Brown Butter Braised Kale with Feta, Cherry Tomatoes and Walnuts

Believe it or not, it is not all beef around this ranch.  At least not for all of us!  Kale is one of our staples in the garden.  It grows with basically no attention, we trim it and eat baby kale salads through the summer. Then it keeps growing and it is hardy enough we don’t need to worry about the early frosts out in the foothills.  In September we harvest what is left, and any excess gets washed bagged and frozen.  Then added to anything and everything from smoothies, eggs, pasta sauce, lasagna, curries and even meatloaf.  But my absolute favourite kale side is one inspired by Dinner With Julie years ago.  Don’t be alarmed with the volume of kale, it really cooks down plus it makes for fantastic leftovers.  To me this isn’t even a side, I can eat this and only this and be completely satisfied! However it is excellent with chicken, pork or beef. 

Ingredients:

2 bunches of washed fresh (or garden frozen) kale, centre rib removed

1 Tbsp olive oil

1-2 Tbsp butter

¼ - ½ cup walnuts

¼ cup crumbled feta

½ cup halved cherry tomatoes

Salt and Pepper to taste

  Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Throw in the kale leaves, stem and centre rib removed.  Boil for a minute, then strain off hot water, dump in colander and run cold water over.  Squeeze out all excess water.  Now heat your cast iron skillet over medium high.  Add oil, then butter and add walnuts.  Let the nuts toast and the butter brown, but careful not to burn.  Remove nuts but let butter and oil remain.  Add in kale, stir fry generously adding pepper and salt.  Throw in tomatoes, stirring for another minute or so. Then add feta, letting it fry up and melt a bit.  Throw in nuts, stir and serve. YUM!