This last weekend was THE weekend we were to wrestle our kale into jars. We’ve been tackling the more fragile, tempermental foods leaving the kale in the cold, wet garden where it stood green, tall and eager amidst the frost casualties.
In May I planted 12 starts (for $2!) that I purchased from a local farm. In June I bought six more off the clearance table and tucked them in around the garden. We’ve never grown kale before and quickly found ourselves in stride with daily hearty salads. Literally, we have had kale salad every day since May. And nobody – including the kids – is tired of it! Wondering if there is some kind of addictive quality to this robust, happy plant? We are hooked.
Salads every day led to giving away giant bags to neighbors and friends. By summer’s end, I was pulling entire plants out of the ground to give. Still, we had so much kale. I put out a few queries on instagram and someone suggested pesto! Brilliant! What an easy, efficient way to store this super food that detoxifies, reduces risk of cancer, lowers cholesterol and is an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.
Recipes abound but I made up my own, wanting to also use other lingering garden swag. YOU GUYS, it is so good. I mean, you can’t really go wrong with pesto but this pesto is a spicy, hearty cousin to the more delicate, slippery basil-pine nut combo.
Fall Pesto with Kale, Leek and Pumpkin Seed
4 cups packed kale
1 leek, sliced (this video shows a great way to clean leeks!)
1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds*
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup shredded parm
1/2 tsp salt
5 garlic cloves
* to roast seeds: toss with olive oil and salt, place on baking sheet and bake until golden brown (about 10-20 minutes)
The pumpkin seeds added tremendous flavor and crunch. Being a seed and not an oily nut, I had to up the olive oil. If using a different nut, start with 1/2 the oil (1/4 cup) in the recipe. We found 1/4 cup to be plenty with toasted pine nuts.
Prep your food and toss it in a food processor. We borrowed our neighbors and now ‘food processor’ tops my list of kitchen wants. Man, this went so fast! And clean up was a snap!
This recipe yields about 10 full pesto cubes.
To preserve the bright green, vitamin-packed purée, prompty slather the mess into ice cube trays. Pop the cubes into jars or bags, label and freeze.
We use frozen pesto all the time. A few ideas:
* toss 2-3 cubes in with onion to start soups
* use as pizza sauce
* garnish sandwiches, burritos and burgers
* mix with plain yogurt for a dip, serve with crackers or veggies
We made a soup last night that Margot and Ruby declared to be the best soup mama’s ever made which is saying something since I make soup several times a week. Three kale pesto cubes, onion, leek, 4 large golden beets, 6 large carrots, water.
My favorite with this kale pesto: straight up on an apple slice.
We still have about half to preserve. The sled of kale sits in our garage. I couldn’t stand to stay in the kitchen and out of the blue sky one more minute yesterday. Breaks are necessary, yes?
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34 Comments
We love, love, love kale! Our favorite is is Zuppa Toscana from this blog: http://simplyhealthyfam.blogspot.com/2010/10/zuppa-toscana.html
It’s so dang good!
So funny that you posted this recipe because a friend came over for dinner a few nights ago and I made a soup with barley, mushroom and kale. We started talking food and she had made this recipe the night before! She loved it too. 🙂 I will be making it for sure.
I’ve never tried kale before – but this recipe sounds delicious! I love pesto, so I’m definitely going to give this a try!
Kale, kale, kale! I don’t grow it, but we eat a couple of pounds a week because, uh what can’t it go it? (I can sneak ’em into brownies, if need be.)
Tonight it was chicken noodle soup — with kale. 😉
http://muffeeeeeeee.blogspot.com
Hello Nici,
I could almost eat this post, the pesto sounds so good. We have had our first snowfall, and it’s spectacular and just so good to be alive… but then I saw your blue shiny hikes and I found one more reason for naming this post “edible”.
Kindest wishes from my Alps to your mountains (of earth and kale 🙂 )
Ali
That is some beautiful kale Burb…..I have been eating more ever since your SKKS last summer, (SuperKillerKaleSalad)!
Of course the photos are over the top, especially love the golden chicken tush with brilliant green kale background! AND then, there is Alice!
xo to all!
Mom
Oh mama. You and your acronyms make me smile! 🙂 Remember the AMPMBM?
Thanks for sharing this recipe! I am allergic to pine nuts and have had a pesto aversion since one really bad incident that led me to that discovery… thinking that this variation might be a nice way to step back into the pesto world! Love that you tried pumpkin seeds, never heard of that before!
I was thinking about your garden…I wonder how much $ you save growing all your produce from cheap starts. Very inspiring. Now just need to figure out how to work around a seasonal lifestyle and grow my food!
Firstly – I’m making every single thing that you shared in this post. Seriously – the kale pesto (which I’ll have in abundance once my winter kale comes around, so, like, any second), the Best Soup Mama’s Ever Made, the soup with kale pesto cubes – ALL OF IT YES.
Secondly – the complete friggen glee of the chickens running free in your downed summer garden is fabulous and funny as shit. God I love chickens. They’re such funny freaks.
Funny freaks is pretty much the best chicken description I’ve ever heard. Totally.
YES. To all of this. To using kale in creative ways. To your girls loving it. To the photos with them helping with the harvest. To the clean, simple recipe. To breaks, with happy kids and sweet Alice.
