I’m not quite sure if this needed a “recipe.” But I find that most people ignore the category of a “warm salad” as an option, especially in the fall and winter months when cold raw salads don’t feel as nourishing.
One thing is for sure. You generally want to cook kale instead of eating it raw. It’s almost too tough to tackle such a dark leafy green as a raw food because it requires way more digestive work. A raw green leafy veggie like kale can take up to 3 hours to digest in the stomach, which is a shocker when compared to red meat taking about the same time. You need a lot of stomach acid and digestive enzymes to break down the fibrous skeleton of these veggies.
So for anyone struggling with digestive issues, one of the first things I suggest is to cook these kinds of dark greens. Raw foodists and nutrition nerds will say you’re cooking away the vitamins and minerals, but you have to consider the pay-off of having hours of bloating because your stomach can’t handle that food for now. A quick steam will still preserve the good nutrients but prevent the possibility of undigested fermented food entering your small intestine.
A quick word about kale and your thyroid gland
Every person I work with has asked me if kale is ok to eat because they heard it’s toxic or it damages the thyroid. Wow, how social media does a number on us. My biggest daily task is un-doing all the social media nutrition misinformation.
We have to start with one thing about kale. It is in a category of veggies that have chemicals called goitrogens. This category includes broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, and bok choy. A goitrogen is a chemical that blocks the thyroid gland from producing its key hormones (T4 and T3), so these thyroid hormone levels decrease. In response, your brain sends out more of a hormone called thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to tell the thyroid “hey, what’s up, we need more thyroid hormone.” With a lot of TSH trying to stimulate the thyroid, it grows more cells or tissue and enlarges. This larger thyroid gland is called a goiter. So the veggies that contain goitrogens basically contain compounds that promote the growth of goiters.
Is this bad? Yes indeed. It’s very bad. One, because you need a health thyroid for healthy metabolism and hormonal balance. Two, a growing thyroid can grow too uncontrolled and become thyroid cancer.
What is incorrect about saying kale (or all the other goitrogenic veggies) is toxic is that it’s not the food that is the problem but the dose and the form. So a while back, and still to this day, you’ll find people who make huge smoothies with a whole bunch of kale. They’d have it every day, a lot, and always raw. Bad, bad, bad. (Oh, sorry to sound judgmental.) A little kale is fine. And cooking these veggies deactivates the goitrogenic compounds. So a steamed kale salad – great. A huge raw kale green smoothie – not so great.
Moral of the story. Don’t stop eating healthy food because of anything you hear on social media. You’ll be misinformed and malnourished if you choose to use that source for knowledge.
INGREDIENTS
- a few large leaves of your favorite kale
- 1 cup of garbanzo beans (or any bean you like)
- sprinkle of roasted seeds
- sprinkle of hemp hearts
- extra virgin olive oil
- Himalayan salt
- pepper
- goat or sheep feta (optional)
METHOD
- Wash kale and peel off the leaf parts from the stems.
- Roughly break into smaller pieces with your hands.
- Steam kale for a few minutes until it becomes a little softer and greener.
- Plate the kale, add the beans, seeds, and hearts.
- Drizzle olive oil.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Sprinkle feta.
