wraps, it depends on how thick or thin I cook them. Whizz two eggs and a handful of spinach in a blender then fry, thick or thin and top with whatever and fold.
I love kale too, in fact most years I grow kale. Nice Irish curly kale or some Italian Cavalo Nero. The important thing with kale is to leave it grow over winter, the frost makes it sweeter. Destem, chop and toss it in a pan with some boiling water and stir to cook. Don’t boil the bajaysus out of it but it does need more cooking than the spinach. Again topped with a poached egg and sprinkled with some bacon pieces it’s lovely. Or add to stir fries, toss with Konjac noodles, add to soups. My favourite soup was always a really good Ribollita, I make a version of it now without the beans…not Ribollita I know but still tasty

(Pete A) #16

Sounds good. I love my greens and eat them everyday!

(Bob M) #17

These actually make a pretty good noodle, if you can eat eggs:

We use just the egg white version:

(Geoffrey) #18

When my son introduced me to the carnivore diet I told him that I like a salad now and then and there were a few vegetables I liked out of my garden. He asked me if I liked the vegetables or what I put on the vegetables. The bacon, the dressing, the cheese, the fats and a dozen other things we put on them. He then asked if I would enjoy them if I ate them with nothing on them at all and I had to admit, I wasn’t liking the veggie but everything I put on the veggie to cover up the taste.
I haven’t eaten a vegetable since.

#19

I totally ate and eat vegs (NOT spinach or kale) for themselves, for their wonderful flavor, juiciness and crunch, whatever they have… Alone or not, my fav vegs were blissful! (Well the ones not okay raw needed fat…) But I disliked green leaves so I skipped them even as a vegetarian :slight_smile:
Lettuce was actually something I didn’t like - except the crunch of iceberg lettuce. I felt it totally tasteless so I could eat it in a salad with better vegs, apple, cheese and warm fried onions… I even liked it to eat a few times per year. Now iceberg lettuce tastes bitter grass just like most green leaves. Good riddance. (Normal lettuce tastes nothing to me.)

I can’t imagine a way that makes most green leaves palatable for me and if I don’t like the item, why would I want to eat it…? Maybe some people need to do that, I always had plenty of better food to choose from.

I have this “how could I eat it” (or feed it to my SO, that works too) problem with swiss chard. I keep reading that oh, it’s 2-3 vegs in one, how wonderful… I accidentally have some super beautiful big one plants in my veggie patch (I keep removing them and putting somewhere else). I appreciate the aesthetics but I fail to see it as food. I could eat it cooked in a meat soup but it was like absolutely nothing. It had zero taste. No bad, no good… Maybe I will put meatballs into it so its role will be keeping it together… We have a traditional pork dish where sauerkraut is used but there is a less common version with grape leaves. Surely swiss chard would work in that role too…
Or maybe a decorative bed for my proper, tasty vegs (my SO needs them each and every day so we virtually always have a bowful and when we don’t, those are tougher times)…? Or I just keep looking at them as I did until now… But it’s an allegedly edible plant so I have this urge to cook it sometimes. Silly urges but what can I do? They happen.

And after writing all this, I got reminded that I actually had an irresistible dish that used kale and potatoes (mostly kale but the latter was important too) and little else. Or not, sometimes it was bitter and I didn’t touch it. Other times I inhaled half of the big pot. Strange.
I totally understand some people love kale. They should eat it as long as they handle it well or are forced by circumstances (starvation or kale when one doesn’t get sick of it? kale sounds the winner). But if we don’t like some greens and can just eat something else, maybe even better? Just don’t eat it. I was a vegetarian who avoided almost all green leaves, it worked very well. It’s not like I needed spinach on vegetarian keto :smiley:

I could eat a tiny spinach without a problem but that brought a lot of other things, pasta, bread or at least eggs. Not a good way to eat a significant amount of it but that was a lost battle from the very beginning due to my personal tastes. Those changed but not in the “right” direction. Now I don’t even like some of my old big favs. And it’s quite perfect for someone with carnivore goals :wink:

Oh! Never heard about that! I just know that kale is sometimes horribly bitter and I can’t eat the single dish we make with it (my SO is fine but I am sensitive to bitterness and he isn’t) - and other times, it’s irrestible and I eat half of the big pot… Maybe not anymore, carnivore times changed me but we never cook kale either.
It wasn’t convenient as my poor SO cooked our biggest pot full and he never knew if I will eat half of it or nothing after the first taste. And eating 3-4 kgs of veggie dish (he doesn’t believe in tiny amounts when cooking) all alone in the time until it’s okay to eat… Not easy. Maybe I should have taste it raw but probably no force could make me to do it and maybe it changes too much…?

I still like talking about vegs. And growing them if it’s not too much work.

#20

I do like raw kale with a tahini dressing (tahini, sesame oil & apple cider vinegar) & avocado, it’s yum!
Spinach or kale baked with cream & feta are lovely…