- Today I wanna show you
a new way to use kale.
Have you ever thought of kale pesto?
Here we go.
Hey everyone, today, at Garden Fork,
kale in a way you've
probably never had before.
Kale pesto, hold on.
- [Camera Woman] Oh,
he went the other way.
- A lot of times when you
think pesto, you think basil.
This year, had fairly bad crop of basil.
We got a ton of kale though
and you can take kale instead
of just kind of sauteing it
or putting it in a vegetable stew,
you can make pesto out of it
and we're gonna do that
today on Garden Fork.
- [Camera Woman] Have
you done this before?
- Nope.
Gotta throw the ball.
Oops.
All right, first off, you've
got your choice of kales here.
Anything will work.
Kale is like one of those super foods.
This is wicked simple, another way
to get your kids to eat kale
and not really tell 'em it's kale
or your husband or
whatever, just feed 'em this
and they're gonna go,
"Oh, this is really good."
So we just take our kale.
I usually harvest from the bottom up.
- [Camera Woman] It
just rained, too, right?
- Just rained but you can
take your whole stems.
I just break 'em off.
I mean, you can take your,
if you have garden cutters
or whatever those things are called.
I mean, you can see here our basil is not,
it's not doin' really well this year.
It's a really small patch.
So that's why I oped to
make kale pesto today.
Quick, harvest kale.
This is purple stem kale.
- [Camera Woman] Do you
want the older leaves
or the younger leaves?
Or the bug bitten leaves?
- The older leaves are more
tender, I would opt for medium
or young leaves.
The older leaves, they're just kinda tough
and I think their flavor isn't as good.
You can also harvest
this after a hard frost
and the leaves are really sweeter.
That'd be a really cool pesto.
Kale's an amazing plant.
I mean, once it gets
goin', it goes and goes.
Our kale goes through the winter.
We actually have a video about
how to save seed for kale.
There's a link in the show notes
and at the end of the show.
Kale's just amazing.
Bunch of different varieties.
It's gonna be fun.
Ready to go in the kitchen?
- [Camera Woman] Yeah.
- Here we go.
- [Camera Woman] Can
you eat some dirt first?
Oh, that was last week.
- Last week I ate some dirt.
Oops.
- [Camera Woman] Was that a bug?
- No, some dirt.
We have our kale here and when
you wanna de-stem the kale,
most people use a knife and
they'll cut the stem out
and then you've got your kale here.
- [Camera Woman] Like, de-boned.
- And you've got your stem here.
I'm gonna show you the cool Eric way,
which I can't remember who I
learned this from, all right?
One hand you grab the end,
the other hand you grab the two sides
and you kind of loosely pull it like that
and you've de-stemmed your kale.
- [Camera Woman] Wow.
- [Eric] So again we just
grab this, like that,
and you've destemmed your kale.
- [Camera Woman] How much
kale do you need for this?
You don't know, do you?
- You know, it's kind of
a use what you've got.
I think this'll probably
be about four cups.
You can fill, like, a quart
Pyrex thing with this.
It's a lot of this is by taste.
I'm kinda showin' you a method
rather than a recipe here.
But the show notes will
include links to the recipe.
First thing I wanna do,
is I'm going to mash up
or mince once clove of garlic.
The garlic is kinda eye of the
beholder, how much you want,
but I have this theory or I
like to let this be exposed
to air for a while before
I put it into the pesto.
I think that makes the
garlic a little more aromatic
and less bitter.
I think I read that maybe
in Cooks Illustrated
but it's just what I do.
Cheese is really important here.
Don't cheap out on your cheese.
Don't buy the pre-grated stuff in the tub.
It tastes like cardboard, I think.
This is a pecorino romano.
You can also use Parmesan or reggiano
but this is a little less expensive
and it has more of a salty taste.
The Parmesan has kind of a creamier taste,
but I like this so that's what we use.
Box grater, block of
cheese, grate some cheese.
We're probably gonna do, like, a really,
like, a overflowing cup of grated cheese.
- [Camera Woman] A mountain of?
- A mountain of cheese but
if you like more cheese,
you can use more but start out with, like,
a hefty cup of cheese.
So, about a, let's say a cup
and a half of grated cheese.
Save this for more cheese
or you can put this in soup.
- [Camera Woman] Big block to put in soup.
- What's really cool
is you can do this now.
- [Camera Woman] I bet they know that.
- All right, maybe that's
two cups of cheese.
Walnuts, bit cup of walnuts.
You can toast your
walnuts if you have time
and think about it,
just in a nonstick pan,
toast 'em up, it kind
of enhances the flavor.
I forgot to do that.
Food processor, kale.
Don't cheap out, really
good extra virgin olive oil.
The super cheap stuff in the store,
I'm not an expert, it, but,
get the good stuff, okay?
- [Camera Woman] He's an expert.
- It's about a cup of olive oil.
- [Camera Woman] Or two.
- I like to put the leaves in first,
then the olive oil on top,
'cause then it drizzles through,
makes it easier to chop up.
- [Camera Woman] Your faux toasted nuts.
Are you supposed to add the cheese now
or did you forget before?
- There just wasn't room.
So I just kind of spun
it down a little bit
and then I add in the cheese.
I'm not gonna put all this cheese in.
That's about a cup and
a half of the cheese
and then don't forget the garlic.
- [Camera Woman] Don't forget
the garlic, that's really key.
- [Eric] All right, you see
how this is kind of bunched up?
So, just open up your processor.
I like the rubber spatula.
Don't put your hands in there.
So just turn it down again.
This looks great.
- [Camera Woman] Pretty easy, huh?
- Yeah, it's, I love it.
It's like pesto, I think
is from Latin or Italian,
meaning, like, mortar and pestle.
Pesto used to be made by
mashing leaves and oil and nuts
in a mortar and pestle,
and I think that's where
the name pesto came from.
Maybe Chris Kimball
could tell us that, huh?
- [Camera Woman] Or Wikipedia.
- Yeah.
You should always test
this before you take it out
of the food processor.
Rarely do we need to adjust it, but.
Wow, it doesn't taste like
that bitter kale thing.
It has a certain, well a
creaminess form the cheese,
the nuttiness is nice.
There's a little hint of,
the garlic flavor will grow
if you put it in the fridge.
I always like to drizzle
a little olive oil
on top of the dish, just a little.
Olive oil's very healthy for you, okay.
You can mix this up if you're a mixer.
Some people are, like, a portion
and a little bit of pasta
kind of person.
- [Camera Woman] What
kind of person are you?
- I'm a kale pesto kind of person.
- [Camera Woman] Is it a winner?
- This could be chopped up a little more.
You can, the leaves still have
a texture but I like that.
We have more pesto videos, by the way,
there's a link in the show notes here
and at the end of the show.
You wanna try it?
- [Camera Woman] Yeah.
- Here, it's good.
- [Camera Woman] You're good.
- All right, make it a great day.
Subscribe if you want more of these shows.
We put shows out every week.
Questions or comments, leave 'em below.
See ya.
- [Camera Woman] It's good.
