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30 Kale Recipes to Add to Your Rotation

30 Kale Recipes to Add to Your Rotation

By Food & Wine

Updated November 16, 2020

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Credit: Photo by David Malosh / Prop Styling by Amy Wilson / Food Styling by Maggie Ruggiero

Hearty, verdant kale is a leafy green we can never get enough of, and in this roundup, we’ve gathered many different ways you can enjoy it. There are delicious kale salad recipes, of course—for example, Ann Taylor Pittman’s Tuscan kale salad with gorgonzola croutons (gorgonzola! croutons!), and a savory kale salad from chef Amanda Mack. But you can also turn kale into pesto, fold it into macaroni and cheese, and include it in pakoras as well. Read on for some of our favorite ways to use kale, including kale soup recipes, a kale taco recipe, and more.

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Chickpeas and Kale in Spicy Pomodoro Sauce

Credit: Constantine Poulos

Chef Missy Robbins of Brooklyn’s Lilia restaurant swaps chickpeas for pasta in her riff on spicy pomodoro. She finishes the dish with a shower of fresh herbs and salty pecorino cheese.

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Green Eggs with Whipped Goat Cheese and Grilled Kale

Credit: Bobby Fisher

F&W Best New Chef 2017 Jay Blackinton, of Hogstone’s Wood Oven on Orcas Island, Washington, made his reputation taking just a few humble ingredients and turning them into a magical dish. Case in point: this “green” egg, which is soft-boiled and dusted in dried kale, then served on creamy arugula-laced goat cheese and surrounded by crispy grilled kale.

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Cabbage-and-Kale Slaw with Toasted Yeast Dressing

Credit: Tara Pearce

Noma alum Josh Lewis makes his dressing with toasted nutritional yeast (sold at health food stores) and two types of oil. It’s great on all kinds of slaws, like this one made with Tuscan kale and green cabbage, and any salad with sturdy leaves. The dressing can be refrigerated for up to 3 days, so don't dress your slaw until you're ready to eat it.

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Kale-and-Shiitake Fried Rice

Credit: Chris Court

This comforting, vegetable-packed rice is infused with ginger. It’s best made with day-old rice to absorb all the flavorings.

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Chow Fun with Roast Pork and Kale-Tomato Salad

Credit: Con Poulos

Chow fun noodles are the base for this unconventional dish, from chef Sheldon Simeon, that’s topped with roast pork and a tangy kale salad and served with a buttery broth.

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Quinoa Meatballs with Tomato Sauce and Tuscan Kale

Credit: JUSTIN CHAPPLE

San Francisco chef Matthew Accarrino makes deliciously light meatballs with a combination of quinoa and breadcrumbs. He bakes the meatballs before simmering them in a vibrant tomato sauce along with kale.

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Sweet Brown Rice Risotto with Kale and Cremini

Credit: Con Poulos

“Despite its name, sweet brown rice isn’t sweet,” says chef Marco Canora of Hearth in New York City. Instead, this short-grain glutinous rice resembles whole-grain sushi rice. Here, Canora uses it to make a hearty vegetarian risotto packed with cremini mushrooms, Tuscan kale, onion, thyme and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

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Kale Juice

Credit: Justin Chapple / Food & Wine

We like our green juices with a kick, so we add ginger and a slice of jalapeño to this one. Not sure about the spice? This juice is equally delicious without the chile pepper. Either way, we want this right when we wake up.

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Cool Ranch Kale Dip

Credit: © CHRISTINA HOLMES

This fast and super-tasty version of a classic ranch dip features kale, labneh and buttermilk.

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Kale-Buttermilk Dressing for Roasted Vegetables

Credit: Christina Holmes

Instead of adding raw kale leaves to a salad, Cortney Burns uses cooked kale in a creamy dressing for roasted vegetables.

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Squash-and-Kale Toasts

Credit: © John Kernick

Chef Steven Satterfield of Miller Union in Atlanta is a huge fan of kale—especially when it's combined with sweet roasted squash. Look for Tuscan kale (also called Lacinato or Dinosaur kale) when possible; it's tender and tasty. You can eat these toasts as an afternoon snack or serve them to guests during cocktail hour.

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Kale Caesar with Fried Chickpeas

Credit: Eva Kolenko

This tangy Caesar salad from F&W’s Justin Chapple is topped with light, airy and super-crunchy pan-fried chickpeas.

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Pork-and-Kale Soup with Sizzling Puffed Rice

Credit: Johnny Miller

“I love food that makes noise,” says chef Edward Lee. When F&W challenged the Top Chef Season 9 contestant to make a fast dish with pork, kale, and white wine, he created a deeply flavorful soup, then added crumbled crispy rice cakes that crackle as they hit the broth.

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Fried Eggs with Mustard Seed Oil and Kale

Credit: Line Klein

Mustard seeds bring out a delicious flavor in eggs, which get topped with a variety of tasty ingredients, including sunflower seeds, baby kale, cumin, yogurt and avocado.

