30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (2024)

Hearty, verdant kale is a leafy green we can never get enough of, and we've gathered many ways you can enjoy the vegetable, especially in the winter. There are delicious salads among our kale recipes, of course, from a crunchy root vegetable salad from chef Marcus Samuelsson to a kale Caesar salad with light and crispy fried chickpeas from Justin Chapple. You can also turn kale into pesto, fold it into macaroni and cheese, and stuff pasta shells with it. Here are some of our favorite ways to use kale in soups, salads, sides, pastas, and main dishes.

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Sautéed Kale with Garlic and Olive Oil

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (1)

Sautéed with garlic and olive oil, this quick, easy, and versatile kale side dish gets a slight kick of flavor from red chile flakes.

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02of 30

Kale Salad with Cranberries, Almonds, and Goat Cheese

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (2)

This winter kale salad dresses up the hearty greens with toasted almonds, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and a citrus-Dijon vinaigrette.

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Baby Kale Stir-Fried with Oyster Sauce

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (3)

"This recipe is my supermarket take on stir-fried water spinach, a go-to vegetable for everyday Viet meals," Andrea Nguyen writes. "Prewashed greens don't release much liquid, which can dilute flavors and turn a stir-fry sizzle into a fizzle."

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04of 30

Kale-Basil Pesto

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (4)

This fall-forward pesto bolsters traditional basil with Lacinato kale for extra heartiness. Winemaker Clare Carver recommends choosing a mild, smooth extra-virgin olive oil here for a buttery richness that complements the toasted walnuts and balances the fresh garlic.

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05of 30

Sausage, Kale, and Potato Skillet Supper

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (5)

"The brilliant thing about this recipe is that you can cook it all in one skillet," Klancy Miller writes. "The key is adding each ingredient at the right time so that everything cooks without burning."

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06of 30

Sheet Pan Baked Chicken, Feta, Tomatoes, and Kale with Pasta

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (6)

This whole dish comes together in under an hour as the chicken, cheese, and aromatics bake in the oven while the pasta and kale quickly cook on the stove.

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07of 30

Buttermilk Macaroni and Cheese with Baby Kale

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (7)

A quick sauté renders baby kale leaves perfectly tender, allowing them to almost melt into the buttermilk-enriched béchamel in chef and cookbook author Alexander Smalls' riff on mac and cheese. For a smooth sauce, make sure all of the dairy is at room temperature.

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Chickpeas and Kale in Spicy Pomodoro Sauce

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (8)

Chef Missy Robbins of Brooklyn's Lilia restaurant swaps chickpeas for pasta in her riff on spicy pomodoro. She finishes the dish with a shower of fresh herbs and salty pecorino cheese.

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Chicken Tortellini Soup with Kale

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (9)

Fresh ingredients team up with store-bought shortcuts to get this comforting dinner on the table in just over 30 minutes.

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10of 30

Kale-Artichoke Stuffed Shells

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (10)

Tender kale is the base for this filling of artichoke hearts, creamy cannellini beans, and spreadable cheese, stuffing pasta shells that top marinara mixed with mildly hot Calabrian chiles and earthy, sweet fennel seeds.

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Greek Kale Salad with Fried Halloumi

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (11)

Crisp and tender pan-fried Halloumi cheese is the star of this wintry take on a Greek salad. Finely chopped kale holds up a creamy, spicy yogurt-based dressing that gets a kick of piquancy from minced garlic and crushed red pepper.

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Kale-and-Corn Pakoras

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (12)

A combination of chickpea and rice flours yields a batter that makes these pakoras fry up light, lacy, and extra crunchy. Sweet summer corn and peppers join with hearty kale to give these vegetarian fritters extra heft.

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13of 30

Roasted Butternut Squash with Chorizo-Spiced Kale

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (13)

With its earthy sweetness and dense texture, butternut squash makes a hearty vegetable steak. At Chaval in Portland, Maine, chef Damian Sansonetti highlights its complexity with his chorizo spice mix. He blooms the blend of cumin, Pimentón, and coriander in oil to release its aroma, which provides a smoky foundation for the kale that tops this shoulder-season dish.

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Coulibiac of Salmon with Pickled Beets and Kale

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (14)

This modern update on the classic swaps labor-intensive brioche with store-bought phyllo, which bakes into an ethereally crisp parcel that encases lemony rice, mustard-brushed salmon, pickled beets, and garlicky kale. Each slice reveals clean, vibrant layers, packed with bold flavors.

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15of 30

Stuffed Kale with Bulgur Tabbouleh and Lime Yogurt Dip

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (15)

In his clever version of stuffed grape leaves, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten uses tender kale as the wrapper, and stuffs them with a tabbouleh of bulgur, cucumber, mint, and sour cherry.

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Kale Caesar with Fried Chickpeas

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (16)

This tangy Caesar salad from F&W's Justin Chapple is topped with light, airy, and super-crunchy pan-fried chickpeas.

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17of 30

Sunchoke-Kale Hash with Farro

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (17)

This comforting winter recipe from 2009 F&W Best New Chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, of Animal and Son of a Gun in Los Angeles, combines crispy sunchokes, silky oyster mushrooms, tender kale, and chewy farro.

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Pork-and-Kale Soup with Sizzling Puffed Rice

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (18)

"I love food that makes noise," says chef Edward Lee. When F&W challenged the Top Chef Season 9 contestant to make a fast dish with pork, kale, and white wine, he created a deeply flavorful soup, then added crumbled crispy rice cakes that crackle as they hit the broth.

