Dino Kale Stir-Fry

I took my kids to PCC yesterday to buy vegetables. You know me- I LOVE vegetables. Gotta eat those vegetables! Yes, I often nag my family with this sentence and I am certain if not now, they will thank me later in life. So, going to back to our little veggie-shopping trip to PCC- in the greens section, I saw this interesting looking really dark green kale. Now I use kale, swiss chard, collard greens, and spinach of course, on a regular basis. But never bought this particular type of kale. The name sounded very interesting as well- "Dino Kale." And yes indeed- if you look at the leaves, they look all bumpy and reptile-like. My son got excited at the "dino" part of it and so we picked it up. The idea was to make a quick stir-fry with the kale. Apparently the other name for this kale is Lacinato Kale, also known as black cabbage, Tuscan kale and cavalo nero. And it is widely used in Tuscan cooking. (This is from the little info tag that comes along with the veggie).

"Dino" Kale

Ingredients:

1. 1 small onion, finely chopped. A shallot or two would be just fine.
2. Salt, some black pepper powder
3. A pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
4. 3-4 teaspoons of cooking oil
5. And oh, don't forget the dino (or regular) kale! Chop it up (I read somewhere that the thick stem needs to be discarded. But I just chopped up everything- it was pretty tender. Besides, I am still alive and kicking, so guess it is not bad for ya!)

Method: 

Again, like most of my cooking, this is an extremely easy recipe and takes max 10 minutes.

1. Take a pan, pour in 3-4 teaspoons of cooking oil and get the heat going.
2. Add some freshly ground pepper/black pepper powder, followed by the finely chopped onion and some salt to taste.
3. Let the onion sweat a bit- for about 5 minutes, until translucent. This would be on medium flame.
4. Then throw in the chopped dino kale and stir-fry it all (higher than medium flame) until the leaves start to wilt. At this point, you could add a pinch of cayenne pepper if you'd like. Give it a quick taste. Depending on how much bite you like in your veggies, the kale stir-fry should be ready in approximately 3 to 5 minutes.

Stir-frying the dino kale

Dino Kale Stir-Fry

Kale itself is a delicious vegetable. Dino Kale is one notch more delicious- I think, mostly because of its name and appearance. It is a bit sweeter than regular kale, that tends to have this hint of bitterness in it.

A tip: At the end, add a dab of butter. It'll kick up the flavor by quite a bit! ;) 

Dino Kale has made it to my son's "favorite vegetable list."  I mean, I was literally shocked to see his plate totally devoid of any green at the end of the meal! Am guessing it was the "Dino" that did it!