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Kale Rice Bowl

Credit: Christina Holmes

In this simple rice bowl, Kay Chun combines pork and kale with an abundance of fresh herbs for a dish that’s both hearty and delightfully fresh-tasting.

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Kimchi-and-Kale Fried Rice

Credit: Abby Hocking

When chef Rachel Yang finishes a long shift at her Seattle restaurant Joule, this fried rice is her go-to quick snack. It’s a great use for all of that leftover takeout rice and relies mostly on pantry staples, as long as you have gochujang, a Korean chile paste, in your pantry.

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Gluten-Free Pizza with Sausage, Kale and Red Onion

Credit: Abby Hocking / Food & Wine

Baked in a 9-by-13-inch baking pan, our gluten-free pizza has a thicker, more focaccia-like crust. We like to top our pizza with spicy Italian sausage, kale, and thinly sliced red onion.

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Cabbage-and-Kale Soup with Farro

Credit: © Lucy Schaeffer

"I love a really flavorful pot of greens," says chef Melissa Perello. For this kale-and-cabbage soup, she uses just a little bit of pancetta and a Parmesan-cheese rind to give the broth a rich flavor. "It's definitely the kind of dish that tastes even better the next day," she says. There's nothing better than a dish that keeps on giving.

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Kale Salad with Root Vegetables and Apple

Credit: Paul Costello

This refreshing, super-healthy salad is one of chef Marcus Samuelsson’s favorite ways to showcase kale; massaging the leaves with vinegar, salt, and olive oil makes them tender and sweet.

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Kale-Basil Pesto

Credit: Erin Kunkel

This fall-forward pesto bolsters traditional basil with Lacinato kale for extra heartiness. Winemaker Clare Carver recommends choosing a mild, smooth extra-virgin olive oil here for a buttery richness that complements the toasted walnuts and balances the fresh garlic.

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Buttermilk Macaroni and Cheese with Baby Kale

Credit: Kelly Marshall

A quick sauté renders baby kale leaves perfectly tender, allowing them to almost melt into the buttermilk-enriched béchamel in chef and cookbook author Alexander Smalls' riff on mac and cheese. For a smooth sauce, make sure all of the dairy is at room temperature.

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Roasted Butternut Squash with Chorizo-Spiced Kale

Credit: Photo by David Malosh / Prop Styling by Amy Wilson / Food Styling by Maggie Ruggiero

With its earthy sweetness and dense texture, butternut squash makes a hearty vegetable steak. At Chaval in Portland, chef Damian Sansonetti highlights its complexity with his chorizo spice mix. He blooms the blend of cumin, Pimentón, and coriander in oil to release its aroma, which provides a smoky foundation for this shoulder-season dish.

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Savory Kale Salad

Credit: Abby Hocking

This seasonal salad from chef Amanda Mack features sugar pumpkin (or butternut squash!), blue cheese, red onion, pepitas, and of course, kale—in this case, baby kale.

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Baby Kale Stir-Fried with Oyster Sauce

Credit: Greg DuPree

“This recipe is my supermarket take on stir-fried water spinach, a go-to vegetable for everyday Viet meals,” Andrea Nguyen writes. “Prewashed greens don’t release much liquid, which can dilute flavors and turn a stir-fry sizzle into a fizzle.”

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Tuscan Kale Salad with Gorgonzola Croutons

Credit: Greg DuPree

“Though this salad involves a few steps and a bit of time, it’s for the holidays—and for your family—so it’s worth the effort,” Ann Taylor Pittman writes. “You can get a head start with everything so that all you have to do is toss everything together before the meal.”

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Ribollita

Credit: Jen Causey

Adam Leonti’s ribollita recipe is packed with Yukon Gold Potatoes, cannellini beans, kale, and more.

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Sausage, Kale, and Potato Skillet Supper

Credit: Jen Causey

“The brilliant thing about this recipe is that you can cook it all in one skillet,” Klancy Miller writes. “The key is adding each ingredient at the right time so that everything cooks without burning.”

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Chicken Tortellini Soup with Kale

Credit: Caitlin Bensel

Fresh ingredients team up with store-bought shortcuts to get this comforting dinner on the table in just over 30 minutes.

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Crispy Ricotta-Kale Tacos

Credit: Victor Protasio

Be sure to heat the tortillas in a hot skillet before stuffing them with the ricotta-kale mixture. Warming them up first makes them more pliable and less likely to break during the stuffing and cooking process. Opt for high-quality organic yellow corn tortillas; they tend to be chewier and more satisfying when fried.

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Kale-and-Corn Pakoras

Credit: Cedric Angeles

A combination of chickpea and rice flours yields a batter that makes these pakoras fry up light, lacy, and extra crunchy. Sweet summer corn and peppers join with hearty kale to give these vegetarian fritters extra heft.

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