[HBHW News] Eating Kale and Growing Parsley

Published: Fri, 04/16/21

Hello ,

How was your week? Ours was a little stressful and busy, but the weather was nice and we got a chance to get outside and work on the garden. My kale didn't do so well over the winter. I think we planted it too late and it didn't get quite enough sun to grow well. We had it covered with a clear plastic tarp (making our own little hoop house out of one of our garden beds), but it may have blocked out more rays than we realized.

Once the tarp came off and a little compost went on the plants, they started to grow and I have an abundance of this beautiful green to work with. I thought I'd share some of my favorite kale recipes with you today.

My herbs are exploding as well. It's been fun to add fresh parsley and chives to all sorts of dishes. It's amazing how much flavor they add when you can walk right out the door and pick them. Even if you don't have a lot of room to garden, I encourage you to grow a few culinary herbs. I don't know about you, but seeing them, smelling them, and tasting them makes me happy.

Kale is readily available at most grocery store and if the farmer's markets in your area are open, take a look there as well. If you think you don't like kale, I encourage you to give it another chance. Sometimes it's the variety you don't like. Or the freshness. The leaves I pick from my garden are a lot more tender and less bitter than what I can find at the grocery store most of the time. Or maybe you haven't tried the right recipe yet.

Kale and Avocado Salad

2 cups of kale
1 ripe avocado
1/2 lemon
Salt
1/2 cucumber
1 yellow bell pepper (optional)

Wash your kale and cut it into bite-sized chunks. You can also used the pre-prepped kind that comes in a large bag at the grocery store. Put the Kale into a medium-sized bowl.

Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit and cut it into small chunks. Put them into the bowl on top of kale.

Squeeze the juice from the lemon into the bowl as well. Add some salt to taste.
Use your hands to mash the avocado up and mash it into the kale leaves. Kale leaves are sturdy, so don’t be afraid to mash it up like meatloaf.

Cut the cucumber and bell pepper (along with any other raw veggies you like) into small chunks and stir them into your kale salad. Serve immediately.

Ready for more kale recipes? Here are a few of my favorites from the archives:

Another healthy staple around here is sweet potatoes. Did you get a chance to check out the sweet potato cookbook last week? If not, take a look and see if this is something you want to add to your collection.

Book cover for "If You Give A Housewife A Sweet Potato - 35 Sweet Potato Recipes from Sweet to Savory"

That's it from me for this week. I'm going to head out to do some weeding in the garden. It's that time of year around here where everything greens up. It's beautiful from a distance, but once you look at the garden beds, it translates into work. But that's okay. I could use a little fresh air and exercise today.

I hope you are enjoying these weekly emails from me as well as the new HBHW cookbooks.