Recipe: Kale with Pine Nuts, Raisins, and Garlic

From the Vitality Food Feature ‘A MEAT-FREE HOLIDAY MENU‘.

Lacinato kale stands apart from other greens. It has long, crinkled green leaves, whose colour intensifies with cooking, and is a very beautiful dish to serve. (Serves 6-8.)

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp minced garlic
  • 2 lb kale, washed, center ribs and stems removed, leaves thinly sliced
  • ½ cup water or vegetable stock
  • ½ cup organic raisins
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • ½ cup toasted pine nuts
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper

1) In a large fry pan on medium-high, heat olive oil. Add garlic. Sauté for 30 seconds. Add kale in 2 cup amounts. Stir for 1 minute. As kale begins to shrink, add next 2 cups along with small amounts of water, 2 Tbsp to assist the kale as it cooks for 5- 7 minutes.

2) Add raisins, lemon juice, and pine nuts. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring often.

3) Add salt and pepper. Serve.

Nettie Cronish is a vegetarian and organic foods chef, culinary instructor and cookbook author. She is the author of 3 cookbooks and co-author of another 3 cookbooks: Nourish: Whole Food Recipes featuring Seeds, Nuts and Beans, Flex Appeal featuring a healthy dinner on the table in 30 minutes, Everyday Flexitarian: Recipes for Vegetarians & Meat Lovers Alike, New Vegetarian Basics, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being Vegetarian in Canada and Nettie’s Vegetarian Kitchen. Her 7th cookbook, Fair Trade Ingredients will be published Spring 2021. For the past 25 years, Nettie has been the resident culinary instructor at The Big Carrot Natural Foods store in Toronto, Canada. For the vegetarian and flexitarian curious, she also gives classes at Nella Cucina, President’s Choice Cooking School (Loblaw’s), The Loft at Longo’s, the LCBO and Nature’s Emporium. She has taught at George Brown College, Calphalon Culinary Centre, Dish Cooking School and Great Cooks on Eight. Nettie also teaches corporate cooking classes and works with dieticians. Nettie develops and tests recipes for companies and has written articles that have appeared in Chatelaine Magazine, Canadian Living, Food & Drink, Homemakers, Natural Health, Alive Magazine, Vitality, The Globe & Mail and Toronto Star. Nettie’s cooking philosophy is that “delicious is a pre-requisite for healthy”. As a busy mother of three, she has extensive experience getting dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes. Nettie Cronish is the past Chair of the Women’s Culinary Network, and a past board member at Fairtrade Canada.

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