Roasted Kale and Toasted Coconut by Caitlin
This recipe is a delicious variation on the simple olive oil and salt kale chips I usually make, and with the addition of coconut and other savoury flavours it stands up as an assertive side dish on any plate. I usually buy and eat curly kale, which seems to be the most commonly available in grocery stores in Calgary. Lacinato (also called tuscan or black kale) is also good in the recipe, the leaves are a bit smoother, which means there are less nooks and crannies for the sauce to make crispy but it's still a good choice. I'm convinced that the most delicious part of this recipe is the coconut, and it is key to use large flake coconut-it's available in most natural food stores and I keep a bag of it just for this recipe and for making homemade granola.
I've got kale on the mind because by far it was the most successful vegetable I grew in my garden last year. We had about double the number of plants that can be see in the photo below and they yielded a huge grocery bag of kale every week. I'm also looking forward to growing more sweet peas, one of my favourite flowers. Sadly the photo on the left is not my kale, it was grown on Vancouver Island by a talented gardener, which must be part of the reason it's so big. But kale does grow well in pots, so if you don't have a garden, maybe this is how you can try and grow it this summer! I promise there will be more recipes using this vegetable to come as it starts growing for me.
I've got kale on the mind because by far it was the most successful vegetable I grew in my garden last year. We had about double the number of plants that can be see in the photo below and they yielded a huge grocery bag of kale every week. I'm also looking forward to growing more sweet peas, one of my favourite flowers. Sadly the photo on the left is not my kale, it was grown on Vancouver Island by a talented gardener, which must be part of the reason it's so big. But kale does grow well in pots, so if you don't have a garden, maybe this is how you can try and grow it this summer! I promise there will be more recipes using this vegetable to come as it starts growing for me.