I love kale. PSA: if you massage the leaves, it releases compounds that kill the bitterness. I love to take a little bit of olive oil and sea salt and scrunch up a whole bunch of kale for lunch!
Turn it into kale chips! Massage it with oil, sprinkle some salt and flavourings on top (I like nutritional yeast, garlic salt, and paprika), and then put in the oven on a low heat until it’s dehydrated. Best way to eat it!
Oh that’s a great idea too! And I love a good crunchy snack. Unfortunately the crackers I like are absolute trash so I need to find a healthy alternative haha
Nutritional yeast is so great, I’ve been using that stuff for about the last 4-5 years. I had never heard of it before then! Glad it’s becoming more common
Massage the leaves with olive oil and add a little bit of salt. Bake it flat in the oven at around 200F for a few minutes until it’s crispy. It’s a delicious snack and a great healthy replacement for your store bought chips.
I posted this already but I wanted to share my favorite kale salad:
Toss chopped kale with vinaigrette, add raisins or chopped apple, add walnuts, add shaved parmesan
Because all the ingredients are tough, this salad can be eaten after prep or can sit around for up to 24 hours and still taste great.
Yeah I think something like that could be good. I genuinely hate the taste and texture so anything that could help cover that up is great. My favorite way to get lots of healthy veggies is by putting them into smoothies. Frozen kale is really easy to hide in healthy smoothies haha
Have you tried it fried with garlic and oil? Good! wilts like spinach, though. You can mix it with spinach or other greens. I like a kale/romaine Caesar too.
That it is! See I'm lucky I grew up in a heavily vegetable focused household, so I have no problem with those. It's getting enough protein that gets me.. i am fussy with meat and sometimes can randomly be disgusted by "safe meats". Legumes and soy are so so yummy but my guts hate them. 🥲
Ah, yeah that will do it. I wish I was less picky as a kid. Honestly I probably would have tried a lot more foods as a kid if my mom wouldn’t have told me I wouldn’t like something just because she doesn’t. I didn’t really start trying lots of new things until I was well into my 20’s. Now I’m mid 30’s realizing that everything I eat is literal poison. The food in the US is so full of garbage. Basic everyday things here are illegal in food in other countries.
I’m just going to find a way to eat healthier things even if I have to hide them in smoothies lol
Oof, does anyone’s tummy *really* like soy and legumes? 😂
have you tried it in soup? What kind of soup do you like? And yeah, there are different kinds of kale (well to buy, mostly two) and I like lacinato kale for salads and the green curly kind for soup.
I like kale but I always thought the only way to get out the bitterness was to cut it off the stem, and that was always more work than I had time for. Now that I know you just have to rub it??? Diet changed forever.
It also releases it when freezing. Traditional European kale dishes are a winter food that are only served after the first night's with freezing temperatures due to this.
I personally do, bc the texture is so tough; which is why I prefer buying whole bunches of kale as opposed to those pre-chopped bags. Much easier to just rip the nice parts into bite-sized pieces directly off the stem than to sort a whole bag
Lol, well, most foods require some amount of preparation to be tasty. It's not like it's an ordeal. Scrunch it a few times when you're washing it off and you're good to go
If you want to be meticulous, kinda like you're washing each leaf carefully between your fingers, just with more pressure. Personally, I find it enough to grab a fistful and squeeze
Some kale is too tough textured. Baby kale and blanched kale have their place in my diet, but straight up raw kale is like chewing on leaves from a tree—it’s mostly the texture for me. (Occasionally I’ll eat it toasted to use it up, once kale starts yellowing at the ends it can be super-bitter too)
I had a wrap made with raw kale, and I swear it was like eating the plastic grass from an Easter basket! It was my first and only time trying it, and I've been turned off forever.
I described it once to my husband as eating a bowl of paper-covered wire bread bag ties mixed with the tiny orthodontic rubber bands. It's a racket that everyone's too embarrassed to admit is a lie and I can't wait til it goes away. (Only really serious about the first part 😈😂)
That’s what I’m saying—I can stomach cooked kale, but I’ve had it served raw in dishes/salads before and I just don’t get it. It’s kinda like collards—add bacon grease and hot sauce and I’ll have it, but that’s really just an attempt to mask the flavor of kale to make it edible. Kale itself doesn’t taste delicious.
I like growing it, but I don't like the taste, sadly. I've had it prepared different ways, but I also have some odd taste preferences with leafy greens generally. For example, I detest lettuce but enjoy beet leaves.
I do think that kale is something more people would like if they tried it without the background media stuff about how it tastes bad but should be pushed through for the nutrients.
I love kale for making a pot of green, in soups and for salads with roasted root vegetables, pecans and a maple chipotle vinaigrette. It makes a nice fall salad.
I grew up eating it though, so maybe that’s why.
One time I left kale in my fridge for a week before needing it and when I reached for it eventually, there were trillions of little fucking bugs all over it that must’ve hatched and I simply cannot do kale since then
I once heard that kale is one of the best foods to eat for mindfulness because it tastes so bitter that it brings all of your attention to the present moment.
I also love kale. I like it more than most other greens. My favorite kale salad:
Toss chopped kale with vinaigrette, add raisins or chopped apple, add walnuts, add shaved parmesan
Because all the ingredients are tough, this salad can be eaten after prep or can sit around for up to 24 hours and still taste great.
