16 Comments

Made the soup last night - delicious! I've been rediscovering beans, and used 2 different kinds of kale. The result made for a very hearty meal. A question, please: while kale is readily available here in the Pacific NW, I have not found it at my local market in the Dordogne while at our home there. French friends don't know what I'm talking about when I ask them about kale. Google translates kale as 'chou frisé', but that seems to be a cabbage. Have you found it there, or has kale PR simply not reached the area? Perhaps I'll have to consider it a trade-off: no kale in France, but did discover the lovely lemony tartness of sorrel, which I can't find here...

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So pleased - and very relieved - you liked the soup! I have not, like you, found kale in SW France. But I have sometimes come across cavoli Nero in farmers markets and Le Grand Frais. When I do, I grab it. It's not entirely the same as kale - the stalks are more tender, I'd say. So if you use it in any recipe that takes a longish cook in liquid, as in this soup, I would cut the cooking time to keep the texture from disintegrating.

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Please forgive the delay in replying - it somehow slid down my inbox

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Oh, my goodness! I can't believe how on top of these comments you are! Thanks for the heads up on the Cavolo Nero. I'll keep an eye out for it at the Terrasson farmers market - perhaps it might still be available when I get there next month.

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I love the stalks. Best rubbed with some olive oil and lemon first. But I’m a stalks fan anyway, the inside of broccoli stalks is sublime:). Definitely going to be trying this recipe at Silicon Towers !

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And the inside of cauliflower stalks in the same way!! Yes! with a bit of crunchy finishing salt. I also like and cook the stalks of kale, but usually separately from the leaf as they would turn to mush if they cooked long enough to soften the stalks. I love the contrast between the two and althogh most recipes call for the stalks to be chucked, I don't agree.

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Although many friends love a kale salad, I have been unable to warm to anything kale except Portuguese bean soup until my daughter offered a snack of crispy baked kale chips.

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I was in your camp for ever until someone said I needed to massage the leaves. (Yes, I know.) And I did. And they became soft. And it changed everything. I added thinly sliced oranges, thinly sliced scallions and a pinch of chilli pepper flakes. I'm a convert. Though not for regular consumption, perhaps...What I'm after is the Portuguese kale soup recipe Suzanne Cote Curtiss refers to in her comment. Now, that sounds like something I'd eat a great deal of.

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How apt: I just finishd my breakfast of avocado toast with hardboiled egg and tomato as I read your essay. To her dying day, my mother-in-law referred to avocados as "alligator pears," which is what they were called during the early part of the twentieth century. in the U.S. Outside the Southwest, that is. As a native Californian, I had no idea what she was talking about, the first time I heard her say it. And she persisted, no matter how many times she was enlightened. As for kale, the only way my husband will eat it is mixed with mashed potato, in a version of colcannon. I bought a bag of chopped Tuscan kale at Trader Joe's the other day--the last time I will ever do that. It was full of chopped stems, which remained tough and crunchy, no matter how long the kale was cooked. Kale of any variety must have the whole leaf stem stripped out, as with collards. This is easy enough to do with a sharp knife, cutting along each margin of the stem. Alligator pear and dinosaur kale-- a lumpy duo.

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Alligator pears is a perfect description of the skins of some of them! Not too marketable a name, I suppose. Thank you for the Colcannon tip - I'd not thought of making it with kale. That would be a nice change at an Irish breakfast instead of the potato cake or a switch out for a hash brown. I also agree about the chopped up stuff - it's so much easier to rip the green parts off the central stalk (or cut with a knife). The greens turn into nasty mush before you've managed to soften the stalk bits.

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You had me at glug…..I like Kale in a Portuguese sausage soup over mashed spuds. Bubble and squeak it for a special treat. I like to stir fry it on repeat. Bring me your tired bag of coleslaw or left over take out. It perks right up with soy sauce and sriracha. Bang a fried egg on top and add some bacon…you have green eggs and ham. I do not like it in a blender. Not for this reader, who just shoveled her driveway. Happy snow day from Maine…where industrial agriculture is limited to growing trees….sort of… I also need to go get myself a 🛷

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And YOU had ME at Sriracha. I once had to have my supply hidden as I was getting through them inside a week and even squirting it on thin slices of apple. Then in danger of losing my taste buds, now I'm properly regulated. That soup sounds right up my street!

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Love Tuscan Kale. Grows through winter, and if protected from cabbage whites, keeps going through our subtropical summer. Sauté with garlic and salt.

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'Simple' is often the most delicious. I also add a pinch of red pepper flakes.

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Ha. I often jazz it up with some stir-fried diced capsicum, done to the point of just starting to blister.

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Even better! The ante is upped!

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