Here is another think I make in bulk and freeze so I can have something very nearly ready to go at dinnertime. By the end of the day I have no imagination left for dinner so often our nutrition suffers (Annie's mac and cheese again? yay!). But, I can be virtuous and lazy if I have kale in my freezer.
If you would have told me two years ago that I would fall deeply in love with kale I wouldn't have believed you. I only tried in initially because I felt guilted into eating better (see: Annie's mac and cheese). However, preparing it for dinner can seem like it would just take too much effort what with all the washing and chopping. It took me way too long to realize that I could blanch it to freeze and have ready to go. One note: I did find bags of frozen kale for sale at Amazon Fresh but they are cut the same way that cut frozen spinach comes, roughly and too small, and I find it rather unpleasant to eat.
Below is step by step instructions on how I get it ready. I put it here because I figure I cannot be the only person who has no idea how to do this. I used the instructions from Pick Your Own, and these here are what I've figured out in order to do a lot of kale in batches as efficiently as possible.
If you just freeze greens they get bitter, but if you dunk them in boiling water for a few minutes, then stop the cooking abruptly you kill of the enzymes that create the bitter flavor. This is called blanching and except for watching Martha Stewart do it to green beans years ago I never knew much about it.
I usually buy four bunches of kale, which is a lot of kale. First, start boiling water in a huge stockpot. (My electric kettle gets a lot of work here.) Put a large bowl in your sink and fill it with water. Dunk the kale around to wash it. If you bought it from your local organic market look closely for little buggies. Sometimes they just hug the stem and you can get rid of them in the next step. I usually don't find bugs but there was this one time when I just re-fused to throw out four whole bunches of kale and had to work carefully.
Next, trimming. The easiest way to trim out the stem is to fold the kale leaf in half lengthwise with the stem facing away from you. Run the tip of a knife along the stem to separate it. (I learned this in Everyday Food, I think.)
Then you can leave the kale where it is and quickly chop it. Now move that into a bowl and do the next one. If you develop an assembly line rhythm at this point you can get through all your kale pretty quickly.
(Let's talk briefly about knives. I have an expensive 8" chefs knife, but I nearly always reach for my Oxo Santoku Knife, which is $20. Just saying. Good stuff.)
Now get the following things ready: a huge pot of boiling water with a lid, a huge bowl of ice water, a strainer you can use to move the kale from the boiling water to the ice water, a salad spinner, a large kitchen towel laid out flat on your counter and a kitchen timer set to two minutes.
When the water is boiling dump a bunch of the kale in it, put on the lid (the steam helps cook the bits bobbing on top) and let it cook for two minutes. I usually just stir it once.
When the time is up quickly lift the kale from the pot of water into the ice bath. You'll reuse the boiling water for the next batch. The water turns progressively darker green with each batch but I cannot imagine that would hurt anything. Bet it would be great for making vegetable stock. Someday I'll make stock of some sort.
Now we need to get it dry. I spin it in a salad spinner. (The OXO Salad Spinner still totally rules. I have the little one and it works fine for two people.)
Then I lay it flat on a kitchen towel. When all the batches of kale are done I roll the towel up...
and squeeze.
Then I lay the kale out on a sheet of parchment on a cookie sheet. Pop that in the freezer and in about 30 minutes it will be frozen enough for you to shake into your airtight container of choice.
And there you are, it's all ready to pull out of the freezer, saute in olive oil with a little minced garlic (I'm not ashamed to love my garlic press) just until it's hot, shake a bit of crushed red pepper and salt on top and, ta da!, excellent leafy green side dish that allow you to be smug about your eating habits and level of cleverness for the next 24 hours.
53 responses so far ↓
1 Suzy C. // Jun 12, 2009 at 5:37 am
Thanks so much for the kale info. I was just mentioning to a friend last nite that I felt guilty for not having kale in my garden and eating more of it. The one time I did try it was from a package I bought at the grocery and followed the recipe on the back. It was revolting. Your method and simple recipe gives me hope!
2 Erica // Jun 12, 2009 at 6:08 am
Oh that's awesome! I never know what to do with Kale and I seem to always get a ton of it in my CSA box.
