Steamed Kale, My New Best Friend

I'd never tried kale before I started eating vegan. Now that I know what nutritional powerhouses dark leafy greens are, I try to eat a lot of them. But recently I've been eating a lot of kale not because it's good for me, but because it's so delicious when dressed with any yummy gravy or sauce.

I started to steam kale to go with some some test recipes for gravies and sauces I made for the next Happy Herbivore cookbook. I'm totally hooked, and now I have it all the time. A big bowl of steamed kale goes perfectly with gravies and sauces, and it's so filling! After I eat a bowl, I don't have room for much more. Here are a few test recipes I made with steamed kale:
Yesterday I made a very quick and easy to make Brown Gravy from the Happy Herbivore website. As with many HH recipes, it took all of five minutes to whip up. I used her suggestion of adding some additional cornstarch and water, and the gravy was super thick and creamy. I have no idea how its basic ingredients could taste so much like a meat-based brown gravy, but it really does. I had it over steamed kale and baked fries. Awesome.
The Silky Chickpea Gravy from Appetite for Reduction, or really any gravy or sauce, would also go great with steamed kale.

Appetite for Reduction: Ye'abesha Gomen (Ethiopian Collards)

For all you nutrition-loving folks, here's an interesting note from Appetite for Reduction: 1 cup of collards has the same amount of calcium as 1 cup of 2% cow's milk but has way more fiber (7 grams versus 0 in milk) and less saturated fat (0 grams versus 3 in milk). Clearly, collards are better! ;-)

Veganonicon started my love affair with collards, but this recipe for Ethiopian-style stewed and sauteed collards, Ye'abesha Gomen, made me fall in love all over again. How can something that tastes so good be so good for you? That's the magic of Appetite for Reduction!

This recipe starts out by stewing chopped collards in vegetable broth for a half-hour until they're nice and tender. Then you saute onion, garlic, fresh ginger, and red pepper flakes in a little bit of olive oil, then add the collards and cook everything for a few minutes. I loved it. My omnivore husband grudgingly tried it and even more grudgingly admitted it was "not bad," which, translated to my love of food, really means "very good!"

Veganomicon Review: Sauteed Collards

In my quest to fit more super-nutritious dark, leafy greens into my diet, tonight I tried the second Veganomicon recipe for cooked greens, Sauteed Collards (first was Easy Stir-Fried Leafy Greens).

Using this mix of turnip, mustard, and collard greens plus spinach from Trader Joe's was a mistake. Not only was it more than twice as much ($3.99) as a bunch of collards at Giant Eagle ($1.79), but the spinach cooked up so much quicker than everything else and got all mushy while the other greens cooked. Aside from that, this recipe was fantastic! First, you saute a bunch of garlic (4 cloves for 1 pound greens) in a bit of olive oil (I used less than the recipe calls for; Veganomicon tends to use too much oil for me). Then you add your greens, saute for a few minutes, then add the concoction that makes these greens so yummy: vegetable broth with soy sauce and liquid smoke (1 teaspoon each of soy sauce and liquid smoke in 1/2 cup vegetable broth for 1 pound of greens). They cook for a few minutes in the broth; mine cooked unevenly because of the mix of greens. Still! Delicious! A year ago before I started eating vegan, I'd never imagined that I'd be saying "Mmmm!" while eating a plate of greens, but here I am with a belly full of greens and a smile on my face. Two thumbs up!