The other day I went to the store to buy some collard greens, but the store was sold out. In the produce department there was a large, colorful sign that said, “Collards are the new kale!” which may explain why there weren’t any left—everyone wanted to try this new, hip green. There was, however, plenty of kale.
Of course, like most Texans, I’ve been eating collards all my life. But I have to admit that prior to that day I’d never bought kale. Heck, I’m not even sure that I’d even eaten it despite its popularity and ubiquity the past couple of years. Mind you, I’m not averse to greens, but I usually opt for the ones that we grew—such as said collards, along with spinach, turnip greens, or Swiss chard—all of which made frequent appearances on my family’s table.
Because there weren’t any collards available that day, I decided it might not be a bad time to finally try kale. (I’ve always been a late adopter.) And since the store had plenty of it available, I picked up a bunch of lacinato kale, which is also delightfully known as dinosaur kale. (I imagine this green’s name is very popular with the under-five set.) I left the store with visions of kale salads in my future.
After a couple of crunchy, chewy meals with the kale, however, I still had a mess of the greens in my refrigerator and was getting kind of bored. It was time to do something different. Now, my first thought was to cook them with bacon. But since it’s the New Year and I’m trying to eat relatively light for a few weeks, I opted instead to throw a handful of the kale into a pot of chicken posole verde I had simmering on my stove. Wouldn’t you know? My mountain of kale seemed a lot more manageable, plus my soup looked festive with the greens swirling around the pot.
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