BBQ Kale


Oy!  How long has it been since I popped in and shared something?  Waaaaaaaaay too long.  No worries, everything is alright, just have had other things on my plate - no not literally, well maybe just a little, but between being busy and suddenly having what can only be described as mind boggling frustration in the kitchen, I had to take a bit of a breather.  

See, I'm not a mega super hero pro-blogger with lots of artsy photos and plans to take this to the moon (though in it's own time that would be lovely).  This is more of a hobby of mine, and a way of helping out folks in the Low-Carb community, the same community from which I derived tremendous amounts of support and knowledge.  I get side tracked.  I end up with a file full of photos of food I want to share, but can't string together 3 sentences about it since I'm distracted by the lingering list of things to do (and my own gnat like attention span).  As much as I want to tell you expect a ton more stuff from me in the next few weeks, it's probably a safer bet that I'll be busy forgetting clothes in the wash machine, getting that oil change I've put off for a few hundred thousand miles more than I was supposed to, doing some weird project I found on pinterest, or burning yet another pan of low-carb goodies.  You never know though, sometimes I even surprise myself.

One of my absolute favorite bloggers on the planet is DJ Foodie.  Not only are his recipes top notch, but his stories and sense of humor always have me cracking up.  But he's a chef with a crazy amount of experience cooking...  I can't possibly cook like that!  Oh yes you can!  He has recipes all over the spectrum from super easy to hey I'm up for a challenge and don't mind something a little more tedious.  I have yet to make one of his recipes and be disappointed.

This one is a little funny.  I've never made kale in any other way than a kale chip.  I don't really love those, though they're good in their own right.  I guess it's because I hate calling things by a different name.  Chips are chips.  Kale chips are more like kale sharp crinkley things.  I guess that's not very appealing sounding, but it's not a chip.  Wanting to add more kale into my repertoire, I searched for kale recipes that were anything but a chip.  Not really impressed by kale before, there was little hope that this Garlicky BBQ Kale recipe was going to do it for me.  Well, it did.  

At first approach, I balked at the amount of garlic the recipe called for.  Even though I know garlic sweetens up, I still had my reservations.  So, I used only a little.  While it was still pretty good, it just didn't feel right.  Next approach I went full on vampire repellant.  I still may not have put in as much garlic, but that was only because, well, I just didn't have enough!  My tiny heads of garlic just didn't have that many cloves.  Still and all, I put a lot of garlic in there.  I even put a really cool method of peeling garlic to the test!  Check out this video right here from Peace Love & Low Carb.  While I still had a few stubborn peels, the majority were off!  Cool!!! 

My final verdict, use the garlic, and a smidgeon less bbq sauce.  I settled on 3 tablespoons so I can pick up on more of the surprising sweetness from the kale, and less of the sauce.

If you're still in induction, be extra tedious about how you measure your garlic and kale since they are on the carbier side.  My suggestion would be to remove the thick stems, then weigh the kale before you wash it so you have an accurate measure of how much kale you really are putting in the pot.  Same with the garlic.  While I have NO qualms whatsoever blowing my carb allowance on an extra serving of kale, I really think the first two weeks of induction should be adhered to as best as possible, and the extra steps of being accurate and counting are worth it.  

Are you still reading all of this?  Come on!  Grab your kale and get cooking!  Closer to maintenance and have a few more carbs to play with?  Throw a little thin sliced red onion in with the garlic.  You can find the recipe for DJ Foodie's Garlicky BBQ Kale right here.

Enjoy!!

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