Steamed Kale with Tahini Dressing

This guy has the right idea with his t-shirts. Kale is getting a lot of well deserved attention lately. It is an amazing nutritional powerhouse and I always feel good when I eat it.

Wanting a new flavor profile for this veggie, I took this recipe from Whole Foods, morphed it with the information from this site about how to best prepare it and added my own spin on it. It was so good; creamy and tangy with just a hint of heat... yum!

Because this dish has both tahini and sunflower seeds it is also good for seed cycling (awesome for regulating hormones). Yeah for natural home remedies.

Steamed Kale with Tahini Dressing

Ingredients:

5 cups packed chopped kale - about 1 bunch (see below for more on prepping the kale)

2 Tbsp lemon juice (plus extra for sprinkling on kale)
pinch of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp flax oil
2 Tbsp tahini
1/2 tsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp toasted sunflower seeds

Directions:

I like to give my produce a quick vinegar bath with about a gallon of water to 1/4 cup vinegar. I just appreciate the extra bit of clean I feel I am getting that way.
Then rinse and shake off excess water. Next, cut the leaves into about 1/2" pieces and the stems into 1/4" pieces for even steaming. Then sprinkle the kale with a little lemon juice and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Start water boiling in a pan with a steamer basket inserted over the water.

Make the dressing by combining the lemon juice, cayenne, dijon, flax oil and tahini. I did this by putting the dressing ingredients in a
glass jar and shaking vigorously.

After 5 minutes when your kale has rested and your water is boiling put the chopped kale in the steamer basket, cover and let steam for 5 minutes. Then put the kale into a mixing bowl, dress with the dressing and sprinkle nutritional yeast and sunflower seeds over it.

For 3 servings:

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 140 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 149 Calories from Fat 70

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 7.7g 12%

Saturated Fat 1.0g 5%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 123mg 5%

Potassium 693mg 20%

Total Carbohydrates 15.9g 5%

Dietary Fiber 3.6g 14%

Protein 7.0g

Vitamin A 344% • Vitamin C 231% Calcium 20% • Iron 19%

Nutrition Grade A

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Nutritional analysis from caloriecount.about.com