3 Emily // Jun 12, 2009 at 6:38 am
I freeze a lot of kale but haven't ever blanched it...I just chop and put it directly in baggies into the refrigerator. I've never noticed any bitterness, but maybe that's because I'm usually using it in soups and stews, not eating it on its own. So, attention kale-in-soup-eaters who are lazy like me: try it without the blanching and see if you notice a difference. Perhaps you could save a few steps.
4 Dalila // Jun 12, 2009 at 7:01 am
Great directions, Megan!
I like the individual freezing - it's easier to get the amount that you want out of the bag that way.
I want to point out that kale stems are very edible too! They are a different texture and tend to stay more crunchy so they need more cooking time. To me, they are kind of like a broccoli stem. They are great in stir fries (or kale fries) but I definitely suggest putting them in the pan with the onions so that they are not too tough.
5 em // Jun 12, 2009 at 7:34 am
Dang! I had no idea you could make kale so complicated! One of the reasons I eat kale is because it is so simple to cook. Here's how I do it:
1.) Thinly slice 1 clove garlic.
2.) Cook the garlic in a big frying/saute pan in a little olive oil and salt.
3.) Wash kale.
4.) Hold kale stem in hand and rip leaf off with other hand, dropping directly into garlicky pan. Rip in large or small pieces as desired.
5.) Cover with lid. The water clinging to the leaves from washing is enough to steam the kale.
Honestly, I have never even thought of using a knife on kale. Ripping by hand is so much faster and simpler!
6 Seanna Lea // Jun 12, 2009 at 8:02 am
This is really good to know, because I always have a problem with getting salad-type greens and having them go bad. The average package of greens is a lot for two people to eat in a week or so.
7 amanda // Jun 12, 2009 at 8:04 am
Thank you! Yes, I'm one of those people who has heard/read about blanching and freezing but there's never enough info for me to feel like I'd get it right. This is awesome. Also, I am now in love with kale, too. I don't know how that happened.
8 greta // Jun 12, 2009 at 8:51 am
I use em's method for cooking kale too, it's very quick and easy and the sauteeing seems to minimize the bitterness. Still, I'm thrilled to hear about this method - I'm about to move to the Cleveland area from San Diego, so I'm going to have to get used to not having fresh local produce year-round. Sounds like I could buy a lot of greens in bulk during the summer/fall and prep them to enjoy during winter. Yay!
9 megan // Jun 12, 2009 at 9:07 am
Emily - I did freeze without blanching once and it was a very different flavor. Since we usually saute it or add it to pasta it was noticeable.
Em - Dang that's harsh. What's so complicated about freezing kale so I always have some around the house?
Seanna Lea - I have tried keeping fresh kale, supposedly it will keep for a while but it always wilts quickly on me. And I can never count on my nearest market (the organic hippie market) to have good kale.
10 Laura // Jun 12, 2009 at 9:14 am
Thanks so much- this is great! I used to hate kale (it seemed too much like eating maple leaves or something!) but I am growing to appreciate it! This looks like a great way to have a steady supply of kale and will make it easier to incorporate more of it into my meals!
11 Tiffany S. // Jun 12, 2009 at 9:32 am
Excellent and timely post! We're hoping that our Dinosaur kale takes off but we didn't quite get it in the ground fast enough. Thanks for the blanching advice!
12 pam // Jun 12, 2009 at 9:35 am
and today, you've nearly made me want to eat kale. please don't do a celery post. some things i don't ever want to eat, and you make things look too tempting. :D
13 Savannah // Jun 12, 2009 at 9:49 am
A middle ground of blanching for freezing is using the microwave instead of boiling water. I just heap the chopped kale onto a pyrex pie plate and hit it moderate power for a couple minutes--just long enough for it to start to soften but not cooked to mush. That just gets dumped into a ziplock and frozen.
I keep the stems separate and chop them on the diagonal, rather like celery, and blanch them the same way. Although they need a bit more cooking, they do fine in any dish I'm already adding kale to or on their own in a veggie soup.
This microwave technique works for carrots and other veggies too, when you end up with an excess for some reason or want to stock up on something half-done for easy meal prep.
