Thank you for listening to Gardens for Everybody.
Today we're once again digging into what's fresh
and nourishing in the garden right now and today
we're lucky again to have Danielle who is a registered
dietitian who also volunteers in the garden and
we're going to be talking about kale today. Hello!
Kale is one of a dietitian's most favorite vegetables.
I feel like dietitians are known for their love
of kale and Greek yogurt. Really? Okay, those
are the two. Those are the two. It seems, yeah.
So yeah, what do you love about kale? I love
kale because it is a leafy green and dietitians
love to promote not just veggies but leafy greens
in particular and kale is tasty. It's a heartier
leaf so if you're growing it and picking in it
it's going to not be used right away. It tends
to stay quite fresh and you know you can shred
it up and put it in meal prep. items like salad
jars or I'll even use it for stir fries and it
just retains its freshness and tenderness for
a number of days. Danielle yes a lot of people
don't think that kale is tender well so my trick
for making sure that kale is tender is to give
it a massage everybody loves a good massage including
kale so to massage kale first of all you would
remove the stems so just folding over your leaf
to expose the stem and then shred it and put
it in a bowl with just the tiniest drizzle of
oil, tiny little bit of salt and literally give
it a massage until it's nice bright green and
then it is nice and tender. And how long does
that take? Not long. Sidebar story, we had a
visitor to our house and I asked him to massage
the kale while I was putting together the salad
dressing. This was a young gentleman with pretty
big muscles. There was nothing left of the kale.
after maybe about three minutes of him massaging
it. It doesn't take long, just until you get
sort of that bright green colour developing.
So two at the most kind of thing. And would you
do that before storing it? So you're saying you
might keep it in jars. How long would you keep
it in jars and should you massage it before you
store it? Well, that's a good question. So if
I have picked kale from my garden and I'm planning
on using it, over the course of the week I probably
would massage it in small batches but I like
to make salad jars so if I'm going to make two
or three maybe four salad jars for lunches over
the course of the week I would probably massage
that and put it into my salad jar. What is a
salad jar? A salad jar is kind of as it sounds
it's a if you're making a meal salad your ingredients
would be your dressing probably some protein
source of some kind like chickpeas or chopped
chicken or egg, your chunkier vegetables and
then your leafy vegetables so and I put them
in a jar in that order dressing on the bottom
protein chunky veg leafy veg lid on and then
you've got your salad to grab and go for your
lunch on the go or lunch at home if you're working
at home give it a shake toss it onto a plate
or into a bowl and you've got a meal salad for
your that does sound like a great idea and so
efficient Yeah, exactly, because you can do up
usually three or four. I probably wouldn't do
more than that. But the reason why you put the
dressing on the bottom, separated from your leafy
greens, is so that you don't wilt your greens
while it's sitting in the fridge for a few days.
But kale is really good for this because it does
tend to stand up well. Maybe lettuce would go
a little bit slimy over time. Kale is going to
stay nice and crispy. Exactly, yeah. Wow, that
sounds great. So you're making us want to like
kale now because it's going to stay fresh and
crispy. Anything else really good about kale?
Nutritionally, kale is very high in vitamin A,
vitamin C and vitamin K. It's also a really good
source of lutein which is an important eye health
nutrient. So just like we think about carrots
as giving us good night vision, kale is also
in that same kind of category because of its
nutrients. It's part of the cruciferous vegetables
and it is known and I don't pronounce this word
particularly well but it's glucosinolates and
they may help to reduce our cancer risk so that
cruciferous vegetable group is known for helping
with cancer risk reduction and that's one of
the reasons why. So it's like a superpower vegetable
by the sounds of things and yeah that's why it's
one of dieticians favorites and easy to grow
here too so one that's fairly easy to grow in
this area and You can grow it in sort of semi
-shade a little bit which is unusual for vegetables
so it's kind of nice to be able to grow it in
an area where you might not have full sun and
you can still grow some kale. It even thrives
in cool temperatures. Yeah. And it's a biennial
so you could leave it over winter and next year
you'll have a much tenderer plant. The leaves
coming off are smaller, very tender. Maybe we've
introduced people to wanting to eat some kale
now, hopefully. Maybe. But you know, historically,
kale was a common food in the Roman Empire. Right.
It's been around for millennia. Amazing. With
all the vitamins it has, is there any particular
group of people that should eat it or people
that should not eat it? That's a good question.
I think kale is something that I would recommend
for most everybody. Some people get a little
bit concerned about kale if they've got a thyroid
disorder, but actually kale has iodine and other
compounds, but kale is not discouraged from being
consumed. The only other group that when we think
about vitamin K, there are certain medications
that require a consistent intake of vitamin K.
So you're on a certain group of blood thinners.
It's not that we recommend not eating leafy greens
like kale but you should have a relatively consistent
intake of that for ensuring that your medicine
works well for you. Did you have any other recipes
to share with us for kale? As far as recipes
go, I have and will provide you the link to attach
to the show notes. It starts with the massaged
kale, but then dresses it up further. So this
is one of my family's favorite recipes. Southwest
kale salad with a chili lime dressing. So the
dressing is lovely as its own. And the kale salad
has bacon, who doesn't love bacon, peppers, corn,
some toasted seeds, all kinds of great things.
So just so our audience knows, Elizabeth and
I are drooling! That sounds amazing. Thank you
so much, Danielle. That was great. Again, I'll
put the link to the recipe in the notes. And
thank you very much for listening to Gardens
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