Preserving Kale

I've been getting a lot of kale in my farm baskets lately, and I'm running out of ways to use it before it goes bad.  I hate to see any food go to waste, let alone local organic produce.  I've tried to make kale chips, but I have to confess, I haven't been successful.  I've only succeeded in over-baking them and ending up with charred kale dust.  I love using kale in smoothies, but can't possibly use it all up in time and make smoothies my family will drink.  Kale has a strong taste in smoothies, so I can't use as much as I'd like.  And with kale being a fairly new ingredient in my kitchen, I haven't established my go-to recipes for it just yet. 
**Enter Lightbulb Moment**

Freeze it!  Gosh I love my deep freeze, it's already paid for itself a few times over in the food it's preserved for our family.  I remembered a comment on one of my previous posts where my frugal foodie hero, The Cheapskate Cook, mentioned how she was blending kale in her blender to freeze and her toddler was saying, "Yum!"  This comment stuck out with me since I haven't met many toddlers who get excited about kale.  And I'm glad, because it reminded me of a way to preserve my abundance of kale. 

Woo Hoo, another excuse to use my VitaMix! 

I rinsed the kale and tore it into pieces, discarding the largest parts of the stem.  Added a bit of water to the blender.  I would imagine that the amount of water you need will vary depending on the blender you're using. 

Once mine was blended, I put it in the silicone ice cube trays I used to freeze homemade baby food when Baby Boy was on pureed food. 

Froze the kale, and VOILA, perfectly portioned kale cubes.  Oh the possibilities!  I can put them in smoothies easily and drop them in sauces to add some nutrition (Shhh! don't tell the kids).  I imagine I could even defrost them and add a cube to a chocolate zucchini bread and nobody would even know, mwa ha ha! 


Do you have any ideas or recipes which might incorporate these green cubes of nutritional goodness?


Find this tip and other great ideas for reducing food waste over at :



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