Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Kale leaf curry

I have been watching this kale leaf bunch in every grocery store in USA for a long time . But my desi brain couldn't even identify it as a keerai (greens). I assumed it as a kind of cabbage:)
Never dared to take it home as hubby hates trying new greens:)
Then heard of its nutritional value from my friend Malar of Kitchen Tantra.
She has a vast knowledge about the rare greens. This leaf has a lot of vitamin K and good for women. Thanks for the info Malar. Then I started cooking it like our very native paruppu keerai (dhal and spinach).. I don't know any recipe for this. It tastes heavenly. Besides we need not depend on our Indian store spinach alone.That's amazing right:)



Ingredients:

Kale leaf - 3/4 lb
Thoor dhal - 1/4 cup
Onion - 1
Dry red chilly - 2
cumin seed - few
mustard seed - 1/2 tsp
salt - to taste
turmeric powder - a pinch
asafoetida - a pinch
olive oil - 1 tbsp

Method:

Wash the kale leaf by placing it in a big mixing bowl.
Remove the thicker vains and chop into big pieces. vegetables chopped into tiny pieces may loose their water-soluble vitamins easily.
Pressure cook thoor dhal with 1 cup water, little turmeric powder, asafoetida and mash it .
Heat olive oil in a non stick wok.
Add mustard seeds. Once they get cracked , add the chopped onion, dry red chilli and saute well.
After the onion gets semi cooked add the chopped kale leaves and stir well.
Add a cup of water and close the lid.
Let the greens cook (but not 100%). It will get cooked in 5 minutes.
Open the lid , add salt, cumin seeds and cooked dhal.
Mix well and let it come to boil.
Switch off flame.
Kale leaf curry is ready.

Serving suggestions:

Serve as side dish with steamed rice or roti / chapathi.
Makes two cups of curry.
1 cup chopped kale leaf gives 36 calories.(citation: The daily plate )
We can add the calories for the olive oil, lentil and onion to calculate the calorie consumed.

19 comments:

Varsha Vipins said...

Droooooooooll..Viki..I never noticed Kale leaf..I'll next time n this curry is my fav..:)

Cham said...

Looks delicious i make a dry curry

sriharivatsan said...

Looks yummy Viki..

Shama Nagarajan said...

keerai...all time favourite...lovely

Raks said...

Sounds new to me! I would love to have with ghee and rice!

Unknown said...

good healhy one..i make a similar one with whatever green available at the super market..

Priya Suresh said...

Delicious curry with kale leaves, i too makes them with shrimps along..great job Viki!!

Premyscakes said...

very much inviting post viki.
cheers.

gtyuk said...

Hi Viki,
we call it "Chou frisé" in France. It belongs to the family of cabbage . Never tried it either. Glad you've tested it in the Indian style. Thankyou, I'm going to try it too.

Gita Jaishankar said...

I tried using kale once in soup...parupu keerai with kale sounds so good Viki, looks delicious too :)

Swapna said...

very nutritious dish. will try soon..

Yasmeen said...

Simply delicious,Kale is just as nutritious as spinach,though I rarely use it myself.You got me thinking now:)

Purva Desai said...

this is a new dish....drooling over the pic....will try this soon...

Malar Gandhi said...

I am so glad that you liked the taste, buddy. No you're not wrong...it belongs to cabbage family! Yeah, I was pretty much skeptical too in the beginning...

Oi, you don't have to thank me and all for this, its my pleasure...

anudivya said...

I don't eat Kale, but I bet this curry would work well with other greens too... How have you been girl?

Vikis Kitchen said...

Oh Malar,Is it a distant cousin of cabbage :) Love your technical explanations always dear.

Sujatha said...

thats nice to hear, a new keerai variety other than our regular spinach! Will try to find it in my grocery store next time! thanks for sharing.. :)

Adlak's tiny world said...

looks nice and yummy dear.

Purva Desai said...

curry looks yumm, nice info about the leaf...

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