Kale is the most nutrient-dense food on the planet! When you think you have eaten enough kale, eat more!
This month (February 2014), kale will be featured in several practical and delicious applications. I love kale chips, but one can only eat just so many.
What you get from kale:
- A SERIOUS means-business powerhouse superfood!
- A cancer-fighter
- Calories per calorie, more iron than beef, and about as much protein. And more calcium than milk!
- It is packed with essential vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals.
- Vitamin K for eye health, bone health, and blood health
- Anti-inflammatory properties, making it a disease fighter.
- Fiber! making it very beneficial for the cardiovascular and digestive systems
- It is a purifying food, great for the respiratory system
- It is sustainable, affordable, available year-round, and fits in beautifully to almost all special diets.
Just drink a shot of pure organic kale juice and see if you don’t feel it working for you!
My favorite is Tuscan kale, aka Dinosaur kale or Black kale. It is less bitter and I like the flat chips it makes. Red kale is beautiful in dishes as well. And curly kale makes great little roasted bits that when they are cooked just right, taste savory. If you haven’t already done so, try them all!
So, with all due respect to Popeye and his spinach – as a child, I deeply loved them both – my staple focus these days is kale. You can still eat your spinach too!
In fact, be sure to eat a variety of vegetables, not just one. This will ensure your body’s receiving a variety of nutrients without excess of one or two. Diversify!
Juicing kale is a great way to get a lot of its nutrition into your body quickly. It breaks kale down, changes the molecular structure, and opens up all that wonderful nutrition, for you to quickly gulp down. You don’t have a juicer? No problem… as long as you have a blender. And the leftover pulp is fabulous for many uses! All that nutrition is now concentrated. You can trick yourself into thinking that you are eating much less, but still getting the benefits.
Just about any blender will do the job. If your goal is to end up with usable pulp – the bonus ingredient! – then a blender with less than the power of a jet engine will actually be preferable!
If you know how to use your blender, you are all set.
Step One: Just blend kale.
Here are some simple tips…
[pinterest]
Add small amounts of water, a little at a time, just enough to loosen the kale and make it break down.
Blend kale in batches. When your first batch is pulverized and reduced, add more chopped leaves and stems. Keep going until your blender has taken its capacity, then pour most of the pureed kale into another container. I like to leave some of the puree in the blender to help the new leaves break down more quickly.
If your blender is having trouble, chop kale pieces smaller before adding them in.
Now you have a HUGE kale smoothie! It is a gorgeous thing!
Step Two: Strain out the juice.
You can use a fine mesh strainer over a bowl to do this. (Note to self: Use a bigger strainer.)
Use a spoon to move the puree around, allowing the juice to extract. Then press the puree against the strainer to force out any additional juice. Do this until your kale pulp is as dry as you want it to be.
There is an easier way to do this, but I am out of cheesecloth.
If you have cheesecloth, simply line a bowl with it, pile the pulp on top, wrap up the pulp in the cheesecloth, twisting the top so that no pulp can escape. Then squeeze out the juice.
Step Three: Place the juice in a bowl or jar and the pulp in a separate container.
And you have now made two, count ’em, TWO, beautiful ingredients. Future posts this month will explore simple ways to use kale pulp. For now, you might have your own ways to use it up in recipes. If so, please share! If not, it will freeze well until you decide how you want to use it. I put it in freezer bags and freeze it in 1 cup servings.
Let’s benefit from that deep green organic kale juice right now!
To get quick nutrition in your body, throw this nutrient-rich kale juice into any green drink recipe you like. There are tons on the web, and there will eventually probably be tons on this site.
Here is a personal favorite, because it is so quick and easy.
Ingredients:
- one part kale juice
- one part apple juice
- optional: dash of lemon juice for even more nutrition
Method:
Combine and drink. It will look more like kale and taste more like apples. What a great deal for all that nutrition!
This drink will provide for you a great start to your morning or a reboot in the afternoon.
Keep any leftover juice refrigerated. Don’t let it sit in the fridge too long! Let it nourish your body. 🙂
Blender Juicing Notes
- We started today with 24 oz organic kale greens
- Yield: over 3 c juice (slightly diluted), and 14 oz (408 g) pulp, 2 1/2 c
- Yield results may vary, depending upon how much water you add while juicing and how dry you get your pulp.
- Kale juice is best when consumed fresh and has a short shelf life. Keep it refrigerated. And if you think it will take you more than a couple days to use it, then freeze it in easily consumable amounts.
Enjoy!
[pinterest]
If you like this, please Pin, Share, and Like
[fblike]
[tweet]