Kale – in all its shapes & forms – is everywhere, in everything and for good reason! Kale is a nutrient rich green that is extremely versatile. Eat it raw or cooked, juiced or blended – you can’t go wrong. When we started growing Kale I may have been jumping on the Kale bandwagon but also it isn’t always easy to find organic and fresh.

Over the last few years we have cooked kale nearly every way imaginable. Today we will share with you our simplest yet most sophisticated recipe. For this recipe you will need a good skillet or Wok.

The Kale

If your kale came from Bain Home Gardens or Hawkins Homestead Farm, then you do not have to worry about pesticides. Your Kale has been rinsed and inspected for critters. Having said that – WASH YOUR GREENS CAREFULLY!

• Remove stem ends from kale leaves (do not throw away).
• Chop or tear into edible pieces. With my greens I use the “Mama Technique” (my mother and my husbands mother both used this technique thus the name) which is rolling the leaves up tightly and cutting at desired with.

Mama Technique

The Garlic

• Take 1-2 (always to your taste) cloves of garlic and chop to desired size. For the purpose of this recipe we like to do thin slices. Set it aside.

Let’s Cook

• Place 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat.
• Add garlic and cook until browning begins.
• Add Kale and be sure to toss it evenly with your garlic and olive oil mixture.
• Cover and cook for about 5 – 7 minutes depending on how small or large you chopped your leaves.
• Remove lid and season to taste. If you prefer your greens with less moisture let cook and additional 3 minutes with the lid off to allow for evaporation.
• ENJOY!

Kale Stems

Kale stems are edible and just like their leaf counterpart, can be used in many different ways. We have made Kale Fries, used them in soups, smoothies, and even omelets! If you are not using them right away, blanch and freeze for later use. How do you prepare your kale? We’d love to know – from our family to yours!

If you didn’t know from following our Facebook page, we purchase our whole chicken and eggs from Hawkins Homestead Farm. Rachel and I have been friends for a few years now. I remember when she first had the dorky idea of raising chickens. Now look at ’em go! Consider me the proud sister. We enjoy knowing the care that goes into raising and butchering our food. If you haven’t now is a good time to check out their products.

The Chicken

We love that slow cooked chicken flavor & I personally do not care for standing over a stove so it only makes sense that this recipe calls for a crock-pot.

• Thaw chicken in refrigerator the evening before preparation.
• The next morning, prepare one bundle of Rosemary. No need to pull the leaves from stems. We really like it so we used a large bundle.
• Peel one small onion. Cut in half

Time to Season (always to taste)

1. Sea salt
2. Pepper
3. Five Spice

• Rub chicken down thoroughly with the above seasonings and do not forget the under the wings!
• Stuff Rosemary and onion inside the chicken.
• Place chicken in crock – pot breast side down.
• Set to low and go to work!

The Kale Fries

Something you will learn about us is that we hate to waste anything! We have recently been making lots of kale salad. It requires that you remove the stems from the leaves, leaving you with perfectly good stems. I thought, “Why toss them? There has to be another way to use them.” See, we already use these in our smoothies but I wanted something more! I began to scour the internet for ideas. There were so many ways to cook them so I chose one – roasting.

• Prepare stems by ensuring all leaf bits are removed. We had 1 pound.
• Clean.
• Blanch (Click here for how to blanch).
• Dry.

Time to Season (always to taste)

1. 1 tablespoon olive oil
2. Garlic salt

• Toss kale stems in oil.
• Add garlic salt & toss again.
• Spread out evenly, not touching if possible, on a nonstick baking sheet.
• Place in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes (depending on thickness of stems).
• Enjoy

So you had Spaghetti Sunday. It is now Tuesday. Somehow there is always more meat sauce. Ugh. Why? So how do you make use of those left over noodles? Well today we made use of ours for a late lunch and thought we would take a few moment to share.

The Ingredients

• Left over noodles – Remove the noodles from the refrigerator and set aside. We had about 2 cups.
• 4 packed cups of cleaned salad greens – We had a tub of organic greens in the fridge to which we added some baby kale from the garden.
• 4 tablespoons of Sesame Ginger Salad dressing
• 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil – We used our homemade Basil Infused Olive Oil which added a whole other level of flavor!

Seasonings (always to taste)

• Honestly the flavors already in our noodles and the flavor from the dressing meant that no extra seasonings were required. If you didn’t season your noodles a little salt to taste should be all that is needed.

Ready?

• Pour Olive Oil into a frying pan and heat over medium heat.
• Do not allow the heat to get too hot before adding the 4 cups of salad greens.
• Allow to wilt for 1 minute then add the noodles. Mix well.
• Add Sesame Ginger Dressing. Mix well and remove from heat.
• In a bowl place your remaining 1 cup of salad greens. Top with your noodles and enjoy!

Like our recipe? Check our “From Our Garden to Your Table” series on Facebook!

Here at Bain Home Gardens we are having fun in the kitchen these days. We are expanding our flavor palate to include Malabar Spinach. Admittedly, it was very difficult to find a recipe that included flavors & spices we could easily get our hands on. See, Malabar Spinach is kind of an exotic vegetable. We found Bengali, Vietnamese, & Chinese recipes! No kidding. We didn’t realize how exotic it really was. This however was a good thing. We wanted to try new things! Going through the recipes, one thing was clear – Malabar likes Curry & Turmeric! Every recipe included it. Thankfully, the Bain household keeps these flavors on hand. A further examination of what was in the fridge & pantry and our recipe was born!

The Malabar Spinach

We hurriedly picked our Malabar Spinach right before a thunderstorm. In the rush we didn’t quite harvest enough but we made due with what we had. We used Red and Green Malabar in this meal. We also included the stems. If you use the stems please be cautioned: the older the stems are, the more woody they tend to be. Trust us there is no cooking it out – much like woody Okra!

All right! Go dust off your Wok or non-stick frying pan and let’s get to work!

• Wash Malabar well.
• Remove stems & chop thinly
• Tear into 1 to 1/2 inch pieces

Seasonings (Always to taste) Other Things

• Curry
• Turmeric
• Salt
• Vidalia Onion
• Ginger Root
• Coconut Oil
• Pear

All right. Let’s do it!

• Place about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil into pan on medium high heat.
• While oil is coming to frying temperature, grate about one teaspoon of ginger root and set aside.
• If you haven’t already, now is a good time to slice that pear into thin slices.
• Add onion (we used a medium-sized one, sliced coarsely) and Malabar stems to oil and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Add Malabar leaves & pear slices. Stir frequently. Cook for 10 -12 minuets. If during the process the pan dries add about another teaspoon of oil or water.
• Add Turmeric, Curry, & Salt to taste.
• Plate & enjoy!

Read More

This isn’t really a recipe but it was so pretty and tasty I had to share.

Included in the salad are the following:

• Green Malabar Spinach
• Red Malabar Spinach with Stem
• New Zealand Spinach
• Red Shiso
• Garden Peach Tomato
• Roma Tomato
• Lemon Cucumber

I totally enjoyed this salad and I’m about to tear into it again with some pan fried salmon. Yummy! You may purchase this Summer Salad blend over on our Facebook Shop Page or you may buy direct by calling (334)648-1994 to make your order.