TUSCAN KALE WITH CHICKPEAS AND CHILI PEPPER and Paper Chef ingredients
A winter butterfly
I completely forgot to brag about winning the Paper Chef (thank you Jenny!) last month with this dish so I do it now instead! Winning the Paper Chef means that I am the Judge this month and that I am the one who chooses the ingredients, well, following the rules and regulations I used this for the first three ingredients and then I decided the fourth all by myself! And I have to say that I am very satisfied with the three random ones, not too difficult but still a bit of a challenge as the combination isn’t a very usual one: red cabbage, rosemary and tuna. And the fourth? Considering we have a new year of a new decade my choice is something new. What new means is open for interpretation but to start you off I can think of new vegetables in the sense of being the first for the year, the same goes for fruits and berries. I also think that you can use something that is new to you, something you never used before or something that you recently discovered. Or a new way to cook maybe or whatever you can come up with that is new to you. So get going, create something with the ingredients and send the link of your blog post to me via paperchef AT gmail DOT com before your midnight on Tuesday the 12th next week. If you don’t have your own bog, send me the recipe, any thoughts about it if you have any and eventual photos and I will post it over at the Paper Chef blog for you, there are no excuse for not participating as you can see so just DO it!
But I didn’t come here just to talk about the Paper Chef, I also want to share this recipe with you. Tuscan kale is a fantastic cabbage sort or variety, not only is it beautiful to look at, it is also good to eat. It has a nice strong, slightly sweet flavour and it is also good for you as well. I also like it because it is so nice to see it growing there straight as a soldier in the winter mist on all the small plots that abound in Tuscany and Italy, and it is a must to eat it with the newly pressed olive oil when you get your first bottle of it. Here I have mixed it with chickpeas and chili pepper to make it even more interesting!
TUSCAN KALE WITH CHICKPEAS AND CHILI PEPPER
1 large bunch of Tuscan kale
200 g/ 7 oz cooked chickpeas
chili pepper, fresh or dried
1 clove of garlic
salt
extra-virgin olive oil
- Cut the kale into pieces.
- Heat up some olive oil in a skillet or pan with the slightly crushed garlic clove and chili pepper and cook on low heat for a minute.
- Add the kale and cover it half way with water, add salt and let it simmer under a lid for 5 minutes on medium heat. Stir once or twice.
- Take off the lid and continue to braise the kale until the liquid is gone and the kale is soft.
- Add the chickpeas and go on cooking for another 4-5 minutes before serving it either warm or cold.
I can see that you are having some problems with linking to your sites and blogs when you comment here but it is actually pretty simple to add your link! If you click on the From tab under the box where you write your name, you will get a list of options and one of them should be My website or something like that (I get it all automatically in Italian here so I don’t know the exact wording in English) and there you just add the www. of your site. Don’t use the http:// as it is automatically added.
I just planted kale this winter and have been searching for more ways to use it- thx for recipe! Happy New Year to you!
not only does the food look gorgeous but the black and white patterns are lovely. what are they? both the one the dish is placed on and the background one. lovely!
I do my kale with the same flavors!! and with chickpeas
magnificent pictures Ilva.
This looks delicious. I’m just starting to learn about kale. Is this kale available in the regular supermarket? Is it the same as dinosaur kale?
Love the chilies, garlic and new pressed oil. No other way to do it… Gorgeous, gorgeous photographs.
This is the year I must try Tuscan Kale! (Alas, no newly pressed olive oil here though. Sigh.)
Your winter butterfly is so pretty, what a find!
I’ve never grown kale, but plenty of other green leafy vegetables, I think I’ll make this with some rainbow chard soon! xx
Did you grow your own kale?
What a gorgeous butterfly! Sadly we dont get kale here but may also try it with the chard!
Did you cook your chick peas from dried? I think you did because they don’t look like the sorry ones that i’ve been getting in cans around here. What’s the best way to cook from dried?
Funny that we both posted about greens, too.
Happy New Year to you too and good luck with the kale!
Thanks!
See, we think alike!
Thanks a lot!
Yes, do, it is such a great green!
yes, it was there in the cold the poor thing!
Noooo, I either get it from neighbours or buy it!
Thanks and yes, it should work as well!
I use both and they look the same actually but then chickpeas are important here! You are supposed to put the dried ones in water overnight before cooking but I always forget so I simmer them an hour or so longer!
What a totally beautiful vegetable butterfly