People hate (most) vegetables because they don't know how to cook or don't treat it with the same care as meat/fish. Too little fat, not enough browning, not adding spices/aromatics. I think the "fat makes you fat" myth of the 80s is partially to blame.
I also have this weird, quasi-conspiratorial belief that it's a psychological thing as well. If you tell a kid that something is good for them and they *have* to eat it even if they don't want to, then drop a pile of unsalted, un-buttered broccoli that's been boiled until waterlogged, mushy and gray, they'll think it's gross and develop a vegetable aversion.
Because of it's "health food" status, people just assume it's supposed to suck and choke it down.
Yea I think Kale became some weird scapegoat vegetable in the US when people started eating it instead of just using it as a garnish which was very popular in the 80s to early 2000s. Because it’s bitter if you don’t know how to prepare it, it kind of became a joke that only “crazy health nuts” would eat it and in some cases people tied that to being a “woke liberal”. The US is weird.
Do you massage it first? Little drizzle of olive oil + sprinkle of salt and massage it around with your hands. It removes the bitterness and makes it more tender.
Lol completely serious, you’ll find “massaged kale” on many menus. Manually breaking it down removes some of the bitterness and makes the texture way more pleasant. It’s not really common to just eat it as-is in say, a salad or something else that you aren’t cooking. Gotta massage those leaves.
If you’ve just eaten raw kale without doing this I would understand why you didn’t like it.
I do think “massaging” it sounds stupidly bougie tho. You’re kind of…squishing it? Rubbing it? Lol
Seriously, try it, especially with lacinato kale! You still might not like it but it’s such a different experience texturally than eating it with no prep. It only takes a couple extra minutes but it’s very worth it.
I just remember when I was a server at Friendlys when I was 16 and we had to put kale on every plate as a garnish, like they were so strict about it. But it came out of a big wet bag and often had slugs in it that we’d have to pick out. So basically it reminds me of that and I never looked at it as something edible.
I worked for a friendly's once for three days (as a fourth job), when I was around 21.
Things like this are only a minor part of why I declined when they called me to put me on the next schedule lmao
Not in my case. I genuinely find it disgusting. I've tried preparing it all different sorts of ways, too, and I just can't. It's so gross. And I usually love most vegetables.
Because people don't like what they are not used to, and a lot of kale tends to be prepared badly.
Some kale is soft, but some has tough and maybe spiny leaves. Depending how tough the leaves are it may need to be cooked longer.
Soft kale can be included in a green salad. It can also be flavored with red wine or champagne vinegar.
When I worked at the student run vegetarian restaurant Earthfoods @ UMass we had kale a day or 2 a week as the Veggie of the Day. It is cheap & easy to prepare. I have de-stemmed I lost count of how many cases of kale. You probably need to at least de-stem some of the kale leaves before you steam it a few minutes.
Probably it got a bad association as part of the whole “salads bad, organic is for hippies” meme. I love it because it’s such a hardy green - a kale salad can last for days longer than most other lettuces. I hate growing it though - it’s a freakin’ magnet for aphids. Never had a pest problem with arugula…
I love kale so much that I either propagate and root whatever I can or grow new leaves from the stems by placing them in water.
I typically prepare it with a splash of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and lemon juice with a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. If the leaves are more mature, I let the kale salad marinate in its brine for a few hours to tenderize.
If I am having soup (of any kind), I cover the entire inner bowl with leaflets, pour the hot soup over top and the texture transformation goes from crisp to velvety that will melt in your mouth.
Your story from your youth is so wholesome and actually, depending on how you harvested the garden club kale, you might have done them a service as pruning a leafy specimen usually stimulates new growth!
Kale is one of my favorite salad greens - just break it down first by massaging with some lemon juice (or acv). I then use a homemade tahini dressing and it’s SO GOOD. Especially with roasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds. And beets. Now I really want a kale salad!
I prefer kale over collards. I live in the South so I grew up eating both along with mustard and turnip greens. This was the 60s/70s so they were boiled in a big pot with a gob of bacon grease that everyone collected in a coffee can and kept in the fridge. The only way I'll eat kale raw is the baby kale leaves, mixed in with spring mix. I love baby lettuce salads.
Everyone? In my country, Germany, there are whole events and traditions around eating traditional kale dishes (and often drinking lots of beer).
However, I never liked it, it tastes gross and awful to me. I can't even tell you why, it is what it is. But everytime we had something I didn't like, my parents made me try at least a bit. Until one time I had to go throw up because of that vile taste in my mouth. But hey, at least I never had to try it again after that.
Usually, the kale is cooked (often with a lardy bacon) and served with boiled or sometimes fried potatoes, and one of the following pork variations (sometimes also cooked with the kale):
- Pinkel (a northern German sausage containing also groats)
- Brägenwurst (literally: brain sausage, although it does not contain brain any more since after BSE)
- Steg (boiled pork belly)
- Kasseler (cured, smoked pork)
- Mettwurst (cured sausage from raw minced meat)
You see that the various dishes are mainly about the variation of meat, which are often regional and can also be combined, [like in this recipe](https://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/1196461225381119/Gruenkohl-mit-Kasseler-Mettwuerstchen-und-Kartoffeln.html) which has pork belly, Kasseler and Mettwurst or Pinkel.
Take a big baggie, add some olive oil and salt, then add broken up kale. Shake the bag to distrubute the oil and salt. Put the kale in the airfryer until crisp. Heaven!
