Kale

If you recall last week's Farmer's Market post, I bought a whole lot of kale.  In addition to the basic kale, there was also kale raab and purple kale.  Under ordinary circumstances, this would have been far too much kale for one girl to eat, but the kale purchase coincided with my discovery of brown sprouted rice.  I had no idea you could sprout rice until I read about it in the nytimes, and then I did a little googling and found out it was as easy (actually even easier) as sprouting beans.  I took a picture of a sprouted rice grain so you can see what it looks like; basically, once there is a little root at the top it is ready to be cooked.  (The lighting makes it look like white rice, but please note, you cannot sprout white rice.)  Sprouting brown rice is supposed to make the nutrients in brown rice more available to you and is therefore healthier.  I just enjoy sprouting things and I think the texture is actually a little nicer after sprouting.  

So a good amount of kale has gone into brown sprouted rice and chickpea dishes (sometimes I mix in some cooked roasted buckwheat groats too.  this all sounds way too healthy to taste good, but believe me, it tastes good).  And then by fortunate chance, use real butter (one of my favorite food blogs) posted a recipe for baked kale chips.  I didn't even measure anything, it was so extremely easy.  And after converting to chip form, I managed to eat an entire bunch of kale in one sitting.

Fried Sprouted Brown Rice With Kale
(I'm really sorry to say this "recipe" is mostly vague directions)

Heat a glug of olive oil in a pan.  Add some chopped garlic and roughly chopped kale (or kale raab or purple kale or whatever you want).  When edible, add as much cooked sprouted brown rice (and whatever other grains you want) in and fry a bit.  Drizzle soy sauce in and add a couple of pinches of sugar.  Take a small bite and adjust the seasoning as needed.  Sometimes I also put in a small drizzle of sesame oil.

Kale Chips
(Ditto.  See use real butter's tutorial for real directions)

Chop some kale up or tear into bite sized pieces.  You can remove the thick stems in the middle of the leaves or you can be lazy like me and leave them on.  Those parts will not get dry crispy though, be warned.  Add a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle some salt.  Toss together with hands to coat the leaves.  A little olive oil goes quite a long way.  Spread out the kale on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.  Remarkably good.

Sprouted Brown Rice
(Real directions!)

3/4 cup dry brown rice (I have been using short grained rice)
Water to cover

Rinse the rice once and then cover with plenty of water.  Change water once every 8-12 hours or so.  The weather has been quite cool here, but I imagine if it is warm you might have to change it more often.  So far, the rice has sprouted after ~24 hours for me.  The rice expands 1.5 times so adjust accordingly.  I cook in the rice cooker the way I would white rice and that has worked quite well.