Foodie Underground: 25 Uses for Kale You May Never Have Thought Of

kale

ColumnJust a few unusual uses for kale.

Right outside my window hang two pots of kale.

Kale. You may have heard of it. It’s a leafy green that trendy people are eating in New York City social circles apparently. And putting in smoothies. Yeah, that thing. Some are even calling it “the new beef.”

I even have a few plants growing off of the window guard rail. Sometimes a pigeon flies up and tries to sit in the pots and I yell and scream like a madwoman. “Get off my damn kale!” 

Kale might in fact be the food du jour, well actually, it might already be passe. But hell, you can put kale on anything, and just in case you were tempted, here is a list of just a few ways to put kale to good use. Because kale chips are so very last year, and it’s about time you upped the foodie ante.

1. The all kale diet.

2. Use kale to find a romantic partner

3. Bake a chocolate cake.

4. Infuse a kale cocktail.

5. Tie dye a shirt.

6. Serve it with ginger.

7. Kale popcorn.

8. Moisturize with it.

9. Make your own placemats when you finally decide to switch to a 100% biodegradable dinner table setting.

10. Pesto.

11. Popsicles.

12. Pizza.

13. Kale kombucha smoothie. No, really.

14. Kale muffins.

15. Improve your sex life.

16. Bake some kale scones and host a tea party.

17. Gluten free chocolate chip cookies.

18. Salsa.

19. Channel Martha Stewart and decorate your home with it.

20. Wear it.

21. Use it instead of flowers in a vase (well, preferably a mason jar). 

22. Make green food coloring.

23. Give yourself a kale facial.

24. Cupcakes for your child’s birthday party.

25. Kale ice cubes. 

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Bobbi Bowers 

 

Anna Brones

Anna Brones is a food + travel writer with a love for coffee and bikes. She is the author of The Culinary Cyclist and Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break. Catch her weekly column, Foodie Underground.