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Creamed Kale

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (19)

Shallots and nutmeg help enhance the flavor in this 15-minute creamed kale recipe.

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Kale-and-Shiitake Fried Rice

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (20)

This comforting, vegetable-packed rice is infused with ginger. It's best made with day-old rice to absorb all the flavorings.

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Spicy Kale-Pistachio Dip

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (21)

This spicy vegetable dip comes together in just 20 minutes and is also great as a sauce on seafood or meat.

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Crispy Ricotta-Kale Tacos

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (22)

Make these simple, savory snacks, served with tomatillo and pistachio salsa, in 45 minutes.

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23of 30

Chow Fun with Roast Pork and Kale-Tomato Salad

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (23)

Chow fun noodles are the base for this unconventional dish, from chef Sheldon Simeon, that's topped with roast pork and a tangy kale salad and served with a buttery broth.

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Squash-and-Kale Toasts

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (24)

Chef Steven Satterfield of Miller Union in Atlanta is a huge fan of kale — especially when it's combined with sweet roasted squash. Look for Tuscan kale (also called Lacinato or Dinosaur kale) when possible; it's tender and tasty. You can eat these toasts as an afternoon snack or serve them to guests during co*cktail hour.

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Kale Rice Bowl

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (25)

In this simple rice bowl, Kay Chun combines pork and kale with an abundance of fresh herbs for a dish that's both hearty and delightfully fresh-tasting.

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26of 30

Kale Salad with Root Vegetables and Apple

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (26)

This refreshing, super-healthy salad is one of chef Marcus Samuelsson's favorite ways to showcase kale; massaging the leaves with vinegar, salt, and olive oil makes them tender and sweet.

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Kimchi-and-Kale Fried Rice

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (27)

When chef Rachel Yang finishes a long shift at her Seattle restaurant Joule, this fried rice is her go-to quick snack. It's a great use for all of that leftover takeout rice and relies mostly on pantry staples, as long as you have gochujang, a Korean chile paste, in your pantry.

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Ribollita

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Chef Adam Leonti's ribollita recipe is packed with Yukon Gold Potatoes, cannellini beans, kale, and more.

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Sweet Brown Rice Risotto with Kale and Cremini

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (29)

"Despite its name, sweet brown rice isn't sweet," says chef Marco Canora of Hearth in New York City. Instead, this short-grain glutinous rice resembles whole-grain sushi rice. Here, Canora uses it to make a hearty vegetarian risotto packed with cremini mushrooms, Tuscan kale, onion, thyme, and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

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Cabbage-and-Kale Soup with Farro

30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (30)

"I love a really flavorful pot of greens," says chef Melissa Perello. For this kale-and-cabbage soup, she uses just a little bit of pancetta and a Parmesan-cheese rind to give the broth a rich flavor. "It's definitely the kind of dish that tastes even better the next day," she says. There's nothing better than a dish that keeps on giving.

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30 Hearty, Verdant Kale Recipes to Make This Winter (2024)

FAQs

What to do with wilted kale? ›

submerge leaves and stems in water, making sure that any cut ends are fully submerged. for long stems on kale and chard, you may be able to simply put the stems in a large cup/pitcher of water, like cut flowers (this works best for less limp leave) soak for at least 30 minutes.

How to eat kale? ›

It's often eaten raw in salads and smoothies but can also be enjoyed steamed, sautéed, boiled, or baked. Along with broccoli and Brussels sprouts, kale is a cruciferous vegetable that offers an array of potential health benefits.

Is kale still good if it's limp? ›

It's not recommended to eat wilted kale. It won't have the same flavor or texture as fresh kale. So, try to revive it. Cut off the stems and place them in water for about eight hours.

Why is my kale tough? ›

The leafy green cruciferous vegetable can be tough in texture. One of the health benefits behind kale is that it is high in fiber, but that fiber is also the reason that the leaves can seem dense and unpleasant to chew. Cooked kale does not present the same problem.

How to make kale taste better? ›

If desired, season the sautéed kale with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. For more flavor, try sautéing kale in this hearty lentil skillet or with some prosciutto and sweet potatoes.

Are you not supposed to eat kale stems? ›

Kale is a nitrogen-thirsty leaf with a strong structure and thick stem that, without proper preparation, is often tough and stringy.

Can I freeze kale raw? ›

You can freeze kale without blanching, but plan to use it within four to six weeks. Unblanched kale may develop a bitter flavor because you haven't stopped the action of the naturally-occurring ripening enzymes in the leaves.

Can I eat kale every day? ›

Manganiello says you can eat kale every day, just don't overdo it. She recommends one to two servings maximum of kale per day, leaving room for other healthy foods that provide an assortment of nutrients.

Is it OK to drink raw kale? ›

Kale holds its texture well when cooked, and it can be steamed, stir-fried, roasted or eaten raw. You can blend it into smoothies, roast it to make kale chips, wilt it into soup, mash it with potatoes or turn it into pesto.

Can dogs eat kale? ›

While dogs can eat kale cooked and raw, cooked kale is much easier for them to digest. When it comes to switching things up and adding more fibre to your dog's diet, it's a good idea to avoid making any sudden changes – unless, of course, they suffer with a food allergy or intolerance.

What will you do to make the wilted leafy vegetable fresh? ›

Place the Produce in Ice Water.

For most produce, you can submerge the food in a bucket or large bowl of ice water. Then, put the container with the vegetables in the fridge to keep the water cool. Let the food soak for 15 to 30 minutes. Heartier produce, such as root vegetables, may need longer, or up to one hour.

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