Curly cale vegetarian or green cale is an adaptation of a at least in Germany a very traditional winter recipe, with a good shot of energy and healthy stuff for the dark month. Usually we eat this with fatty cured sausages. And you can trust me, it tastes wonderful with no meat and some new ingredients. Maybe you can adapt some other old recipes from your grandmother into more “contemporary” ones.

For 4 – 5 persons, time for preparation: 1,5 h

Ingredients

750 gr. curly or green cale

1 kg potatoes (waxy)

250 gr smokes tofu

2 medium size onions

3 carrots

100 ml mustard (middle hot)

2 Soupspoons almond or hazelnut mousse

200 ml hot water

400 ml vegetable stock

salt, pepper, parika sweet and hot

olive or colza oil

Preparation: the green cale needs some frozen nights, befor it develops it’s full flavour. So wait for the first frost, or put the cale in the deep freezer for 1 or 2 days. Also important: green cale tastes even better on the second day. A good reason to prepare it the day before and make the potatoes at the moment.

Wash the cale and cut it into aprox. 1 x 1 cm pieces. Not too small. You’ll get a huge amount of sliced cale, this is normal.

Then cut the carrots and onions into cubes and steam them in oil until they become transparent. Add little by little the cale, salt it slightly, stir it, the heat will reduce the cale quickly, repeat this until the total amount of cale fits in your pot and steam it together with the carrots for 5 more minutes. Stir it slowly.

Add now this two liquids: first 400 ml of vegetable stock. Then mix in a big glass the mustard and the almond mousse with hot water and pour it over the veggies in the pot.

Cook it on medium heat and closed lid for 45 minutes. Stir it slowly once in a while. If it’s too dry, add a little bit of water, but it shouldn’t become a soup.

Fry the sliced tofu in a pan until it gets brown (not burned) and crispy. Add it to the cale and cook it for 10 more minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper, maybe more msutard (it needs a lot!). Let it cool down and put it in the fridge for the next day, or serve it with fresh made potatoe nuggets.

Crunchy golden nuggets

Preheat the oven on 200ºC. Peel the potatoes and cut them into quarters lengthwise. Give two soupspoons of olive oil into a bowl and turn the potatoes in this oil until they have all a slightly oily film. Put them onto a baking tray (with or without baking paper) and now you salt them and spreed the sweet and hot paprika over the potatoe slices. Bake them for 30 minutes (depends on the size of the potatoes) until they become crunchy and golden. Try one before you get them al out. It you see that they get to dark, move them with caution in between.

Serve them together with the warm green cale and ENJOY! Jutta

If you prefere to prepare a smaller portion and don’t want to use the oven to save energy, this recipe works also good with potatoes cooked with the skin, or mashed potatoes.

Please finde here more information about the healthy benefits from cale, click here