My husband calls kale the rich person's greens and laughs at me because I say I like kale but not turnip greens. We're far from rich (and I can't tell that it's any more expensive than other greens), so that's clearly not why I like kale! The only thing I can figure out is that I STILL have memories of choking down turnip greens when I was a child, and I promised myself I wouldn't eat them as an adult. And I haven't. Odds are, I would like them as much as I like kale. But I'm sticking to my guns on this one. Besides, turns out kale is one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat. Kale is one of the best sources of beta-carotene as well as calcium, fiber, vitamins A, B6, and C, and folic acid. All great reasons to eat kale. Now throw pasta and cheese into the mix and there's really no excuse not to eat kale. In the recipe below, I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese simply because I had it on hand, but I'm sure the recipe would be good with the originally called for ricotta. This recipe is vegetarian, but I think meat would be really good in it as well. If you're adding meat, brown the meat and add it to the ricotta and goat cheese mxture.
Ingredients
1 tsp grapeseed oil or coconut oil
1 8-oz bunch kale, stems removed
1 15-oz package ricotta cheese
4 oz soft goat cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups tomatoe puree
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (I used cayenne pepper because I didn’t have red pepper flakes on hand)
6 whole wheat lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat 8-inch square baking pain with coconut oil.
Cook kale in large pot of boiling water 2 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water until cool enough to handle. Thorougly wring out kale, then chop. Season with salt and pepper if desired and set aside.
Mash together ricotta cheese and goat cheese in bowl and set aside.
Heat 1 tsp grapeseed or coconut oil over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook 15 seconds or until fragrant. Add tomato puree and red pepper flakes. Simmer 5 minutes or until thickened.
Spread 1/4 cup sauce in prepared baking pan. Place 2 lasagna noodles on top of sauce. Top with half of cheese mixture, half of kale, and 1/3 cup sauce. Top with two more noodles, remaining cheese and remaining kale. Top with last two lasagna noodles and cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Bake 40 minutes or until cheese has melted and lasagne is bubbly.
(Recipe from Vegetarian Times, January/February 2011).
No comments:
Post a Comment