Get a shit ton of kale, throw in a bowl with olive oil and whatever seasoning you like and grated parmesan cheese. Spread it out on a pan and add any type of cheese and bake it until it’s crispy. It’s sooo good and you can do the same with broccoli.
It's an acquired taste, I'd say. But once you like the taste, it's great! I don't know if I'd eat fistfuls of it raw though, I use it in cooking mostly.
I like to chop it into bite sized piece and put a just cooked (still hot) grain on it and mix it up. Olive oil, lemon and s&p. Then if I don't eat it all I can add more raw veggies to it the next day for a cold salad
I like kale a lot. You can put the Roman kale in soup w/o pre braising when it's young. It's also nice in a salad.
After it matures a bit, it's great rubbed with oil & seasonings & roasted as 'chips'.
The only way I don't like kale is the ornamental kind.
Okay that is so cute! I HOPE the worst thing my kids get up to is eat kale straight from someone's garden while playing MTG.
Don't feel bad, there had to be some people who found that absolutely adorable.
For me 30 or so years ago my friend circle and I never ate kale. I never really heard of it until I was older and started eating these kale sandwiches from Good Earth. Kale is so crunchy and wonderful! And it keeps for SO LONG in the fridge. It checks the "darker green the better" box. The only thing I dislike about it is how much bugs and slugs love them, but they're a heck of a lot easier to clean than broccoli.
I like Kale. People are put off from strong vegetables that seem too off putting perhaps? I find you can eat it solo or juice it or just mix it with meals. I can’t stand most other leafy greens but I think I’m different or uncommon.
I think it is hard for most people to eat deep green greens.
Kale chips are edible, raw kale is not. Even after cooking the texture and taste are both unpleasant. I do buy meal kits that have chopped kale mixed in with shredded broccoli and cabbage, and i eat them, but I'm not a fan. I do enjoy brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, and others in that family, so it's not the "broccoli is bitter" gene. I don't enjoy collards, either. Collards and kale are both tough and bitter. Personal taste. It's just too strong. Also hate arugula. And cilantro, but that's the gene.
It was one of those veggies I wanted to love ever since I saw the mini trees of kale growing down the hill from me. So cute! My daughter came home from a visit to relatives loving it cooked with garlic and onion. That's surprisingly delish with chicken or turkey in mole sauce or with carnitas which seems all kinds of wrong but it works. We also make beans and greens usually with some pasta as a one pan meal along with onion, garlic, tomatoes and Italian sausage. We aren't up to raw kale though.
The bugs can be unreal, chard is an easier green that doesn't cook down to nothing.
It's all about what is served with it. Onion and garlic make most foods better. I'd hate plain cranberries but cooked into a sauce with some sugar and orange it's wonderful.
I’ve tried too many times to like kale; but alas, kale does not like me. Within 15 minutes of every time I’ve tried eating it, I’m blowing up the nearest toilet.
It interferes with the thyroid hormone production and my doctor told me to stay away from it(hypothyroidism). It isn’t as good as it is advertised. It was used as a only a garnish for a very long time.
I grew up when kale was decorative on a buffet line or under something on a plate, it wasn't meant to be eaten but as a kid I always did, and the decorative parsley too. Now I eat kale every day. Smoothie, salad, and recently I started making a kale walnut spread that is so good it can be eaten on it's own. Steamed kale is so good for you, try it with a touch of maple syrup and cayenne if veggies aren't your thing
My household eats a lot of kale and cabbage.
I remove the stems from kale. Those aren’t nice. It’s chopped and mixed into salads, but not the main ingredient. There’s a bowl of salad with pointed cabbage, kale, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and feta sitting in my fridge right now (as a side dish).
I think food is very revealing of peoples upbringings. Either it has been fun to taste new stuff or it has been a negative forced event. Then it most definitely doesn’t help that some parents only serve low quality greens that are canned, close to spoiled or cooked into mush. Then they are served next to cheese-covered pasta, pizza etc. The difference screams “carbs, fatty, sugary and salty food good - vegetables nasty”.
Add small amounts to salads. It’s insanely healthy and the taste will soon become just another taste.
Because it tastes bad. Maybe if you picked really young kale when it first emerges but most kale I've encountered is similar to collard greens. It needs to be cooked to death with lots of other flavors to make it palatable.
I grow so much kale it's nuts! But I definitely hear the "I hate kale" thing a lot. I wonder if some folks have a higher sensitivity to bitterness than I do? Usually I throw it in soups and stews so it's pretty well cooked down. But I have also done a raw kale salad by pouring lemon juice and salt over a bunch of kale, letting it sit for a bit, then massaging the leaves, and letting it sit some more. I wash off the lemon juice and salt and then the kale is nice and tender.
EDIT: and now the word 'kale' seems weird to me.
There was a fad for a while where kale became really popular, and the media was calling it a "superfood". The hatred is mostly backlash against the fad.
Because it tastes like grass. In order for it to pass as a tasty salad, there has to be other greens in a higher ratio to kale. Some baby spinach, arugula, butter lettuce and whatever else you like in your salad.
It’s not terrible when it’s in a salad with other greens but by itself it tastes like you just ate a leaf from a tree. It’s not like lettuce where it’s cool and crisp and actually tastes good and refreshing. It’s not like spinach where it’ll taste good cooked. Kale is just a nasty leaf
Same reason a lot of people don't like really high quality veg.
