Kale Quesadilla Recipe

These are simply scrumptious! It is decidedly a grown-up quesadilla but don't be surprised if your kid munches down on one of these without realizing they just had nice helping of vitamin rich healthy kale!

Kale Quesadilla Recipe

Kale Filling Recipe Ingredients

6 slices of bacon

1 bunch of green curly leafed kale

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

3 T. apple cider vinegar

1-2 C. water

Salt

Pepper

Kale Filling Recipe Preparations

Fry the bacon until crisp

When bacon is cool break into bite sized pieces and reserve for quesadilla use

Reserve the bacon drippings

Strip and discard the stems from the kale and chop the kale into bite sized pieces

Chop the onion

Chop the garlic

Place the bacon drippings in a Dutch oven and heat.

Once heated sauté the onion and the garlic

Add a pinch of salt to the onion and garlic to promote the onions browning up

Once the onions are transparent and browning begin placing the kale pieces in the Dutch oven by handful and stir.

Add ½ C. of the water as needed to keep the pot bottom covered in water

Repeat this process until all the kale is in the Dutch oven and stir until the kale is wilted down

Put the lid on the Dutch oven and continue cooking until the kale is fully cooked; it will fully wilt and be tender but not mushy

Season to taste with salt and pepper

This should take 10-20 minutes. You almost cannot over cook kale!

Leave the kale in the Dutch oven with the lid on it at the lowest possible setting

Watch the kale and do not let the Dutch oven dry out. Add a bit of water as needed.

While the kale cooks a bit more do the following:

Grown-Up Quesadillas

Grown-Up Quesadilla Recipe Ingredients

6 cubes of extra sharp cheddar cheese (2” x 1”cubes) crumbled into pieces

6 wheat tortillas

1 C. of green chiles roasted, peeled and chopped

The picture shows freshly fall roasted green mild chiles. Frozen/thawed chiles or canned chiles may be used.

Crispy fried bacon pieces (6 pieces from Kale Recipe above)

Grown-Up Quesadilla Preparation

Heat up a cast iron or other skillet

Place tortillas one at a time in the pan and turn them when they puff up and brown-up

Fill the heated tortilla with a crumbled cube of cheese, 1 T. or more green chiles and 2-3 tablespoons of the kale mixture.

Top with crumbled bacon (eyeball this and remember you are making 6 quesadillas!)

Fold over the tortilla and microwave for 45 seconds or until the cheese melts.

The cheese adds the grown-up extra sharp measure, the kale adds bith the grown-up and the crunchy sweet, and roasted green chiles that autumn hearty bite.

Comer bueno!

More Kale Information

Kale is such a nice leafy green vegetable. It is easy to grow and inexpensive to buy. It is very low-calorie! Unfortunately, it is not served very often because people think it is too strong. That is because they don't know how to cook it. When cooked correctly it has a sweet edge to the taste.

Kale (Brassica oleracea Acephala Group) or borecole is a form of cabbage. If you research many vegetables you will find that many of them come from the cabbage plant! Kale forms a bunch of dark green curly leaves with a stout main stem. Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, lutein, as well as calcium. Kale is one of the cruciferous vegetables that are thought to prevent cancers too. I remind you that it is also inexpensive and very low in calories too!

Kale may be steamed, boiled, stir fry or microwaved. Cooks who cook kale well work with the robust flavor rather than try to minimize or ignore the full-body flavor.

Many cultures appreciate the leafy green kale. Some of the countries and regions that have a culinary history with kale include Netherlands, Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and East Africa. It would be worth your time to learn how to work with kale if you like to cook food from different cultures.

Oh, and those lovely spring and fall ornamental plants include a particular flowering kale which has purple and white leafy heads. Ornamental kale is edible providing it hasn't been doused with pesticides!

Kale is a wonderful addition to many soups as well. The flavor will enhance most Asian soups, chicken noodle soup, vegetable soups, and New Mexican soups! The robust full flavor with a tinge of sweet (if cooked right) adds so much to other vegetable dishes.

My Mom loved kale. She served it a lot. She usually pressure cooked it. I cook it in a Dutch oven but retain her basic ingredients with the addition of garlic. Also, I like a bit of chew left in my kale when I served it. If you use a pressure cooker there will not be much chew left in the kale leaves! I am quite sure Mom never thought about making quesadillas with kale either!

So Mom, this is my New Mexico Kale Quesadilla.