The Aftermath: Kale and Spinach Side Dish

Dawn's Kale and Spinach Side Dish

So, we made our Kale and Spinach Side Dish on Saturday. It was pretty good all in all. I want to thank all my friends who posted comments on Facebook about the dish.

I learned some things that I want to share with my blog readers. Special nod to Deb, who pointed out a basic fact. We were using something called lacinato kale. It is firmer and less curly than regular kale. It is also sometimes called Dinosaur or black kale and its leaves are darker, sometimes even blue. When raw, ours looked pretty dark, but as you can see from the photo above, it cooked up a nice deep green.

Kale and Spinach Side Dish

For our very first foray, we chose to bring home some kale and spinach. While in the grocery store, I looked up "kale recipes" on my phone and found a few gems, but ultimately Dawn's Kale Side Dish recipe won us over as it would go best with our whole wheat pasta pesto we were planning for dinner.

Bryan washed the kale and cut each leaf into thirds so it would be about the same size as the spinach.

We later discovered the spinach  just cooked away to very small pieces
(probably shouldn't have used baby spinach).

We were supposed to mince garlic and onions to help flavor the dish, but I  don't
quite have the chopping skills (or a nice enough knife) to chop that finely. I
can see how finer mincing would have improved the dish, but it
was still pretty tasty!

Roasting the cashews. Honestly, if you are in a hurry, I think you can skip this part.
Don't skip the cashews though! They really add a nice flavor. 

Start by sauteeing the onions in the olive oil, then add in the garlic 3-4 minutes later. 

You add the kale, white pepper, and sea salt next and cook it for about 5 minutes. I think I would cook it a little longer next time. Then you throw in the spinach (shown above) and toss for another minute or two.

Finally add the roasted cashews. Yummy!

We ate this meal as a side to our whole wheat pasta with basil pesto and parmesean cheese.

Check out The Aftermath for a post mortem on this meal.