14 megan // Jun 12, 2009 at 10:01 am
Savannah - Thank you! I don't have a microwave (tiny kitchen, no room) so I appreciate the tip.
15 Rachel // Jun 12, 2009 at 10:02 am
I am kicking myself that this never occurred to me. I've had way more kale than I could eat or give away all year. I can't wait to try this with my next crop. Thanks so much!
16 Teri // Jun 12, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Take all the green water, let it cool down and then it in ice trays. When frozen, change to big ziplock bag. When you make soup, cut the liquid down 1/2 cup drop a few cubes in. Or Save two cups of it and make green rice.
17 megan // Jun 12, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Green rice! I love it.
18 Dawn // Jun 12, 2009 at 6:47 pm
I second or uh third the 'eat the stems too!' comments. Also instead of garlic and oil with your kale, I can't recommend a splash or two of seasoned rice vinegar enough. Sounds weird, is freakishly good.
19 Jennifer // Jun 12, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Love this post and all the others about meals to freeze! Please keep them coming! I'm totally into kale right now as our CSA gives us a huge batch in every delivery. Great use for kale: spanakopita. Sounds complex but take that kale, olive oil & garlic idea (and any other green thing in your veggie drawer: parsley, spinach, mint, green onions, turnip greens), saute, & mix it with feta to make the filling. Phyllo dough is great to keep in the freezer (found in the freezer section next to the pie crusts) and whip out for a meal like this. Make pocket pies with the filling or layer like lasagna with multiple layers of phyllo sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes (or until browned) and eat hot or cold.
20 Beth Rang // Jun 13, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Thank you! That sounds awesome.
21 Amy // Jun 13, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Genius! I never thought of freezing kale before.
22 Tanya // Jun 13, 2009 at 2:46 pm
You don't necessarily need to cook the kale prior to freezing, especially if you're going to saute it.
23 Elissa // Jun 13, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Do you know how long this will keep for?
24 megan // Jun 14, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Elissa - I'm sorry, I do not know how long it will keep.
25 Megan B. // Jun 15, 2009 at 10:50 am
Heck- I can't even keep Kale in my house long enough to necessitate freezing! But I'm loving all of your recent time saving food posts, Megan!
26 Alison // Jun 15, 2009 at 3:59 pm
This is great because kale is the only leafy green my husband likes and I try to always keep it on hand. He loves it when I pan steam it, then add olive & garlic oil to saute, and then finish with balsamic vinegar.
27 prasti // Jun 16, 2009 at 7:03 am
awesome. i just p/u some kale from the market. always nice to have some on hand :)
28 megan // Jun 16, 2009 at 10:45 am
Alison - You can also blanch it using steam, it would need to be blanched in smaller bunches depending on your set up, but you could certainly do a whole lot at a time and package it into portioned freezer bags or containers.
And I just want to note again that I have frozen washed and chopped kale that was not blanched and found it, after defrost/saute, to be more bitter and less yummy.
29 Jessica // Jun 22, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Just in time - I bought greens at the farmer's market and won't be able to make them before they wilt! thanks for the great how to
30 Tina // Jun 23, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I wish I would have known about your blog before last night! I made some soup that called for kale. never made it before and although I liked it, I thought the kale was tough. little did I know to cut the big stalk out. sheesh. thanks for the tip!
31 Aaron // Jun 30, 2009 at 6:24 am
Our garden is just ridiculous with kale right now, so this was the thing we were looking for (hence the google "blanching kale"). I see no reason not to follow your direx step by step. Heck, we even have an OXO spinner!
32 tammy // Jul 8, 2009 at 10:22 am
Very nice photos ;-).
I always save the water from cooking/steaming veggies and use for cooking rice (as already mentioned), pasta sauces, soups, quinoa and more.
Off to freeze my kale ~ oh, and side point, I would LOVE to have a "hippie organic market" as my closest market!! LOL
33 megan // Jul 8, 2009 at 10:52 am
Tammy - I'm happy about the local market, but I do have to say my checking account is a little wary of how much I spend there on (admittedly really good for me) food.
