Kale (Cavolo Nero) ‘Salsa Verde’ Recipe

A wholesome story to this kale salsa verde actually, this recipe was created one evening when Shaina went to go visit her sister; Sarah. So Sarah orders these Abel&Cole vegetable boxes, eventually asking Shaina to make her dinner that night using the ingredients left. What was on the list of ingredients provided you ask?

• Cavolo Nero
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Lime
• Shallot – the box came with regular shallots, but when we tried this recipe again, we found banana shallots have a better flavour

These weren’t the only vegetables provided, this salsa was originally made as a warming sauce for a roasted vegetable salad.

This cavolo nero kale salsa worked so well that it deserved it’s own recipe. Well not only that, it can be made to accompany other dishes too. Why not try it with a beautifully grilled steak, or as a pesto filling substitute with halloumi and veg in some fresh bread. Get creative. Get inspired. Oh and let us know how you get on in the comments!

Why is the salsa cooked?

We’ve decided to cook the salsa out because we felt it helped reduce the bitterness that the cavolo nero leaves were providing at the time. So in following the original recipe (for now) we wanted to stay true to that. Fret not friends, we wouldn’t have done this if we knew it wasn’t a hit! And that goes for both veg and meat eaters ..

Do I have to cook out the ingredients for my Salsa?

You necessarily don’t have to cook out all your ingredients in a pan. If you were looking for a lighter salsa to accompany your dish there are other alternatives. Originally, Shaina was making things up as she went along, so she didn’t think to just combine all ingredients into a food processor at once and see how the balance was like that .. oops.

What’s great is, you use exactly the same ingredients, but your cooking method changes. As you’ll see below, you get to skip loads of steps in the method and you barely have any cook wait time! You’ll probably want to reduce the amount of garlic in the recipe too if it’s going to be raw haha. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with the adapted method below.

Fresh Salsa Verde with Kale

• Follow step one in the method as stated below.
• Next, you’ll want to blanch the trimmed cavolo nero leaves. We need to partially cook the leaves otherwise they’ll leave a horrible bitterness to the salsa. Do this by boiling water in a saucepan and then dropping in your kale to blanch for a minute or so. To keep maximum nutrients and keep it as raw as possible, stick to a minute. You can of course cook it longer if you’d like.
• Once your leaves are ready, pull them out of the saucepan and submerge in cold water. Very cold water.
• Start by using 1 shallot and only a maximum of 2 garlic cloves. You’ll probably still want to use a little bit of oil so start with 1 tablespoon and go from there. As mentioned in the method below, also begin with ½ a tablespoon of salt and add more as you adapt the salsa.
• We’ll now move on to step two in the method. Put the above ingredient amounts, as well as the rest listed in the recipe below, in a food processor and blitz until you reach a desired consistency.
• Taste test, this is where you decide if you want to use the rest of the shallots listed in the recipe. Or maybe you’re a little heavy handed with the salt and want to add the extra bit. Now is your time to do so!
• Enjoy your fresh Kale Salsa Verde, yummyyyyy.

Print Recipe

Cavolo Nero (Kale) Salsa

An adaptation of a classic salsa verde, using cavolo nero kale as our source of green yummy goodness.

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Prep Time

5 minutes

Cook Time

15 minutes

Servings

jar MetricUS Imperial

Ingredients

• 6-8 leaves cavolo nero large
• 2 banana shallots peeled
• 5-6 cloves garlic peeled
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lime juice of
• 350 g cherry tomatoes
• 1-2 tsp chilli flakes alternatively 1/2 fresh red chilli

Prep Time 5 minutes Cook Time 15 minutes Servings jar MetricUS Imperial Ingredients 6-8 leaves cavolo nero large 2 banana shallots peeled 5-6 cloves garlic peeled 1 tbsp salt 2 tbsp olive oil 1 lime juice of 350 g cherry tomatoes 1-2 tsp chilli flakes alternatively 1/2 fresh red chilli

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Instructions

1. First trim your cavolo nero leaves off of the stems. We don’t want to use these bits unfortunately. Once tripped wash and roughly chop into thirds or half depending on how large the leaf is.
2. Place your peeled shallots, garlic cloves and trimmed cavolo nero into a food processor. Add a large pinch of salt (or start with ½ a tbsp). Blitz together and slowly pour in your oil, you may use more or less as long as the kale leaves chop up fine enough. Alternatively, if you only have a hand processor, you can place the oil into your food processor and blitz at once.
3. Grab a saucepan and heat. Throw in your quartered cherry tomatoes and allow to slowly break down on a medium heat. Once the juices have seeped out of the tomatoes, add in your kale mixture from the food processor. Stir to combine for 1-2 minutes.
4. Cut your lime in half and squeeze the juice of the whole lime into the pan along with ½ tsp of chilli flakes. Feel free to add more. If using a fresh chilli, cut in half and deseed to finely chop and add to the pan. Saute on a medium to low heat for 5 minutes.
5. Taste your kale salsa, add more salt if desired. If the taste of the leaves is still bitter, continue to cook out. You may need to add more liquid if the salsa is drying up. We recommend olive oil or rapeseed oil.
6. Once you're happy with the flavour of your cavolo nero kale salsa verde, remove from heat and serve as a dressing to an accompanying dish!

Saphron Reynolds