Kale, the fashionable vegetable

Kale is now-a-days very fashionable, and it is due to its nutritional characteristics, superior to those of other vegetables. It contains vitamins, minerals and multiple beneficial substances with antioxidant properties.   

In Más Que Salud we love this vegetable. The antioxidant properties of this superfood make it a “must”in our diets when we begin to expose ourselves to the sun. Summer is around the conner and so we are going to start spending more time in the open air and exposed to sun light. It is time to add antioxidant foods into our shopping trolly, like kale.

This vegetable of the cabbage family, has become very popular since it is common to find at the market and even in supermarkes

Doctor in nutrition, Laura Isabel Arranz, promoter of the ‘Logical Diet’, helps us clarify concepts and enjoy the kale with her book “Kale, the superfood that can help you improve your diet and health”, the first guide in Spanish about this green vegetable and how to introduce it to the Mediterranean Diet.  The ‘Logical Diet’ proposes a healthy, tasty and light diet that adapts to each lifestyle, environment, personal characteristics and even bacteria that exists in our intestines.

It approximates  to the Mediterranean Diet, an excellent health cocktail in which this vegetable, like other superfoods, are introduced.  Raw, smoked with oil and lemon juice or vinegar, steamed, boiled, steamed or in a smoothie, provides vitamins A, C and K, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, iron and glucosinolates … in addition to vegetable proteins and fiber. Cooking and enjoying it becomes an easy task with the recipes included in this interesting book, of which we highlight the following recipe.  

Kale for salads

In all cases, when using kale for salads:  Choose the most tender leaves, wash it well and cut it into small pieces. Put them in a bowl with the juice of ½ lemon (or vinegar) a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt, massage until it is well impregnated. Let stand ½ hour.

1. Kale salad with mushrooms, oak lettuce, cherry tomatoes, olives and almonds.

It can be served as a first course, garnish for meat or fish or a single dish (if mixed with pasta, quinoa, white beans or cheese that will provide carbohydrates and protein)  .

 

We need:  Kale, oak lettuce, ½ lemon, olive oil, cherry tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, toasted almonds and a pinch of salt.  While the kale is left to stand, wash, chop and stir-fry the mushrooms from 5 to 10 minutes. Peel and break the almonds into small pieces. Place the lettuce and the kale in a salad bowl; Add the tomatoes, the olives, the mushrooms, mix well and, finally, add the almond pieces.