The Kale Saga

Recently my husband has gone Kale crazy. He loves anything with Kale. So when his appetite didn't seem to be satisfied with normal Kale koottu (kale & dal) kind of things, I turned to modifying existing recipes to appease his kale hunger. The result is Kale soup, Kale adai and Kale thepla.

I didn' t take any pic of the kale soup but did take loads of the adai and thepla. 

Kale Soup:

Ingredient:
Kale 3 cups (cut)
Carrot 2 
Mushroom 4
Yellow Onion 1/2
Brussels Sprouts 7-8
Olive Oil 1tsp
Moong Dal 1tsp
Black Pepper
Salt

Procedure:

Warm oil in deep bottomed vessel and saute onion & mushroom until onion is translucent. Then add carrot & Brussels sprouts and saute for 15 secs. Then add kale and moong dal and saute until the water in kale starts leaving. Then pressure cook everything for 20 minutes (or until u hear 2-3whistles). 

Now open the cooker and add and pepper and salt to taste and bring it to a boil.

Serve Hot

PS:
After adding salt and pepper, u can also blend it to get the smooth soup texture (I and my hubby like to eat it as veggies) and then bring to boil and serve.

Kale Adai:

Ingredients:

Channa Dal - 1/2 cup

Rice - 1/2cup

Toor dal - 1/4 cup

Urad Dal - a handful or less

red chillies - 3

Ginger - 1 inch

Salt to taste

Kale - 1 bundle (3 cups in case of chopped)

Optional:

Onion - 1/4 finely chopped

Curry leaves

Asafoetida - a pinch

Coconut - 4ts

Prep:

Soak all the dals and rice overnight (though 4-5 hours should be enough)

Procedure:

Grind the soaked ingredients together in to a coarse batter along with ginger, red chilies and salt. If you wish to grind the Kale added along with other ingredients, else cut kale in to tiny pieces (very tiny) and add it to the batter.

If u r going to add onion to the batter, then grind kale with other ingredients while making the batter.

Now heat a griddle, add 3-4 drops of oil in the griddle. When the griddle is hot, pour a laddle of  the batter and spread it. Make a hole in the middle and pour a drop of oil in the hole (so that the adai comes crispy). Turn the adai after 1minute and wait until both sides are golden brown.

Serve hot.

(Kale adai tastes best with avial etc).

Kale Thepla:

Preparation time:30 mins
Servings: 3

Recipe:
Wheat flour 3 cups
Kale 2 cups (cut)
Yellow Onion 1/2
Green Chili 2 (thai)
Ginger 1/2inch
Garlic 2cloves
Turmeric powder 1/2tsp
Some cumin (Jeera) seeds, asafoetida, salt to taste

Warm oil in deep bottomed pan. And add some cumin seeds and let it splutter. Add green chili, shredded ginger & garlic and turmeric and let it cook until a nice aroma rises (takes about 10secs). Now add onion to the mixture and saute until the onion turns translucent. Add the cut kale and saute for 1min or until the water starts to leave. Remove from heat

Take wheat flour and add a pinch of asafoetida and salt (to taste),Now add the above mixture to wheat flour and mix very well. Just sprinkle water to the flour as and when required and knead the flour until you a nice smooth dough like shown in the picture. (Keep tasting for salt and chilli, if needed add more chilli)

 Now make small balls of dough and then flatten them to the size of a pancake (Tip: touch up with little amount of wheat flour to make the flattening easier).

Heat a flat bottomed pancake pan (girdle) and add a drop or two of oil to it and wait until the pan heats up. Now bake the flattened dough, by turning sides every 10 secs until thepla is cooked.

Serve hot with some butter and raitha!! :D