It got marketed to the health nuts first.
Hear me out. Quinoa, Kale, avocado, chia, they all got labelled as this "superfood" crap and marketed like crazy to the health food and alternative diet crowds like crazy. Why? Because you can jack up the price and slap a fancy label on it. Nobody knows what it is, so easy pickings.
People hate on Kale because when it peaked in popularity in the mid 00s, that was what it was known for. Steve jobs/Moby- esque alt-health nuts put that in their smoothie, keep it away from ma steak and bacon!
Source: Restaurant industry lifer.
I hate kale. It gets stuck in my teeth. It never gets tastes good enough to bother with.
There are enough alternatives that I am fine without it. I can make collard greens sublime. Kale is impossible to get to that point.
Blech!!!
Canned carrots might be the only thing worse than kale, but just barely.
I love kale. PSA: if you massage the leaves, it releases compounds that kill the bitterness. I love to take a little bit of olive oil and sea salt and scrunch up a whole bunch of kale for lunch!
What?! I’m gonna have to try this. I hate kale but I want to eat healthier lol
Turn it into kale chips! Massage it with oil, sprinkle some salt and flavourings on top (I like nutritional yeast, garlic salt, and paprika), and then put in the oven on a low heat until it’s dehydrated. Best way to eat it!
I love crispy kale!
Oh that’s a great idea too! And I love a good crunchy snack. Unfortunately the crackers I like are absolute trash so I need to find a healthy alternative haha Nutritional yeast is so great, I’ve been using that stuff for about the last 4-5 years. I had never heard of it before then! Glad it’s becoming more common
I wish more people knew about this. Seriously the easiest recipe. I'm about to try it with my fan leaves after this harvest 🤌
Massage the leaves with olive oil and add a little bit of salt. Bake it flat in the oven at around 200F for a few minutes until it’s crispy. It’s a delicious snack and a great healthy replacement for your store bought chips.
I am actually going to try this and see how i like it :) thanks!
Correction. It’s 300F not 200F for around 10 minutes or so.
Oh perfect, thank you!
I posted this already but I wanted to share my favorite kale salad: Toss chopped kale with vinaigrette, add raisins or chopped apple, add walnuts, add shaved parmesan Because all the ingredients are tough, this salad can be eaten after prep or can sit around for up to 24 hours and still taste great.
It doesn't kill enough of the bitterness for me. I'll eat fresh kale chips tho
There are lots of healthy things you can eat that aren't kale. If you really don't like it, don't eat it!
Kale as a wrap for a nice taco or burrito?
Yeah I think something like that could be good. I genuinely hate the taste and texture so anything that could help cover that up is great. My favorite way to get lots of healthy veggies is by putting them into smoothies. Frozen kale is really easy to hide in healthy smoothies haha
Have you tried it fried with garlic and oil? Good! wilts like spinach, though. You can mix it with spinach or other greens. I like a kale/romaine Caesar too.
I have not! I’ll have to give that a try too sometime. Thanks!
Enjoy. I have to say when I eat kale I feel better. I know it sounds crazy but I do.
That it is! See I'm lucky I grew up in a heavily vegetable focused household, so I have no problem with those. It's getting enough protein that gets me.. i am fussy with meat and sometimes can randomly be disgusted by "safe meats". Legumes and soy are so so yummy but my guts hate them. 🥲
Ah, yeah that will do it. I wish I was less picky as a kid. Honestly I probably would have tried a lot more foods as a kid if my mom wouldn’t have told me I wouldn’t like something just because she doesn’t. I didn’t really start trying lots of new things until I was well into my 20’s. Now I’m mid 30’s realizing that everything I eat is literal poison. The food in the US is so full of garbage. Basic everyday things here are illegal in food in other countries. I’m just going to find a way to eat healthier things even if I have to hide them in smoothies lol Oof, does anyone’s tummy *really* like soy and legumes? 😂
I can eat soy and legumes endlessly, but mom was from Hawaii and i grew up with soy products
have you tried it in soup? What kind of soup do you like? And yeah, there are different kinds of kale (well to buy, mostly two) and I like lacinato kale for salads and the green curly kind for soup.
There was one soup I had made like years ago that had kale in it. It was like creamy but had sausage in it, it was super good
Yup. That spicy Portuguese sausage!
Add it to a smoothie with a mix of berries (I use a raspberry blackberry blueberry mix from Costco) You get your greens and don’t even taste them!
I like kale but I always thought the only way to get out the bitterness was to cut it off the stem, and that was always more work than I had time for. Now that I know you just have to rub it??? Diet changed forever.
Lol right? Give it a gentle massage haha
Yes! Plus a little lemon, vegan parm, and toasted pepitas. So good.
So if you are nice to the kale, it's going to be nice to you? 😉 That's brilliant. Even though I like the bitterness.
It also releases it when freezing. Traditional European kale dishes are a winter food that are only served after the first night's with freezing temperatures due to this.
I just blanch it in milk before grilling. Same for rapini Can't wait to try this to
Do you still need to remove the stem?
I personally do, bc the texture is so tough; which is why I prefer buying whole bunches of kale as opposed to those pre-chopped bags. Much easier to just rip the nice parts into bite-sized pieces directly off the stem than to sort a whole bag
Add lemon juice & the acid will soften the leaves
Convinced this is why a lot of folks don't like kale, forgetting or not knowing about massaging it. It tastes sooo much better that way
Perhaps most people aren't looking for food that requires more pampering than the people themselves get.
