kale

What's not to love about kale? It's been America's superfood for several years and it's now catching on over here. Kale is often confused with the local Chinese kale or gai lan (also known as Chinese broccoli).

They're from the same family of green leafy vegetables, but the kale we're talking about is so much more delicious and versatile.

We've been sampling 3 types of kale over the last couple of months; curly kale, lacinato kale, and tuscan cabbage.

Kale can be easily prepared as a side dish by simply sautéing with garlic, olive oil and coarse salt. Also, kale chips make a really good guilt-free snack. And a really energizing and cleansing way to start off your day is by having a kale shake. Just add some citrus or any other juicy fruit, berries, ginger, garlic, flax seed, hemp seed, etc. It's really arbitrary and totally up to you. Blend it all up and presto! Instant breakfast, pick-me-up or hangover cure all in a glass.

And we're including our Marinara Sauce recipe below because with one of the kale shipments above, we got 90 very ripe Roma tomatoes.

40 large Roma tomatoes, quartered

4-6 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

5 cloves garlic minced

1 bunch Italian parsley chopped
1 bunch sweet basil chopped
salt and pepper

Heat olive oil over medium in a large sauce pot. Add onion and carrot and cook until soft and caramelized, about 5-10 minutes. Add garlic, stirring constantly so that it doesn't burn, cook for 2 minutes longer. Add tomatoes, parsley, basil and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let gently simmer for 1-2 hours (depending on how thick your like your sauce). Check and stir every 20 minutes to make sure there's no sticking on the bottom of the pot. When the sauce has reached a desired consistency, season with salt and pepper. Serve with your favourite pasta or as an accompaniment to a meat dish.