Fear not the kale!

Kale is one of the healthiest foods you can possibly eat, however, to the uninitiated, it looks a bit intimidating. But fear not, young Skywalker! I will guide you along the path of the green leafy vegetables.

The secret: kale is actually fairly easy to cook once you learn the tricks. The kale we're going to talk about today are: lacinto (or "dino" kale) and regular green kale.

Kale is a nutritional powerhouse, packed with antioxidants, Vitamins A, C and K, and a great source of calcium, copper, manganese, potassium, lutein, Vitamin B6, and dietary fiber. On top of that, it's phytochemicals may protect against cancer. It's also an anti-inflammatory food. It's peak season is mid-winter through early spring, however nowadays it can be found year-round.

In this post-holidays flu season, what could be more energizing for your personal health than putting down the french fries and picking up a beautiful bunch of nutritious, organic kale at the market today - let's do it!

I'm going to be extra generous today and reveal my very own delicious, simple recipe for lacinto kale - at my house we call it "kale & corn". Chop up 4 cloves of garlic. Wash the kale and cut out the tough ribs/stems. Chop it crosswise into 1-inch strips. Meanwhile, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a non-stick skillet. Add about 1 1/4 cups of organic frozen corn to the pan, then add the chopped garlic and saute for 3-4 minutes. Then add the chopped kale, stir it all around, making sure the kale gets lightly coated with the olive oil. Cover the pan for a couple of minutes so that the kale will kind of steam while it's sauteing (this will help soften it). Then, take off the cover and stir it around, continue sauteing everything for another 2 minutes. Add salt & freshly ground pepper as desired. Voila! You've got a healthy, delicious, quick side dish ready to go.

For regular kale, here is a very basic but tasty treatment of it: Fill a deep stainless steel skillet about halfway with water and some salt and heat over medium heat until you get a nice simmer going. Meanwhile, wash the kale. Now, with this type of kale, you can either go ahead and cut out the ribs/stems with a knife and then cut the kale into large strips crosswise, or an even easier way is to simply tear off large pieces of the kale from the stems - this is really easy and kind of fun in a nerdy/veggie kind of way! Once the water is simmering, add the kale, and simmer it for about 5 minutes. Drain it, get out all the excess water and then toss it with some extra virgin olive oil and taste for salt & pepper. You'd be surprised how good it tastes - sometimes simple is best! Even hot chef Tal Ronnen (author of "The Conscious Cook") advocates this method.

For the last recipe of the day, I recently tried out the Garlic and Kale Soup recipe that's in the current edition (Feb. 2010) of Vegetarian Times. This is a great soup for some comfort or if you're trying to get over a cold or flu because it's chock full of heart-healthy ingredients. It has wheat berries, shiitake mushrooms, garlic and kale as the main ingredients. As I tend to do, I veered slightly from the recipe and used oyster mushrooms instead of shiitakes. Also, I didn't have any brown rice vinegar, so instead I used some regular rice vinegar with some ume plum vinegar. And, I also forgot to presoak the wheat berries the night before, so I cooked some quinoa instead. Even so, it came out good! I'm curious how it would have tasted if I had stuck strictly to the recipe--let us know if you try it. Regardless, it's a soul-satisfying soup that will make you feel warm (and virtuous) inside.

Please post your thoughts, questions, etc. I love to hear from my readers! :o)