Spices of Life: Kale Magic

Gail Pettiford Willett, a terrific cooking teacher and health and nutrition coach (with her husband Walter Willett at the Harvard School of Public Health), showed us an easy way to make kale taste terrific, using a recipe created by Mollie Katzen.

Nina Simonds: Then something magical happens. Gail Pettiford Willett: That’s right. You can here the Kale’s crunchy. Nina Simonds: Hi out there, this is Nina Simonds with spices of the life. And today we are with Gail willet. Who is a brilliant cook, you not only have been cooking for many years, your grandmother and mother and you also attended the school in New York, the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. And so what we thought we do this is veggie’s one o one under appreciated vegetable. Gail Pettiford Willett: That’s right. Nina Simonds: And what s one the most under appreciated vegetable? Kale. So Kale has this Brilliant recipe Kale -- Gail Pettiford Willett: Mollie Katzen, you can either use the green kale or some of this other colorful kales. Nina Simonds: Yeah, its beautiful kale, did you cut of the end? Gail Pettiford Willett: I cut of the end for some distance and then I cut, I minced into small pieces, Nina Simonds: Oh great. Gail Pettiford Willett: The next thing I do, as I take a baking tray and I spray that tray with olive oil, all around and I have to say neither the I was on the kale allow it to begin with. Nina Simonds: Good. Gail Pettiford Willett: But I like this more and more because there is so many different things you can do with this. Nina Simonds: We all have been there and the preheated the oven. Gail Pettiford Willett: I preheated the oven and I have already cooked this a little bit, Nina Simonds: And what it with -- 350 degrees, and for 10 minutes. Gail Pettiford Willett: And you cooked it for 10minutes. Nina Simonds: And then something magical happens. Gail Pettiford Willett: That’s right. You can hear the Kale’s becomes crunchy. Nina Simonds: Kale’s crunchy. And you have some grated Parmesan cheese and I have put it about 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese. Nina Simonds: Just going to sprinkle that on top. Gail Pettiford Willett: yeah. It’s going to be back the oven for 10 more minutes. Nina Simonds: is that it? Gail Pettiford Willett: that’s it. Gail Pettiford Willett: my oven took me the after the 5 minutes, stir it around. Nina Simonds: Stir it on Gail Pettiford Willett: so just to make sure that is not distributed. Nina Simonds: And then where you get is amazingly delicious. Not to maintain a healthy there we’ll say healthy snack Gail Pettiford Willett: That’s right. Nina Simonds: This is wonderful. It’s better than the potato chips. So there you have it crispy Kale, Kale crunch. Gail you are brilliant. Gail Pettiford Willett: Thanks so much Nina Simonds: Thank you very much. And enjoy the crunch.