Each week I come here to spread the veggie gospel, but I have a confession, dear readers: I don’t really like kale. This feels like heresy, because kale has really been top of the leafy green heap for a while now. Health benefits aside, sometimes I just want to whisper to people, “It’s OK, you can stop pretending to like it.”
The irony, of course, is that it’s one of the more reliable vegetables to grow in my garden, and it featured prominently in my CSA. So that means I can’t completely bail on kale.
Fortunately, there are ways of making kale delicious: I love curly kale with lots of garlic and protein, be it sausage or white beans. There’s a great saagpaneer recipe from MeeraSodha that’s made with kale, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of coconut milk, some spices and fried paneer, an Indian cottage cheese. I think I like that dish because all the flavors do a good job of hiding the fact that you’re eating kale.
This week I made a big batch of garlicky kale for some meal trains I was participating in. (I may not be the biggest fan, but I want someone to be able to enjoy it.) Some of the kale went into a gluten-free cauliflower bake, which definitely benefited from a layer of caramelized onions. Some went into a mushroom and kale lasagna.
There was so much leftover kale and onions that I added them to Tuesday night’s cheese quesadillas, and to my surprise, they were outstanding. Like, next level good, and super easy to make. When in doubt, cover something in cheese and fry it in a pan. Even kale.
Ingredients
One bunch of leafy kale
4 cloves cleaned garlic, chopped
2 red onions, sliced into thin half moons
Unsalted butter
1 8-ounce block of cheddar cheese
Kosher salt
Three 10-inch tortillas
Directions
To prepare the kale, start by cleaning it, leaves upside down, in a large bowl of water. I often do a second round of cleaning if the water gets dirty, or if it’s gritty on the bottom of the bowl. Make sure to remove your kale before changing your water, or else you’ll be pouring dirt over the leaves you just cleaned.
While the kale is soaking, chop two red onions into thin half-moons, then melt at least a tablespoon of unsalted butter in a skillet on medium-low heat. Once the butter melted, add all the onions, plus a nice pinch of kosher salt, stir together, then step away. You’ll end up revisiting, gently stirring, and eventually scraping the fond on the bottom of the skillet every seven minutes or so, for a good 45 minutes. Yes, it does take that long, but while the onions cook, you get to prep the kale.
Once the leaves are out of the water, bring the kale, hopefully dripping wet, to a cutting board. If you can, compost your kale stems, chopping them off at the leaves, then strip the leaves off each side, and compost the rest of the stem.
Cook the kale in a huge lidded pasta pot that you’ve heated about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in. When adding the kale to the pot, make sure to also add a hefty pinch of kosher salt, then stir everything together. Lid the pot after about a minute or two — the wetness of the leaves will help wilt and soften the kale.
It’s at this time that you’ll prep the garlic for the kale; I tend to add the garlic a few minutes in because garlic has a tendency to burn. For each bunch of kale, chop three or four cloves of garlic. Add the garlic into the pot and cook everything for another seven minutes or so — in total, cooking the kale will probably take less than 20 minutes. Be careful not to overcook it and turn it brownish yellow.
I’m not particular about my brands of tortillas, although I love using Cabot butter for the pan, and blocks of Cabot cheese for the quesadilla. They are local and delicious. I made three quesadillas, grating an 8-ounce bar of sharp cheddar spread among the quesadillas.
Assemble your quesadillas in the pan you’re cooking them in. It will give the tortilla a head start, and it’s much easier than trying to slide a pre-made quesadilla into a hot skillet. I used 10-inch tortillas which I covered exactly half with some shredded cheddar, then the onions, then the kale, then more cheese. Once everything is assembled and layered, fold over the tortilla. Fry them on both sides until they are browned in spots, about seven minutes, total, on a low to medium heat.
Once removed from the pan, they rest for a few minutes on a cutting board. The cheese is steaming hot at this point and will be very drippy. It definitely needs this time to settle. I cut the half-moon quesadilla into four triangles using a pizza cutter.
We ate ours with some slices of avocado and salsa.
Molly Parr lives in Florence with her husband and two young daughters. She’s been writing her food blog, Cheap Beets, since 2010. Send questions or comments to molly.parr@gmail.com.