My first experience eating kale was horrible. I was served a gorgeous salad, but I couldn’t get it down. I just could not stand eating kale.
Kale is all the rage with health nuts because it has enormous nutritional value. It has a huge amount of vitamins A, C and K. It’s made up of 16% protein by calories, and full of fiber. It helps reduce inflammation, which is good for people with arthritis or cardiovascular health issues. It has a ton of antioxidants and chlorophyll, along with some calcium and iron.
There are some fun things you can do, like adding it to a smoothie or making kale chips. But I wanted to share with you some tips for eating raw kale – without triggering your gag reflex – so that you can learn to enjoy kale salads.
The more I learned about the health side (like in this article on Thrive Cuisine), the more I thought that eating kale would be a good thing to work into a healthy eating plan.
And the more I thought preparing kale would be a good thing, the stronger my determination to like it became. In order to like it, I looked into ways of preparing it that would soften the texture and the flavor.
1. Massage it
I finally found my kale heaven when I discovered massaging. This is where you rub the kale with your hands, giving it a deep tissue massage. You can use salt or not, but I always use just a pinch, which helps the kale soften.
2. Dress it
A salty and creamy dressing neutralizes the natural bitterness of kale and makes for a salad that I honestly can’t get enough of. I always find it funny how quickly and dramatically my tastes changed once I decided that I wanted to enjoy kale.
3. Pair it
When you take rough kale, and pair it with soft and savory foods, like avocado, roasted squash or sweet potato, maybe some tempeh, you get a really tasty meal.
You can change your outlook on foods and eating if you make it a priority to learn what’s healthy for you, and then consciously make the decision to move towards a healthy eating plan. If you want some ideas on where to start, check out the meal plan program I put together for you.