34 Monica // Jul 9, 2009 at 8:51 am
I saute kale with olive oil and garlic as others have suggested, and then sprinkle it with toasted pine nuts and Parmesan cheese. Yummy. An Asian version is to saute the kale in a canola oil with grated fresh garlic and ginger and then toss in some soy sauce, and toasted sesame seeds.
35 terry // Aug 23, 2009 at 7:20 am
I have to harvest all my kale before leaving on vacation (it will freeze before I get back). That is the reason I need to preserve it. This looks like the way.
One of the best ways for me to get kale in my diet is to make banana-kale smoothies. I know, sounds horrible. But they are great! Banana, handful of torn kale, some yogurt, wheat germ, ground flax seed, and for sweetener I use chopped dates that have been soaked in a little hot water to soften. You could use a little maple syrup if desired. I blend in my Vitamix for about a minute. I also throw in a peach or pear or other fruit if they are in season. Very yummy.
36 Vi // Sep 4, 2009 at 10:58 am
We like kale minced fine and added to mashed potatoes or added to the soup pot just before serving. I believe most frozen vegies are best used within six months for maximum nutrition, but they retain their taste longer than that.
37 mavis Hintermeister // Sep 5, 2009 at 11:17 am
I use Kale all summer in smoothies..kale, banana, apple, pineapple, carrot, or whatever you want to add..base using orange juice..also we love kale mixed in mashed potatoes, delicious.
I too was looking for a way to freeze Kale. will it be ok to put in smoothies after being frozen?
38 Rebecca // Sep 19, 2009 at 6:08 pm
awsome! Thank you for posting this. I too found some basic directions on freezing but your directions are so detailed I feel confident that I can pull this off like a pro. I've recently begun to get more interested in ways to preserve my excess produce, especially as we had such a great year due to our addition of three chickens to our household (outside in a coop of course) and the manure tea we make from their wastes. Our garden loved it, and now we have been overwhelmed. I've been learning to can as we have had a million tomatoes (slight exaggeration)made many loaves of zucchini bread, and Kale has been coming out our ears. Have given some to friends, family, and neighbors but it is neverending. This was our first attempt at growing Kale, and I hadnt really had much experience withit before, its worked out great and now i love it! Thanks again for the info about how to freeze it properly, and to all who offered recipe ideas, I am going to try that spanikopita recipe soon.
39 Sandra Smith // Sep 29, 2009 at 5:40 pm
I planted Kale this year for the first time. I love it. I coarsely chop it stems and all but not the largest stems. I simmer it in a little bit of chicken buillion with a chopped green onion and some pepper. I simmer it about 4-5 minutes or so. It tastes like mild spinach to me but a nicer texture. A little butter on it is even better once you drain it.
40 tallulah // Oct 10, 2009 at 2:22 pm
I just harvested a huge amount of kale from a local community garden. I've never liked how much color leeches into blanching water (makes me suspicious that a lot of nutrients are being lost, ditto for the ice water bath. even the washing of cut greens seems to leech a lot of color into the water.
That said, I washed them whole. then I also used the same stem removed method mentioned by 'em', and 'blanched them in only a inch of water for about 2 min. covered, stirring a couple of times with a tongs. Then using the tongs I put the kale into a large colander and toss to cool. Then in the same colander, I 'chopped' them with a scissors, spread on a foil lined baking sheet, covered with another layer of foil, froze until 'set', then put into largish zip-lock bags.
After blanching 3-4 batches I poured the water into a cup and drank it! No vitamins lost here, smile.
I've been Harvesting and freezing this kale all week, and yesterday I cooked a frozen batch and it tasted exactly like fresh kale.
41 tallulah // Oct 10, 2009 at 4:43 pm
If Terry or any of the kale smoothie drinkers check back in, I'd love to know what machine you are making your smoothies in: a blender, food processor or a juicer? doubt it's a juicer since you are using bananas and orange juice,
but i can't imagine anything else handling the kale.
I'd love to try it so please explain. I have a juicer which is packed away, no blender, but i do have a food processor, 1) would this work? 2)What could i expect: a puree, or would it just be a very fine chop?