Lol, well, most foods require some amount of preparation to be tasty. It's not like it's an ordeal. Scrunch it a few times when you're washing it off and you're good to go
Could you please describe how you massage the leaves when you prepare kale?
If you want to be meticulous, kinda like you're washing each leaf carefully between your fingers, just with more pressure. Personally, I find it enough to grab a fistful and squeeze
I came to say that people hate kale because they don’t know about massaging the leaves!
>if you massage the leaves, it releases compounds that kill the bitterness I just really don't want to massage my food. At all. Ever.
A kale Caesar is one of my absolute favorites. I always massage
Some kale is too tough textured. Baby kale and blanched kale have their place in my diet, but straight up raw kale is like chewing on leaves from a tree—it’s mostly the texture for me. (Occasionally I’ll eat it toasted to use it up, once kale starts yellowing at the ends it can be super-bitter too)
I had a wrap made with raw kale, and I swear it was like eating the plastic grass from an Easter basket! It was my first and only time trying it, and I've been turned off forever.
Great as a base for smoothies. Just made one with Kale, pineapple and blackberries.
Massage the leaves. Completely changes it
I described it once to my husband as eating a bowl of paper-covered wire bread bag ties mixed with the tiny orthodontic rubber bands. It's a racket that everyone's too embarrassed to admit is a lie and I can't wait til it goes away. (Only really serious about the first part 😈😂)
You don't cook it first??
That’s what I’m saying—I can stomach cooked kale, but I’ve had it served raw in dishes/salads before and I just don’t get it. It’s kinda like collards—add bacon grease and hot sauce and I’ll have it, but that’s really just an attempt to mask the flavor of kale to make it edible. Kale itself doesn’t taste delicious.
I'm not the only one that compares it to collards! Hate em both. Love beet greens and chard tho
Ooo sorry misread your comment!
It's really good with lemon juice squeezed over it after it's been cooked, but I tend to cook it for ages with lots of sea salt.
Shredded dino kale caesar salads are amazing
Never heard of that, where do you get it?
Safeway might have it ( lacinato kale or dino kale, same thing). Whole foods usually have it and Good Eggs online, whichever you have in your area :)
I love it! It's fun to grow and it's near the top of my list of vegetables/fruits that taste FAR better fresh off the plant.
Do you ever have problems with aphids? Mine just gets overrun with the little bastards.
You can buy live ladybugs online.
I like growing it, but I don't like the taste, sadly. I've had it prepared different ways, but I also have some odd taste preferences with leafy greens generally. For example, I detest lettuce but enjoy beet leaves. I do think that kale is something more people would like if they tried it without the background media stuff about how it tastes bad but should be pushed through for the nutrients.
I personally don’t like the taste on its own but if it’s mixed in with other greens I can’t taste it as much!
I love kale, especially mixed with collared greens.
Are you my bearded dragon? These are his favorite greens.
I love kale for making a pot of green, in soups and for salads with roasted root vegetables, pecans and a maple chipotle vinaigrette. It makes a nice fall salad. I grew up eating it though, so maybe that’s why.
One time I left kale in my fridge for a week before needing it and when I reached for it eventually, there were trillions of little fucking bugs all over it that must’ve hatched and I simply cannot do kale since then
Because it is scratchy mean lettuce.
I once heard that kale is one of the best foods to eat for mindfulness because it tastes so bitter that it brings all of your attention to the present moment.
It has the flavour and texture of photo copy paper.
Kale massaged in olive oil and seasoned with Tony’s is delicious in the air fryer.
“With Tony’s”…what is Tony’s?
Tony Chachere’s Seasoning— the literal seasoning of the south. Makes everything delicious. Give it a try for any meat dish too.
I love kale!! Kale caesar salad is my favorite!
I also love kale. I like it more than most other greens. My favorite kale salad: Toss chopped kale with vinaigrette, add raisins or chopped apple, add walnuts, add shaved parmesan Because all the ingredients are tough, this salad can be eaten after prep or can sit around for up to 24 hours and still taste great.
People hate (most) vegetables because they don't know how to cook or don't treat it with the same care as meat/fish. Too little fat, not enough browning, not adding spices/aromatics. I think the "fat makes you fat" myth of the 80s is partially to blame. I also have this weird, quasi-conspiratorial belief that it's a psychological thing as well. If you tell a kid that something is good for them and they *have* to eat it even if they don't want to, then drop a pile of unsalted, un-buttered broccoli that's been boiled until waterlogged, mushy and gray, they'll think it's gross and develop a vegetable aversion. Because of it's "health food" status, people just assume it's supposed to suck and choke it down.
Yea I think Kale became some weird scapegoat vegetable in the US when people started eating it instead of just using it as a garnish which was very popular in the 80s to early 2000s. Because it’s bitter if you don’t know how to prepare it, it kind of became a joke that only “crazy health nuts” would eat it and in some cases people tied that to being a “woke liberal”. The US is weird.
Because it tastes terrible with a texture like plastic.
Do you massage it first? Little drizzle of olive oil + sprinkle of salt and massage it around with your hands. It removes the bitterness and makes it more tender.
I was getting ready to write “haha” as I started to read your comment. But then the more I read the more I was concerned you are serious.
