Kale burgers (burgers made from kale)

Well, who’d have thought it? Kale. Sometimes I go looking for cooking apps in the App Store. Most of them are rubbish, unfortunately. Recently, though, I downloaded one for vegans called Veggie Weekend. I found an interesting recipe in it for a kale burger — a burger made of kale, in other words.

Unfortunately kale isn’t all that easy to come by in our shops. But today a friend posted on Facebook asking what she could make with kale. Those two things, the recipe in the app and my friend’s post, got me looking for some.

No, Adam, I couldn’t find it at Alma as you suggested, but my ever-reliable man at the stall by the entrance to the estate had some. It was 35 złoty a kilo. Does everyone sell kale by weight?

Once I’d got the star of the dish, I wasn’t about to give up. Especially since I’d read the following in the app I mentioned (the comments in brackets are mine):

“Kale (jarmuż in Polish) has been called ‘the new beef’ (sic!), ‘the queen of greens’ and ‘a nutritional powerhouse’, and is praised to the skies in food blogs everywhere (well, well, even here at Primitive Kitchen) — and rightly so. Kale is low on calories, low on fats and full of fibers, iron, calcium, antioxidants, omega 3, and vitamins A,B and C”*

So, the very picture of health. The ingredients for the burger aren’t particularly fancy. My version isn’t vegan, though, because it contains Parmesan (you could substitute something else, but this is how I wanted it). I’ll admit I was rather nervous about how it would turn out and, above all, how it would taste. It turned out to be really good. Hmm, interestingly enough, it doesn’t fall apart at all. Maybe it’s just a teeny bit bland, but add a sauce, say a hot chilli sauce, and it’s brilliant.

All in all, I’d call that a successful experiment. I’m pretty certain I’ll make myself one of these weird, rather dreadful-looking burgers from time to time. Looking at the photos, I’d say it probably belongs in the ugliest-of-the-ugly category. What it definitely doesn’t qualify for is the “Spinach is disgusting” category, although you might think so from the way it looks. Give it a try.

* Victor Sunden, author of the recipes in the “Weekend” app.

At a glance: 

Prep time: 30 minutes

Serves: one (makes two burgers, but one person can comfortably put them away and be nicely full)

Calories: the “Weekend” app says “low on calories”, but I suspect there are a few calories lurking in there despite appearances.

Ingredients for kale burgers:

• 200 grams of kale
• 1.5 tablespoons of wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
• a tablespoon and a half of finely chopped (or grated) Parmesan
• a tablespoon of olive oil
• a tablespoon of soy sauce (light)
• a teaspoon of ground black pepper
• a teaspoon of dried thyme
• 3 pinches of salt

Method (it’s an odd recipe, this one):

Of course I used the recipe in the app as my guide. It isn’t mine, but of course I did change a few things. My version has more Parmesan and breadcrumbs. I think I blended the kale more thoroughly, too. Here we go.

I started by rinsing the kale thoroughly. The recipe suggested steaming it. I don’t have a suitable pan, so I simply cooked it in a little water for 20 minutes. Then I drained it and dried it thoroughly with paper towels (rather like squeezing it through cheesecloth). The kale should be soft.

Once the cooked kale was dry, I transferred it to my tall mixing bowl and gave it a pretty thorough blitz with the blender. At this point it looked like dark green pesto 🙂

I added the remaining ingredients (from the list above) to the puréed kale and mixed thoroughly with a big spoon. No joy: the spoon just wouldn’t get everything to come together properly. So I started working it with my hands like dough. Worked perfectly. I had a dough I could shape into patties. I made two fairly hefty burgers out of it (you can see them in the photos below). I heated olive oil in a frying pan and fried my kale burgers. I turned them over and gave them a few minutes on each side. I had them with dark bread and hot chilli paste. Honestly, you’d never expect them to taste so good. Next time I’ll just put one in a bun like a regular burger. Enjoy!