I totally trust you kale smoothie drinkers when you say it's delicious, but it's hard to imagine! Still I'm definitely going to try it once I hear back from you experts. Thanks for anyone's in-put
42 tallulah // Oct 10, 2009 at 4:49 pm
sorry terry just saw that you are using a vitamix machine. When i read that the first time I was thinking Vitamix was a vitamin powder.
but i can't exactly remember what a vitamix machine is. i'm thinking it's a super powerful blender rather than a juicer, right? So a food processor is probably not going to do the job, right?
43 Dore // Oct 20, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Yummy, yummy on kale smoothies - an easy blender treat. Slightly chunky consistency - the Vitamix would liquefy it. I use roughly equal amounts of kale and ripe/overripe seasonal fruit with enough water/juice so the blender can handle it.
Prep: Just strip the leaves. Fruit goes in with the skin. Last week, after apple pie, used just the apple peels. In the summer, I use watermelon, now it is fall - dropped pears. Carrot tops, turnip tops - anything green or fruit is fair game. Refrigerated, it keeps in a wide mouth sports bottle for awhile.
44 Pam // Oct 28, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I think I recognize 'Beedy's Camden' kale. Am I right? If so, that explains your newfound love of kale. I grew this variety for the first time this year and am loving it! Thanks fr the freezing directions. So far it's holding up in the garden, but sooner or later ...
45 megan // Oct 28, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Pam - I bought this kale at my local natural market so I don't know what kind of kale it is. It really good though, nice firm leaves and lots of surface.
46 Pat // Oct 31, 2009 at 11:08 am
Hi, I am making smoothies daily so I bought a large bunch of kale and pureed it in the Vitamix with a bit of water . Then froze the 'mush' in ice cube trays and dumped them into freezer bags , Now I pop one out to add to our daily smoothie and we can have some all winter. Has anyone else tried this?
47 Sue Olson // Dec 4, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I too was thinking freeze the green water in ice cube trays but my thought was to drop it into the kids smoothies. There must be some nutrients in there and even if there isn't the placebo effect will work wonders for the mommy part of me:)
Also one big thank you for this post - wilted ruined vegetables really does a number on me - the GUILT that once again I did not eat healthy like I said I would when I was in the grocery store...I feel liberated:)
48 Priscilla F. // Dec 7, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Googled "freezing kale" and found this site. Good directions - thanks! It's the beginning of December - woke up this morning with 3 inches of snow on our kale (SW Wisconsin) and decided I really did have to do something with it if I was going to preserve it's great nutritional benefits for the rest of the non-garden season! It held up extremely well through many hard frosts, below freezing nights, and snow, but can't imagine it will hold up in forecasted blizzard-like conditions, so time to get to work!
49 Kim P // Dec 7, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Well,
I tried it both ways (blanching/not blanching). Blanching works for me! I did notice the difference in the taste; the bitterness was gone. Thanks so much for the tip.
50 Joe D. // Dec 16, 2009 at 9:02 pm
We harvested all of the remaining kale and chard from our garden last week, prior to an expected snow storm. We've had many frosts here in central Massachusetts, and the kale is so much sweeter because of it. We grow Russian, Winterbor, and Redbor kale. We followed instructions here for the blanching (many batches) and have a huge amount to freeze. We'll add it to bean soups and saute it with garlic. We decided to leave the leaf ribs (not stems, though) for variety and crunch. We blanched the kale first, and the blanching water was quite green. After the chard (the multicolor "bright lights" variety), the water took on a deep ruby color. We'll refrigerate the water and use it for rice and soups over this coming cold week. Thanks so much for all the ideas!
51 Things that are delicious: Kale. « well fed, flat broke // Jan 5, 2010 at 10:06 pm
[...] 1 lb. kale, washed, large stems removed, and blanched [...]
52 lyn // Jan 22, 2010 at 8:30 am
Thanks for the info., I never thought of trimming the stems. I find that I like it better with the chewy stems.
53 Imp and Arn » Blog Archive » Eating from a box // Jan 24, 2010 at 9:06 pm
[...] enough leafy green in there to last a month. I followed a how-to from NotMartha for blanching and freezing kale, and you can see a bag of the frozen greens in the bottom of that pic. I haven’t eaten [...]
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