grilled kale

I love kale. It's so versatile, fitting into almost any cuisine, and delicious prepared in any way: steaming, frying, baking, braising, etc. I ALSO love grilled food. Grilling, to me, is like roasting-it makes almost any food even more delicious than it was to begin with. So when I encountered Rachael Ray's recipe for Grilled Tuscan Kale, I had to try it. (For the record, the amount of oil the recipe calls for is ridiculous. I used less than half of what they said, and everything turned out fine. And it already seemed oily enough.)

The process! On the far right, the garlicky, vinegary, raw kale, then in the center, said kale on the grill, and in the baking pan on the far left, the first batch all crispy and ready to be eaten!

The husband and I don't have a real (ie, big, outdoor) grill, but we do have an electric grill that my mother-in-law gave us! Because it's small, it took 3-4 batches to properly grill one bunch of kale. Each batch took 3-4 minutes, so it wasn't much of an ordeal, though I'd really prefer to do this on a big grill where you could just lay them all out any be done with it.

We had it as a side with barbeque tofu and rice pilaf. You can only really eat this kale with your fingers!

Taste-wise, I would definitely make these again. The leaves get all crisp like kale chips, and the stems get softer and more tender. The garlic/vinegar/lemon juice combo sets off the kale's toastiness just enough. However, space-wise, I might wait until we get a real (big) grill to make the recipe once more.