8 Methods to Protect and Retailer Kale

Kale is a superb inexperienced to develop in any house backyard. It’s quick rising and really chilly hardy. It self-seeds and is filled with taste and vitamins. Both recent or preserved, kale is an equally nutritious different to spinach in lots of recipes. 

Due to its lengthy and prolific rising season, you would possibly end up with extra kale irrespective of how a lot you eat. If that’s the case, there are a number of methods to protect it for later use.

Maintain Kale Rising

There are a number of kinds of kale you could develop and lots of are extremely chilly and frost tolerant.

Kale grows finest within the cooler spring and fall temperatures. The summer time warmth will often drive it to bolt and go to seed. Sometimes, curly leaf kales are extra chilly hardy than flat-leaf kales. In zone 5 you’ll be able to anticipate curly kales to remain leafy and inexperienced till no less than Christmas.

You’ll be able to prolong this time by including plastic over hoops to your kale patch or rising it in a chilly body or greenhouse 12 months spherical.

Kale is a self-seeding plant, so final 12 months’s seeds will begin to germinate within the very early spring. Kale seeds may even be sown instantly onto the final snows of the season. The simplest choice for preserving kale could be to maintain it rising all 12 months spherical if you happen to can.

Professionals:

• Takes up no area within the house
• Stays recent

Cons:

• Received’t work in each local weather
• Extra harvest requires storage

Ferment Your Kale

In case you’re a fan of fermented meals or their well being advantages, you would possibly contemplate fermenting your extra kale. Kale may be fermented in the identical methods cabbage is was sauerkraut. This implies you’ll be able to retailer your kale within the pantry, however fermented meals and fermented kale should not everybody’s cup of tea.

Professionals:

• Simple
• Shops at room temperature
• Requires no warmth

Cons:

• To not everybody’s style

Can Your Kale

If fermented kale isn’t your factor, it’s simply as environment friendly to pressure-can it. Stress-canning is an environment friendly option to put together kale for room temperature storage as a result of you’ll be able to anticipate 28 kilos of kale to can all the way down to 7 quarts. It’s best to observe the nationwide middle for house meals preservation tips when canning any meals together with kale.

Professionals:

• Room-temperature storage
• Price-effective

Cons:

Blanch and Freeze Your Kale

Frozen kale stays inexperienced and scrumptious offered it has been blanched first. If in case you have the area obtainable, frozen kale can be utilized as you cook dinner with frozen spinach. 

You’ll be able to course of and retailer massive quantities of kale pretty simply by eradicating the stems and slicing them up, blanching for 2 to a few minutes, eradicating extra moisture, after which freezing in no matter parts are handy for you. As soon as frozen, parts may be grouped right into a single container or bag.

Professionals:

• Requires no particular gear

Cons:

Freeze-Dry Your Kale

Freeze-dried kale is just like dehydrated kale besides that it retains its vibrant inexperienced colour and much more vitamins.

In case you are set as much as freeze-dry at house, it’s price experimenting with a number of batches of kale. Kale may be freeze-dried in any dimension, however leaves ought to have their woody stems eliminated first. For the reason that sugar content material of kale is low, you gained’t need to line the trays. 

Professionals:

• Maintains vitamins and inexperienced colour
• Room-temperature storage
• Arguably probably the most scrumptious option to retailer kale

Cons:

• Excessive value of equipment
• Freeze dryers are massive and noisy

Dehydrate Your Kale

Kale is a first-rate candidate for preservation by dehydration. When dehydrated, it’s shelf secure for a really very long time and retains its distinct taste. Kale must be de-stemmed earlier than dehydration and may be processed into totally different sizes relying on desire. 

Dehydrating kale makes use of an amazing quantity of plant materials and condenses it to take up comparatively little area. Whereas it’s technically attainable to make use of an oven to dehydrate kale, if you happen to’re going to course of loads, it will be finest to put money into a dehydrator. 

Professionals:

• Room-temperature storage
• No particular gear required

Cons:

• Reduces dietary content material

Powder Your Kale

Essentially the most space-efficient option to protect kale is to dry it and make it right into a powder. You should utilize a meals processor or blender to make it. Typically, a cup of greens will yield a couple of tablespoon of inexperienced powder. 

The ensuing inexperienced powder may be saved on the pantry shelf and utilized in every little thing from baked items to smoothies. A phrase of warning although. Kale powders may be simpler to make than they’re to make use of up. Solely protect as a lot kale powder as you’re prone to truly use. 

Professionals:

• Area environment friendly 
• Room-temperature storage
• Simple to sneak into different meals

Cons:

• Simpler to make than to make use of up

Add Kale to Different Preserved Meals

Kale is an easy-to-grow superfood, nevertheless it isn’t everybody’s favourite style, particularly for kids. It’s a kind of meals that you simply both love or hate. If it isn’t a meals you essentially need to eat by itself, you’ll be able to sneak it into different preserved meals for a dietary enhance. 

• Veggie burger patties
• Soups
• Floor meats
• Spaghetti sauces
• Casseroles
• Chocolate muffins, loaves, and brownies
• Granola
• Protein/vitality bites
• Veggie nuggets
• Chilis

Why Kale?

Kale is an easy-to-grow superfood you’ll be able to produce in your backyard virtually year-round, even in colder climates. It may take the place of lettuce in salads and burgers whereas offering extra vitamins and nutritional vitamins than lettuce.

Kale is a superb supply of fiber, antioxidants, nutritional vitamins A, C, and Okay, calcium, and iron plus it has a scrumptious recent style!

Kale will begin producing early within the spring and develop late into the autumn. It’s going to even stay inexperienced and edible nicely into the winter in chilly climates. Since it’s quick rising you could possibly develop a crop of kale in your backyard earlier than or after your common crop of greens in the identical area, possibly even each!

The Many Makes use of for Kale

A flexible vegetable, kale isn’t only for salad. In truth, there’s no scarcity of makes use of for kale. With the methods we shared above, you can also make kale into a number of different ready-to-consume merchandise. Listed below are just some:

Smoothies 

Kale may be mixed with different vegetables and fruit and made into frozen cubes prepared in your morning smoothie by mixing and freezing. As soon as frozen, the cubes may be bagged collectively for simple use. You can even use recent, freeze-dried, or powdered kale in smoothies.

Pureed

You’ll be able to puree kale to make use of as an addition to dips, sauces, and condiments. You can also make a pre-made pesto and freeze it in small batches to apply it to pasta and meat dishes. 

Chips

Maybe the tastiest option to protect kale is to freeze-dry it or dehydrate it into scrumptious kale chips. You’ll be able to season and spritz kale chips along with your favourite oil or juice for a yummy snack. I might wager the most well-liked kale recipe on the web is for some model of kale chips! 

As chips, in salad, or added to your favourite soup, you’ll don’t have any bother discovering a use in your preserved kale—irrespective of the way you resolve to retailer it.