Let’s just be honest about kale right now. It’s good for you, so you feel good about eating it. It can be delicious, but only when prepared properly. When prepared raw in a salad it can be woody and dry. When cooked it can become soggy and sad.

This recipe does kale right. By briefly sautéing the kale with garlic it becomes soft and flavorful but maintains some of its structure and crunch. Stock and fish sauce give the dish just right amount of salt and are balanced out with rice vinegar and sesame. Yum!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tbsp. sesame oil or peanut oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 large bunch of kale
• 3 large carrots
• ½ cup of chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 tsp. fresh grated ginger*
• 1 tsp. fish sauce
• 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

INSTRUCTIONS
Chop the garlic and de-stem the kale. Tear the kale into small pieces and rinse in a colander. Peel and shred or thinly slice the carrots.

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes until garlic is soft but not brown (you may need to lower the heat to prevent browning). Add the kale, carrots, and stock and raise heat to high. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove cover and add ginger and fish sauce. Continue to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in rice vinegar and sesame seeds at the very end.

SERVES
3 to 4 people as a side

* ½ tsp. dried ginger can substitute in a pinch, just be sure to add it towards the end of cooking with the vinegar and other ingredients rather than at the beginning.