My friend Rebekah was the one who really got me thinking about eating healthy food. She’s done a fabulous job at finding recipes that are delicious and nutritious and she graciously made me veggie burgers and healthy waffles while I exercised my taste buds on things I had never eaten before. One of the things that blew my mind was kale chips, which you can find her recipe here.  I had never really eaten lettuce, and here I was- munching away on kale and not gagging.

When we got our CSA last week, one of the things that came was red russian kale. First, I want you to be amazed that we knew what it is because we’ve already mistaken our turnips for rutabegas, and I just discovered today that the “lettuce” that I’ve been eating is acutally mustard greens. (I had a very awkward exchange with a woman at Whole Foods because I got excited and I was trying to show Alex what we were really eating and she thought I was excited about the organic cilantro. Alex and I also both almost passed out from some disgusting rotting fruit smell while we were trying to get our black beans in their bulk section. Not a super successful shopping trip at Whole Foods.) Second, we were slightly intimidated by red russian kale. Neither of us really love kale chips, so the prospect of having to eat them for two weeks was a little daunting.

I started looking for recipes and I stumbled across this one from Forks over Knives . Forks over Knives is also a really well-thought out documentary that’s available on Netflix. The books has more information and recipes for organic, fresh, nutrient dense food. I found this recipe for Lemon Kale Sandwiches that sounded okay so I tried it.

Oh. My. Gosh. When I find a song that I really really like, I can play it on repeat for hours and hours and never get tired of it. Let’s just say this recipe is a little something like that. After I ate it, I called Alex (twice) at work to tell him about it (he didn’t answer), I sent him an email and told him what page it’s on in the book, dreamed about eating it again the next day, and then had three more that week.  This recipe is the bomb. You wouldn’t think someone could get so excited about eating kale, but I can…and I did.  No, it is not like eating an ice cream sundae or a deep dish pizza but it’s pretty darn good and it’s super healthy so you know you’re doing your body some good.

So, here it is, people. (I’ve tweaked the recipe a little because I’m not a professional chef and I wanted to make it as fast as possible, so that I could eat it).

Kale-Lemon Sandwiches

Ingredients

-Some sort of bread- I used really long baguettes that I got at Kroger. You can toast them yourself. The texture seemed just right for this sandwich, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

-1/2 lemon

-Bunch of kale, chopped into bite size pieces, stems removed (not really an exact amount- but go crazy, you’ll want more, rather than less)

-Hummus (homemade or store bought would suffice)

– Tomato slices (optional)

Instructions

1. Toast the bread. I throw my half-baguette on a cookie sheet in the oven for about 10 minutes on 300 degrees. It needs to be toasty, at least on the outside.

2. Get a small pot of boiling water. Throw the kale in and boil for about 4 minutes, until it has the consistency of raw spinach. I actually did a little research (because I was obsessing about this sandwich) and found out that cooked kale is better for you than raw. The heat unlocks some sort of enzyme that helps lower your cholesterol.

3. Throw the kale into a strainer and shake it like a polaroid picture to get the water off. Squeeze the half lemon over the kale. Make sure you get all that lemony goodness out of the lemon and onto your kale.

4. Take out the bread and half down the middle (like a sandwich). Spread a layer of hummus on the bread.

5. Add the kale and tomato.

6. Destroy the sandwich and leave the kale stuck in your teeth as a reminder to the rest of humanity that you ate the most delicious, nutritious vegetable known to man.

If you think this might sound good, then I encourage you to try it. The red russian kale was really delcious. I haven’t tried it with the regular green stuff you can buy in the grocery store, but I bet it would be fine. I did make a Lemon-Mustard Green sandwich, which was also good, but not as good as the kale.

Enjoy it, you foodies!

God's favorite sandwich