What Does Cooked Kale Taste Like?

On Oct 2, 2022

Variation: For Rainbow Raw Salad, skip the kale and use a rainbow of other veggies instead:

Beets, celery, carrots, and red cabbage with Lemon-Tahini Dressing
Fennel and bell peppers with Creamy Avocado-Lime Dressing (this will only last 1 day in the fridge due to the avocado)
Cauliflower and bell peppers with Lemon-Thyme Dressing
Use the same technique to massage the vegetables to help them break down.

While classic kale is tasty, you may want to explore other flavor combinations:

Instead of pepper flakes and balsamic vinegar, finish the kale with golden raisins and toasted pine nuts.
For a Chinese-inspired variation, cook the kale in 1-1/2 teaspoons each canola oil and sesame oil.
Channel Southern flavors by cooking the kale in bacon fat instead of oil.

While kale offers more than twice the amount of vitamin C as spinach, spinach provides more folate and vitamins A and K. Both are linked to improved heart health, increased weight loss , and

What Is Kale?

Breaking Down Greens. Kale is a cruciferous vegetable from the mustard family, which includes vegetables like broccoli and Brussels sprouts, but it’s most closely related to cabbage.
Health Benefits of Kale. One of the other reasons kale is so popular is that it’s low in carbs and calories.
Most Common Types of Kale.
Cooking with Kale.

What is Kale?

Chefs, fitness professionals, nutritional gurus, and even your next door neighbor won’t stop talking about the frilly-leafed green known as kale. Kale is a part of the cabbage family and has strong, thick leaves and long stems. There are a couple varieties of kale, though, and you can find many of them at the local grocery store.

No, kale does not taste like spinach, as you will find out if you nibble on both raw kale and spinach leaves. For comparison purposes, raw spinach is said to be mild, herb-like, slightly sweet, and grassy. Baby spinach is sweeter, while bigger, heartier leaves can be more grassy.

Depending on the age of the kale, it can be sweet, it can be bland, or it can be bitter. Kale generally has a strong taste, one that is emphasized by crunchy, tough leaves. It’s an earthy flavor that doesn’t have the herb-like quality of spinach or the zest of arugula. Younger kale leaves are thin and mild.

Kale can be cooked a number of ways, each one resulting in a different taste. Seasoned kale tends to taste better than unseasoned kale. Without any salt, pepper, or other spices, kale tastes much like it would raw, though the bitterness won’t be as strong.

Caramelizing is a process where you cook foods with natural sugars so that those ingredients brown and gain a nutty flavor. The most common food that cooks love to caramelize would be onions. Although kale itself would be difficult to caramelize, you can pair it with onions, garlic, leeks, carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, and peppers.

One of the easiest ways to add kale to your diet without having to taste it is to add it to a smoothie. For breakfast, a midday snack, or after your workout, smoothies are a quick and easy way to nourish your body. Why not add an extra shot of vitamin K with kale?

When you cook kale, it becomes less bitter and more buttery. Sauteing kale is no different. Combined with vegetable stock, garlic, olive oil, and some red wine vinegar, kale takes on characteristics of both escarole and spinach. The salt will draw out some sweetness, while the garlic gives a little kick.