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.
Roasted Kale with Toasted Coconut
from Supernatural Cooking by Heidi Swanson
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp soy sauce or tamari
1 large bunch of kale, ribs removed and torn into pieces
About 1 cup unsweetened large flake coconut (not shredded coconut, and not the sweet coconut you use for baking)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put parchment paper onto two baking trays (or one, depends how big your bunch of kale is).
2. Put the shredded kale (bite size pieces are fine) and the coconut into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl or cup mix together the first three liquid ingredients.
3. Reserve at least two tablespoons of the olive oil mixture and then drizzle the rest over the kale coconut mixture and toss to coat well. It depends on how much kale you have, you don't want the kale to be sopping wet, more like lightly oiled. Spread the kale over your baking tray. I like to have parchment paper on the trays for easy clean up, but you don't need to use it.
4. Bake for about 12 minutes, checking the trays halfway through to toss the kale around and make sure it's not getting too crisp. This is best eaten right away, hot from the oven. The 2 Tb of reserved oil and soy sauce can be drizzled on before serving or reserved and used to make a delicious cold salad of leftover toasted kale and brown rice.