BY HANS RUEFFERT
PHOTO BY HANS & AMY RUEFFERT

The world of food has its share of A-list “celebrity” ingredients. The tiniest sliver of white truffle can make a grown man swoon. The promise of a piece of foie gras can inspire a queue out the door and around the corner. Fresh, ripe mangosteens may fetch as much as $45 per pound, if you can even find them.

But I’d like to nominate a different kind of ingredient to join the ranks of these often-exotic foods. It’s not as sexy as foie gras or as elusive as a truffle, but it may well be one of the healthiest foods to ever grace a plate.

That ingredient, my friends, is kale.

I know you’re saying to yourself, “Is he talking about that bitter, crinkly, green stuff that I scrape to the side of the plate?” In a word ... yes! It’s true that, in the wrong hands, kale can be tough and bitter and that reputation has put it more on the D-list of ingredients. But with a bit of coaxing and a light hand, kale will soon become one of your “go to” staples in the kitchen.

Being a stomach cancer survivor, I consider the health properties of any ingredient to be as important (if not more so) as its taste. Kale is an amazing source of iron and chlorophyll, as well as vitamins C and A. Like all members of the Brassica family (cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, etc.), kale contains a high amount of the mineral sulfur, which has been used for centuries as a medicinal agent. In proper quantities, sulfur acts as a blood purifier and helps to prevent the buildup of toxins in the body. It also acts as an antiseptic agent in your digestive tract and has been shown to calm
and repair angry stomach ulcers. Research is showing that some types of cancer may originate due to sulfur deficiencies and that people whose diets were high in sulfur-containing plants were less like to develop those tumors.

The irony here is that those same sulfur compounds that make kale and its cousins so healthy are also responsible for their bitter reputation. Overcooking kale breaks down the sulfur and chlorophyl, leaving your house smelling a bit like an undiscovered Easter egg come Christmas and the kale itself tasting like an old flashlight battery. So the trick when cooking kale is to simply flash-heat the greens until they’re just wilted, but still vibrant in color. Better still, try incorporating thinly sliced raw kale into salads or even slaw. I’m especially fond of the combination of kale with the sweet/tart punch of cranberries and they’re both at their peak around the same time of year. When shopping for kale, look for young plants with vibrant green or purple leaves. As a general rule, the younger the plant, the sweeter (and subsequently less bitter) the leaves. The younger, smaller-leaved plants are also less fibrous, though you may still want to remove the outer leaves and thick stems. Thinly slicing those slightly older leavesm will cut right through some of those long fibers and reduce your “chew time” if you find your particular kale to be a little tough. There are dozens of varieties of kale that you’ll find in your local market, my favorite being the dark leaved Cavolo Nero, or dinosaur kale. It’s excellent tossed with your favorite salad greens or seared and swirled into a simple white bean soup. Let your imagination run and see what you can concoct with this versatile ingredient. Give it a chance and I bet you’ll count kale as one of your celebrity ingredients as well.

Author, chef and cancer survivor Hans Rueffert (hans@hanscooks.com) lives in North Georgia with his wife and two
foodie children. His book Eat Like There’s No Tomorrow is available at www.hanscooks.com or at his family’s restaurant, The Woodbridge Inn in Jasper, Georgia.

The author is not a physician or nutritionist. Please consult your physician if you have specific health questions or concerns.