A tasty, hearty winter salad for #foodlovers
I stayed with some friends in Ottawa for a bit during the summer of 1999. Glenn was doing his kayak-outfitting thing then and was also the stay-at-home parent. He would make lunch for us (his daughter Rachel and myself). One day, he made this super-tasty, warm, dark green dish with white beans and tuna. I thought he had just magically thrown some ingredients together in a fry pan on the stove. It was so tasty. I remember that dish because I think it was the first time I had tried kale.
I tried to make that dish for over 10 years, but was never very successful. And here in Switzerland, I can rarely find kale (it took me awhile to figure out here–where I live–kale is called “chou pommée”). One day last year, I saw it in the produce section of Migros and I snatched it up. My mouth started watering with the memory of that lunch my friend had made over a decade before. I brought it home and googled: “kale, tuna, white bean recipe.”
I finally found a recipe that works! Here it is:
Ingredients
1 bunch of kale (approximately .5 kg or 1 pound)
45 ml (3 tblsp) olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, pressed
60 g (1/4 cup) olives, chopped
60 g (1/4 cup) capers, drained
a dash of red pepper flakes
5 ml (1 tsp) sugar
1 can tuna in water, drained and flaked
250 ml or 1 can of cannellini or white beans, drained and rinsed
Salt & pepper
Directions
Bring 500 ml (2 cups) of water to boil in a large fry pan (I use my wok) and stuff in the chopped-up kale. Cover, and reduce the heat a bit. Boil for 5-8 minutes to cook the kale. Drain, and set aside.
Heat the olive oil (in the wok) on medium heat and add the onion for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute.
Add olives, capers and pepper flakes, cook and stir for 2 minutes.
Finally, add the tuna and white beans and mix it up to warm them up.
Gently press out the water from the kale. Turn onto a cutting board and roughly chop it up some more. Add the cooked kale and the teaspoon of sugar (the sugar really reduces the bitterness of the kale). Toss gently to mix it up. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Voilà! Ready to eat. We opened a bottle of Païen from Caprice du Temps.
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original recipe from a teaspoon of spice | #Swisswine #winelover : Caprice du Temps | why kale is a great friend with benefits
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