Reduce Kale’s Bitterness by Rinsing It Twice | Cook's Illustrated (2024)

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Reduce Kale’s Bitterness by Rinsing It Twice | Cook's Illustrated? ›

But you should rinse after prepping too. All of your prep leads to the creation of pungent isothiocyanates. By rinsing after prepping, you can remove some of the isothiocyanates for milder kale leaves that need less dressing to taste good.

Cutting the stem of kale and marinating it with olive oil and salt can help reduce bitterness.

Massaging kale for salad makes the vegetable more palatable by releasing its bitter compounds and—as a result—making the kale less bitter. This simple process breaks down the vegetable's fibrous texture, making it more tender, easier to chew, and more digestible.

Tuscan Kale

Tuscan kale goes by many names. Among them are dinosaur kale, cavolo nero, and black kale. This kale has longer spear-like leaves with a pebbled appearance and a dark, mottled green color. Its flavor is deep and earthy — it's less bitter than curly leafed, with an almost-nutty sweetness.

Bitter greens are leafy greens or vegetables that have an intense bitter flavor profile. They include kale, mustard greens, collards, turnip greens, broccoli rabe, radicchio, chicory, and endive. The bitterness comes from chemical compounds called glucosinolates that can be found in the Brassica family.

Sweetness: From sugar, honey, fruits or otherwise, sweetness will counteract bitter and sour flavours. It can also be used to cut down the heat of a particularly spicy meal. Saltiness: Salt plays two very important roles in flavouring a dish. Firstly, it balances against bitterness.

The Fix: Balance bitter flavors by introducing something salty, sweet, or sour. For naturally bitter foods such as kale, you can soften the flavor by add a lemony vinaigrette, Parmesan cheese, and pomegranate seeds. You can also elevate kale by tossing it olive oil and salt, then roasting it in the oven until crispy.

Kale is fibrous and can be difficult to munch compared to other greens like romaine lettuce or spinach. The rubbing, kneading motion helps to tenderize the veg and make it easier to chew and digest. Try this for raw kale you are going to be serving or eating right away.

Why You Should Soak Kale. Not only does soaking kale tenderize it, it also pulls double duty by cleaning it and improving the flavor at the same time. It produces the same results as massaging, with a fraction of the work.

How to Massage Kale. Our go-to method: Add chopped kale to a large bowl and top with lemon juice and olive oil. Use clean hands to massage for about 3 minutes to soften the leaves and infuse the leaves with the oil and lemon. A pinch of salt added near the end of massaging adds even more flavor.

Is baby kale as healthy as regular kale? ›

Olivia's Organics Baby Kale offers all the flavor and nutritional benefits of its full-grown kale counterpart, but its leaves are more tender and it cooks more quickly. That makes it an ideal healthy addition to salads and cooked recipes as well as a standout side dish.

As far as taste, kale can tend to be more bitter than spinach, but also holds its shape better in cooking.

1. Bitter gourd. Bitter melon, or bitter melon, is a green melon, similar in shape to a cucumber but with rough skin and a very bitter taste.

Place the clean leaves in the sink or a big bowl and fill it with water. Add 3-4 tablespoons of baking soda and 1/2 cup of vinegar to the water. Mix and let rest at least 20 minutes. Rinse and drain the kale leaves.

But, you can also tame the flavors by adding a little sweetness to the mix too, such as a pinch of white or brown sugar or even a bit of honey or other liquid sweeteners like agave nectar or maple syrup. Just be sure to add in a little at a time when cooking so your kale doesn't come out too sweet.

Adding kale to your meals

Kale holds its texture well when cooked, and it can be steamed, stir-fried, roasted or eaten raw. You can blend it into smoothies, roast it to make kale chips, wilt it into soup, mash it with potatoes or turn it into pesto.

Raw kale is fibrous, bitter and can be tough to chew. Blanching it helps soften its fibers and bitterness while making it easier to chew. You definitely don't always have to blanch kale.

Kale can be frozen without blanching but should be used within 4 weeks. Blanching greens before freezing stops the naturally-occurring ripening enzymes in the leaves. This will ensure that the leaves taste fresh and will not develop a bitter taste. Blanched kale will last up to 1 year in the freezer.