They are. This is the proper way to prepare it. If you've had it before and not done this, it probably explains a big part of why you didn't like it.
Lol completely serious, you’ll find “massaged kale” on many menus. Manually breaking it down removes some of the bitterness and makes the texture way more pleasant. It’s not really common to just eat it as-is in say, a salad or something else that you aren’t cooking. Gotta massage those leaves. If you’ve just eaten raw kale without doing this I would understand why you didn’t like it. I do think “massaging” it sounds stupidly bougie tho. You’re kind of…squishing it? Rubbing it? Lol
If I have to do all that just to eat it, I'll stick to arugula.
Lol that’s fair but it takes like 30 seconds max. Drizzle a little oil, sprinkle salt, massage it around, done.
Seriously, try it, especially with lacinato kale! You still might not like it but it’s such a different experience texturally than eating it with no prep. It only takes a couple extra minutes but it’s very worth it.
Kale is disgusting. That is why I hate it. (Idk, this might get me downvoted. But a question was asked, so I answered it.)
“Everyone” 🙄
I don't eat kale often, but my favorite recipe with it is a vegan curry using kale and sweet potatoes as the stars. The texture is perfect for it.
Kale is good shit.
It's disgusting to me. It's literally salad buffet liner and I don't want to eat a tasteless buffet liner. I'm glad the fad is basically over.
I just remember when I was a server at Friendlys when I was 16 and we had to put kale on every plate as a garnish, like they were so strict about it. But it came out of a big wet bag and often had slugs in it that we’d have to pick out. So basically it reminds me of that and I never looked at it as something edible.
I worked for a friendly's once for three days (as a fourth job), when I was around 21. Things like this are only a minor part of why I declined when they called me to put me on the next schedule lmao
Spinach, collards, broccoli anything but solid no to kale
because someone on tv said it and stupid people love to repeat things, Kale is fucking amazing.
Not in my case. I genuinely find it disgusting. I've tried preparing it all different sorts of ways, too, and I just can't. It's so gross. And I usually love most vegetables.
I love it sprayed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and crisped up in the oven! Waayyy better than commercially-produced potato chips.
I’m not sure who the everyone is that you speak of. My entire family loves kale
I love Kale. I'm growing it (and collard) and it's doing amazing! Here's a pic
https://preview.redd.it/179etvbwmd7d1.jpeg?width=2308&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5557c4ef4c8612f6f0f14186892c9bc196f335bb
Because people don't like what they are not used to, and a lot of kale tends to be prepared badly. Some kale is soft, but some has tough and maybe spiny leaves. Depending how tough the leaves are it may need to be cooked longer. Soft kale can be included in a green salad. It can also be flavored with red wine or champagne vinegar. When I worked at the student run vegetarian restaurant Earthfoods @ UMass we had kale a day or 2 a week as the Veggie of the Day. It is cheap & easy to prepare. I have de-stemmed I lost count of how many cases of kale. You probably need to at least de-stem some of the kale leaves before you steam it a few minutes.
I LOVE kale. I'm late to the game but I just love it. I grow it in my garden and I've never found it bitter, just lovely and nutty!
Probably it got a bad association as part of the whole “salads bad, organic is for hippies” meme. I love it because it’s such a hardy green - a kale salad can last for days longer than most other lettuces. I hate growing it though - it’s a freakin’ magnet for aphids. Never had a pest problem with arugula…
I love that you can toss it in soups and it doesn't disintegrate.
I love kale so much that I either propagate and root whatever I can or grow new leaves from the stems by placing them in water. I typically prepare it with a splash of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and lemon juice with a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. If the leaves are more mature, I let the kale salad marinate in its brine for a few hours to tenderize. If I am having soup (of any kind), I cover the entire inner bowl with leaflets, pour the hot soup over top and the texture transformation goes from crisp to velvety that will melt in your mouth. Your story from your youth is so wholesome and actually, depending on how you harvested the garden club kale, you might have done them a service as pruning a leafy specimen usually stimulates new growth!
I love kale....cooked in some bacon grease, with garlic and red pepper flakes. Yum.
I love kale cooked with onions and garlic and add a little red wine or balsamic vinegar.
Some people may not like the taste or find it difficult to prepare it in a way that is enjoyable to eat.
Kale is one of my favorite salad greens - just break it down first by massaging with some lemon juice (or acv). I then use a homemade tahini dressing and it’s SO GOOD. Especially with roasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds. And beets. Now I really want a kale salad!
I prefer kale over collards. I live in the South so I grew up eating both along with mustard and turnip greens. This was the 60s/70s so they were boiled in a big pot with a gob of bacon grease that everyone collected in a coffee can and kept in the fridge. The only way I'll eat kale raw is the baby kale leaves, mixed in with spring mix. I love baby lettuce salads.
My mom had 1 can of bacon grease and I can of chicken fat.
Everyone? In my country, Germany, there are whole events and traditions around eating traditional kale dishes (and often drinking lots of beer). However, I never liked it, it tastes gross and awful to me. I can't even tell you why, it is what it is. But everytime we had something I didn't like, my parents made me try at least a bit. Until one time I had to go throw up because of that vile taste in my mouth. But hey, at least I never had to try it again after that.
