Kale Margarita

Kale margarita. Photo by Dorothy Reinhold/ShockinglyDelicious.com. Used with permission.

Yes, you read that right. Only in Food Blogger Land would someone come up with that idea and then have nearly 30 people show up with kale dishes. We had kale margaritas (shown), kale salad, kale colcannon, even kale brownies!

I brought this Vietnamese appetizer called Bo La Lot, wrapped in kale leaves instead of chard (as shown here).

Vegan Bo La Lot appetizer

Kale is one of those veggies that you hear about, you know you should eat more of, and it’s really hard to figure out what to do with it.

I learned some neat facts about kale, and one that I especially wanted to share. As kale growers get more successful, they are able to fund more research about the health benefits of kale and the nutritional profiles of the different kinds of kale. One thing they recently learned is that ALL THE POTASSIUM IS IN THE STEMS. Further research showed that this varies by crop, but usually the stem: leaf ratio for potassium content is about 3:1. Why does this matter? Most recipes encourage you to strip off the stems before chopping (unless you are juicing or making a smoothie). And why do we care?

Potassium balance is really critical, because our diets tend to be very high in sodium instead of potassium. Adding potassium back into our diets helps correct that imbalance, detox our systems, and alkalize our blood. So, use those stems!

This is a wonderful introductory recipe to kale and Swiss chard from my book The Migraine Relief Plan.