A Spoon Full Of Sugar Helps The Medicine Go Down

We always hear about how important it is to eat our dark green leafy vegetables, and rightly so. I recently did two weeks worth of lessons on vitamins and minerals in my Lifetime Nutrition and Wellness class, and guess what has almost every vitamin and mineral in it? Dark green leafy vegetables! The problem comes when you don't like them. Guess how many of my high school students said they don't like them? Yep, almost all of them. Guess what else? Their teacher doesn't prefer them either! I have tried Chard, Kale, Mustard Greens, and Spinach. Spinach is the only one that I have found tolerable up until this point, and even so, it isn't a staple in my diet.

I had pretty much given up on my dark greens until one Saturday while judging a 4H practice cooking contest, I discovered Wilted Kale Salad. Am I the only one who didn't know about this stuff? It is simple and the taste of the kale is barely noticeable.

I searched for a recipe, but didn't find one that I liked, so I came up with one on my own.

Use as much kale as you need for your meal.
Cut the stems off, wash, dry, and place in a bowl.
Sprinkle with enough vinegar to coat each piece of kale (you may have to toss to ensure even coating), then do the same with lemon juice.
Add about a tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Cover and refrigerate over night.
When you are ready to eat, cut up your favorite vegetables and toss together.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds (optional).

The vinegar and lemon juice are supposed to take away the bitter taste of the kale, which worked for me.

I know this is an odd dish to use, but I used it for overnight storage because it had a lid.

In my search for a Wilted Kale Salad recipe, I came across a recipe for Kale Almond Pesto.

http://www.elanaspantry.com/kale-almond-pesto/

I LOVE pesto, so I figured I could give this a try since I was willing to try any way to make this stuff taste better. This is a FANTASTIC recipe. It is a great pesto, and you don't even taste the kale.

I ate some of it the way it was, and then added some red sauce to the rest of it. Super yummy, easy, and healthy. We ate it over thin whole wheat spaghetti (talk about feeling accomplished!).

My husband can testify that I am a pretty picky eater, and that dark green leafy vegetables were never in my vocabulary until now, but these are two recipes I can definitely live with and would not only enjoy eating on a regular basis, but have become a favorite in our home.

If you have any other recipes that help to doctor the taste of kale, chard, mustard greens, etc., I would LOVE for you to share them with me!