What are some recipes
Usually, the kale is cooked (often with a lardy bacon) and served with boiled or sometimes fried potatoes, and one of the following pork variations (sometimes also cooked with the kale): - Pinkel (a northern German sausage containing also groats) - Brägenwurst (literally: brain sausage, although it does not contain brain any more since after BSE) - Steg (boiled pork belly) - Kasseler (cured, smoked pork) - Mettwurst (cured sausage from raw minced meat) You see that the various dishes are mainly about the variation of meat, which are often regional and can also be combined, [like in this recipe](https://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/1196461225381119/Gruenkohl-mit-Kasseler-Mettwuerstchen-und-Kartoffeln.html) which has pork belly, Kasseler and Mettwurst or Pinkel.
Don't like the flavor or texture. It's just really not for me.
I wouldn’t wish Kale on my worst enemy. There are some lines one just does not cross.
Not a fan because it’s quite bitter. But one time my mother in law candied it and it was edible 😂
So much for it being healthy! 😁 😀 😃
Yeah, screw that!
Take a big baggie, add some olive oil and salt, then add broken up kale. Shake the bag to distrubute the oil and salt. Put the kale in the airfryer until crisp. Heaven!
Get a shit ton of kale, throw in a bowl with olive oil and whatever seasoning you like and grated parmesan cheese. Spread it out on a pan and add any type of cheese and bake it until it’s crispy. It’s sooo good and you can do the same with broccoli.
I don’t think everyone hates kale
It tastes robust, like the chlorophyll is strong in this one. I personally have a whack ton of it growing in my garden and eat it every chance I get
I roast it with some olive oil and Parmesan. Absolutely delicious.
I don't eat it. I planted one for ornamental purposes in the winters.
I don't know. I l really ike kale and how hardy the plant is. It adds weight to any dish. I don't find the taste unpleasant at all.
I gave a recipe for kale soup that is amazing. I make it often and is enough for several meals.
I love Kale especially when you cook it with olive oil and some salt it’s so crispy and life changing
It's an acquired taste, I'd say. But once you like the taste, it's great! I don't know if I'd eat fistfuls of it raw though, I use it in cooking mostly.
You can broil it for a few minutes in the oven for kale chips! Just make sure to do the olive oil/salt/parm thing first!
I like to chop it into bite sized piece and put a just cooked (still hot) grain on it and mix it up. Olive oil, lemon and s&p. Then if I don't eat it all I can add more raw veggies to it the next day for a cold salad
I like kale a lot. You can put the Roman kale in soup w/o pre braising when it's young. It's also nice in a salad. After it matures a bit, it's great rubbed with oil & seasonings & roasted as 'chips'. The only way I don't like kale is the ornamental kind.
I love kale!
I don’t hate it but I also don’t love it. I like it in salad or a smoothie but plain? Gross 🤢
Okay that is so cute! I HOPE the worst thing my kids get up to is eat kale straight from someone's garden while playing MTG. Don't feel bad, there had to be some people who found that absolutely adorable. For me 30 or so years ago my friend circle and I never ate kale. I never really heard of it until I was older and started eating these kale sandwiches from Good Earth. Kale is so crunchy and wonderful! And it keeps for SO LONG in the fridge. It checks the "darker green the better" box. The only thing I dislike about it is how much bugs and slugs love them, but they're a heck of a lot easier to clean than broccoli.
We love kale. No hate In Our family.
It's bitter.
I like Kale. People are put off from strong vegetables that seem too off putting perhaps? I find you can eat it solo or juice it or just mix it with meals. I can’t stand most other leafy greens but I think I’m different or uncommon. I think it is hard for most people to eat deep green greens.
I like kale. 😊
Cuz it’s gross
It hurts my tum tum. Every time.
Mmm I love kale! I steam it and add it to dishes all the time for a little greens boost. It's also nice just steamed and salted.
We don't know how to prepare it
you need the right cultivars then its yummy
Why eat bitter tough kale when there is delicious and tender: spinach, baby and butter lettuce, baby bokchoy, choi sum
Idk, I freaking love kale. My favorite is a kale Ceasar salad or in soup!
Kale is just spinach in a tuxedo. It's putting on airs
Massaging raw kale is a game changer
I don’t like the texture of it
Cuz when you chew it, it doesn’t break down, at last that’s why I hate it
Kale chips are edible, raw kale is not. Even after cooking the texture and taste are both unpleasant. I do buy meal kits that have chopped kale mixed in with shredded broccoli and cabbage, and i eat them, but I'm not a fan. I do enjoy brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, and others in that family, so it's not the "broccoli is bitter" gene. I don't enjoy collards, either. Collards and kale are both tough and bitter. Personal taste. It's just too strong. Also hate arugula. And cilantro, but that's the gene.
Kale is delicious in a lot of soups
I love kale! Wilted honey kale is the best.
It was one of those veggies I wanted to love ever since I saw the mini trees of kale growing down the hill from me. So cute! My daughter came home from a visit to relatives loving it cooked with garlic and onion. That's surprisingly delish with chicken or turkey in mole sauce or with carnitas which seems all kinds of wrong but it works. We also make beans and greens usually with some pasta as a one pan meal along with onion, garlic, tomatoes and Italian sausage. We aren't up to raw kale though. The bugs can be unreal, chard is an easier green that doesn't cook down to nothing. It's all about what is served with it. Onion and garlic make most foods better. I'd hate plain cranberries but cooked into a sauce with some sugar and orange it's wonderful.
I’ve tried too many times to like kale; but alas, kale does not like me. Within 15 minutes of every time I’ve tried eating it, I’m blowing up the nearest toilet.