Carry on.
All that kale is beautiful! It’s so fun and easy to grow. We just moved and our yard is not ready for a garden yet, but I so want to plant some for winter. I only planted four this past summer, but I’m definitely doing more when we’re ready for planting. Your leeks looks small whereas at the grocery store they are so big. Do you pick them young? I’ll be trying this recipe tonight since I have a huge bag of kale to use.
Some were large and some small…although I know what you mean! They leeks in the store are giant. Hmm.
My friend makes kale “popcorn” – you break it into smallish pieces, toss it with some olive oil and kosher salt. She baked on cookie sheets in the oven. I don’t know how hot or for how long, but you could probably easily find a recipe online!
This recipe looks amazing; you are amazing; quoting Paul McCartney “Baby I’m amazed!”…..I have so much admiration for the way you parent and document your parenting. We should all be as lucky as your girls! <3
I was reading (attempting to read as a 3 and 6 year old climbed all over me) and my 3 year old son asked me repeatedly to, “see that little girl”. He was inquisitive as though he had just met his soul mate through photos. Then my 6 year old daughter asked me if we could go visit those kids. I told her they lived in Montana, much to her disappointment (we have friends in Montana, so she is very aware of how far away that is). Amazing how kids break down the divides of distance and the casual intimacy of the internet and just are ready to go make some new friends NOW!
Now, the blog did prompt me on what to do with all that swiss chard I grew and I now have trays of swiss chard pesto in my freezer.
I love this comment. Cheers to friends, NOW.
If you’re looking for ways to easily and quickly put up the ‘sled of kale’ you could always just freeze it. I find its a super easy and quick way to store a lot of it – just blanch it for a minute or two (I usually de-stem before it if they are bigger pieces), cool it, then pack it in gallon zip locks squeezing out as much air and water as you can. Then flatten it back down and you can store it flat in the freezer. It’s amazing how much kale will fit in a gallon bag once it’s blanched (barely takes up any room in the freezer). I find it’s really easy to use it in this form all winter – you can cut off a frozen piece and add it to soup, scrambled eggs, pasta sauces, etc. etc. etc.
Have you tried kale chips?! They are my favorite. Just rip up the kale in large pieces (palm sized), places on a baking sheet, lightly salt, (add a little lemon juice if you want), and bake for 5 – 10 mins at 450. Just until you see a little brown. They are crunchy and delicious!!
Yes! We love them here too. 🙂
I love the picture with the yellow chicken contrasted with the green kale.
I adore your blog. Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes and for aways inspiring x
I have two winterbor kale plants in my little Chicago community garden plot, and they’ve brought me such delicious joy! I really want to grow more next year, specifically lacinato kale-my FAVE. I’ve had some great luck with chard this year. Last week I put fresh chard and eggplant on pizza and it was amazing!
a. that leek cleaning trick looks brilliant! I am guilty of seeing the dirt once the slices hit the broth…oops.
b. your pics of Montana’s sky make my heart long for home and bring a tears. Thank you.
Guilty! Me too!
We are such a fan of Kale chips that I think I must try this pesto alternative. Would be a great finish in soups just like basil pesto.
One of my favorite kale salads starts with chopped kale massaged with nut oil, then massage in one very ripe avocado. Add tomatoes, 2 chopped avocados, salt, pepper and finish with the juice of 1-2 Meyer lemons. OMG, I ate the entire bowl of this salad the first time my friend prepared it for me. Holy.
And my favorite shot was the chicken (rump) a la kale. What a beautiful contrast of textures and life.
Oh that sounds amazing!!!!
Gorgeous, curly green goodness. If you happen to still have some kale in the ground and you cut it back, get some decent snow cover over the winter, and in the spring it will be the first to put on leaves along with your dandelions. Delicious early spring treat. In previous years, I’ve had volunteer kale pop up all over the place. Yum! (Also worth noting: Kale, when conventionally grown, makes the dirty dozen list. Yeah for the garden-fresh version!)
Random garden note: my kale, parsnips, carrots, beets, rutabagas, turnips, cabbage, leeks, parsley and a bit of swiss chard continue to sit happily in my garden, under a light blanket of row cover. My goal is to mostly eat fresh and preserve as a last-resort. So far, it’s working : )
I wish I’d left some in!!!!! I regretted pulling it all immediately. Keep in touch and let me know how it fares this winter. 🙂
Hey,
Great blog, love the pictures. I follow your instagram feed, nice to see a more colourful picture.
Though still not many imaginary animals here 🙁
Ha! This will never stop being funny to me. 😉
Sounds sooooo good! I LOVE pesto, but haven’t made my own since pine nuts went up a bazillion dollars at Costco.
Your girls and their top knots…goodness gracious, how is it possible they can get even more beautiful?!
as someone who lives on a leek and pumpkin farm, this recipe could not be more perfect. i’ve been trying to make the most of our kale before this season’s plants get tilled in. mmmmmm.
I just made 2 batches of this and used up a ton of kale (now only have approximately 3 tons left to process!). Dinner tonight will be broiled salmon topped with a kale pesto cream sauce. Yum! Also, how in the world do you process as much food as you do without a food processor??? I always got by with my immersion blender, small chopper, and blender, but once I got a food processor, it was a game changer. Someone should definitely get you one for Christmas!