recipes

57 Kale Recipes That Go Way Beyond Salad

Kale salads! Sautéed kale! Steamed kale! We just really love kale.
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Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Susie Theodorou, Prop Styling by Sophie Strangio

Kale, kale, kale! We just really love the hearty, healthy green. If you do too, we’ve got all kinds of kale recipes that show off the variety of ways to put it to work—whether that’s baked with coconut flakes and nutritional yeast, blended into a smoothie with avocado, subbed in for basil in a pesto, covered in chicken schmaltz and served up with rice... or, massaged into salads, too, of course. So, come along, grab a head or two of the Lacinato or curly variety, and cook these kale recipes with us.

  • Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Yekaterina Boytsova
    3/57

    Greens Gratin With All the Cheese

    Here's a fun party trick: Ask your friends to guess how many pounds of greens went into this supremely cheesy gratin. Three huge bunches of kale (and/or chard) get drowned in garlic- and rosemary-infused cream, then blanketed in cheddar cheese and panko and sent into a hot oven, where they sizzle and shrink. 

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  • Photo by Heidi's Bridge, styling by Molly Baz
    4/57

    Winter Crunch Salad

    Shredded brussels and kale, salty cheese, sweet-tart apple, and crunchy seeds make for a borderline addictive salad.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Susie Theodorou, Prop Styling by Sophie Strangio
    5/57

    Kale Pesto With Whole Wheat Pasta

    This kale pesto inspired us to keep spreading the word that there is still no better or more delicious way to eat your greens.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau, Food Styling by Sue Li, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski
    6/57

    Chickpea Pancakes With Kale and Fennel

    Savory chickpea flour pancakes, also known as socca, require just four ingredients (including water).

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  • Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Michelle Gatton
    13/57

    Soba Noodles With Crispy Kale

    These soba noodles with crispy kale chips and a nutty tahini-honey-soy dressing are a hearty vegetarian weeknight dinner—or make-ahead lunch.

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  • Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Pearl Jones
    14/57

    Fideos With Chicken Thighs and Kale

    With a crispy, toasted top hiding saucy, tomato-y noodles, this one-skillet broken spaghetti dish is anything but one-note.

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  • Laura Murray
    23/57

    Cold Sesame Noodles With Broccoli and Kale

    Instead of deep-frying the broccoli in this sesame noodles recipe, we used a high-heat roasting method and swapped the restaurant’s sesame brittle for toasted seeds. Similar flavors; easier to make at home.

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  • Alex Lau
    24/57

    Kale BLT Salad

    Thick slab bacon is key to this dish. Buy it packaged if you can find it or from the butcher.

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  • Alex Lau
    27/57

    Overnight Oats With Soft-Cooked Egg and Miso-Braised Kale

    The components in this recipe sound a little out there, but trust us.

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  • Christopher Testani
    28/57

    Kale Minestrone with Pistou

    For rave-worthy soups, skip the store-bought stock. You can extract a cleaner, stronger broth from a combination of water and several pantry ingredients. It’s all about layering powerful flavor-enhancers that you probably already have on hand—bacon, tomato paste, herbs, peppercorns, a Parm rind, and, of course, kosher salt.

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