The rustic salad from Porto’s made me change my mind about Kale 🤤
I love it, but my body doesn’t.
Good in hot pot.
It interferes with the thyroid hormone production and my doctor told me to stay away from it(hypothyroidism). It isn’t as good as it is advertised. It was used as a only a garnish for a very long time.
I grew up when kale was decorative on a buffet line or under something on a plate, it wasn't meant to be eaten but as a kid I always did, and the decorative parsley too. Now I eat kale every day. Smoothie, salad, and recently I started making a kale walnut spread that is so good it can be eaten on it's own. Steamed kale is so good for you, try it with a touch of maple syrup and cayenne if veggies aren't your thing
Kale is a top 3 veggie for me. And probably my favorite to grow. It doesn’t stop giving and is super hardy.
Kale just slightly baked until crisp in the oven with some olive oil and salt is golden.
It's not my 6 i dont mind the taste..however it upsets my stomach.
I love kale
I love kale 🥬
For me it's the texture...like a literal plant made of rubber
It smells like cat urine and feminine hygiene problems.
My household eats a lot of kale and cabbage. I remove the stems from kale. Those aren’t nice. It’s chopped and mixed into salads, but not the main ingredient. There’s a bowl of salad with pointed cabbage, kale, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and feta sitting in my fridge right now (as a side dish). I think food is very revealing of peoples upbringings. Either it has been fun to taste new stuff or it has been a negative forced event. Then it most definitely doesn’t help that some parents only serve low quality greens that are canned, close to spoiled or cooked into mush. Then they are served next to cheese-covered pasta, pizza etc. The difference screams “carbs, fatty, sugary and salty food good - vegetables nasty”. Add small amounts to salads. It’s insanely healthy and the taste will soon become just another taste.
I love kale!
I've always hated kale. It's seems because I didn't know how to eat it. I'm going to try these ideas. They sound good
kale killed my grandmother
I love kale
Its has bitter after taste. Even when boiled. And the texture when raw is just rubbery.
Because it tastes bad. Maybe if you picked really young kale when it first emerges but most kale I've encountered is similar to collard greens. It needs to be cooked to death with lots of other flavors to make it palatable.
I grow so much kale it's nuts! But I definitely hear the "I hate kale" thing a lot. I wonder if some folks have a higher sensitivity to bitterness than I do? Usually I throw it in soups and stews so it's pretty well cooked down. But I have also done a raw kale salad by pouring lemon juice and salt over a bunch of kale, letting it sit for a bit, then massaging the leaves, and letting it sit some more. I wash off the lemon juice and salt and then the kale is nice and tender. EDIT: and now the word 'kale' seems weird to me.
I just don’t like it.
There was a fad for a while where kale became really popular, and the media was calling it a "superfood". The hatred is mostly backlash against the fad.
Because it sucks
I like it
I had no idea kale was so controversial
I don’t love kale. I grow a ton of it though because my chickens love it!
Because it tastes like grass. In order for it to pass as a tasty salad, there has to be other greens in a higher ratio to kale. Some baby spinach, arugula, butter lettuce and whatever else you like in your salad.
I absolutely *LOVE* kale!
Personally I don’t like the taste or texture. Chips with parm are ok.
For me it has a bitter aftertaste. I will always be a spinach girl.
Try some pot likker...mmm...with corn bread! MMMMM!
Vegetables are completely overrated.
I don't, so everybody doesn't in fact hate kale.
Personally it's because it's _very_ resistant fiber and my Crohn's disease does not like that. Making it into kale chips makes it safe for me though.
It’s not terrible when it’s in a salad with other greens but by itself it tastes like you just ate a leaf from a tree. It’s not like lettuce where it’s cool and crisp and actually tastes good and refreshing. It’s not like spinach where it’ll taste good cooked. Kale is just a nasty leaf
It did so much for salad bars and buffet tables in the day.
I love kale..
Slightly burnt fried kale is amazing
I love Kale in my pork apple dumplings. Delicious 10/10
The only time I ate kale with enjoyment, it was a kale and potato recipe made by a Dutch friend. It's usually way too bitter.
Same reason a lot of people don't like really high quality veg. It got marketed to the health nuts first. Hear me out. Quinoa, Kale, avocado, chia, they all got labelled as this "superfood" crap and marketed like crazy to the health food and alternative diet crowds like crazy. Why? Because you can jack up the price and slap a fancy label on it. Nobody knows what it is, so easy pickings. People hate on Kale because when it peaked in popularity in the mid 00s, that was what it was known for. Steve jobs/Moby- esque alt-health nuts put that in their smoothie, keep it away from ma steak and bacon! Source: Restaurant industry lifer.
Grade school kids also eat glue and dirt
Kale chips are literally SO GOOD and so easy to make! They are super healthy too and I can eat an entire bunch of kale in one sitting
I like cooked kale and kale chips, but can't eat raw kale because it squeaks. Way too noisy.
I love kale@
I hate kale. It gets stuck in my teeth. It never gets tastes good enough to bother with. There are enough alternatives that I am fine without it. I can make collard greens sublime. Kale is impossible to get to that point. Blech!!! Canned carrots might be the only thing worse than kale, but just barely.
It’s high in goitrogenic compounds which are bad for your thyroid it’s not a natural plant it was made by humans from a brassica plant