Microwaving is not a common way to cook kale, but you can still make pretty healthy kale in a microwave without losing many nutrients and vitamins. Learn how to make great, flavorful kale for your family in a microwave.
Microwaved Kale Salad
Making microwaved kale is pretty easy, here’s what you need to do.
Step 1. Wash and clean your kale
After that, do you need to remove the stems? It depends, if you prefer the kale to be soft and easier to chew, you can only keep the leaf and remove the stems. But I personally love the texture of the stems.
Step 2. Chop or shred kale into your favorite size
Step 3. Find a microwave-safe container and put all the kale into the container
Different types of containers will give you different kale. A deep bowl will make the kale wilted and soft. While a shallow plate can give you a more crispy, brittle texture.
Step 4. Add water or olive oil to the bowl of kale
Adding water or olive oil makes the kale more tender and hydrated, you can adjust the amount of water to achieve your desired result. I usually would add one or two teaspoons of water, but you can also add slightly more water and drain the kale later. At this point, you can also add some seasoning including salt, pepper, and chili powder to infuse more flavor into the bowl. Mix the kale with the seasoning with a spoon. Once you are done, cover the bowl with a paper towel with a lid, which keeps the moisture of the kale effectively.
Step 5. Put your kale bowl into the microwave and set the right time
How long should you microwave kale? It’s all personal preference, but you don’t want your kale to sit too long in the microwave unless you are making kale chips. Usually, you set the time for 1.5 minutes to 2 minutes depending on how green and tender you want it to be. (Some people like to steam the kale first before putting it into the microwave to make sure the kale won’t be too dry)
Step 6. When the microwave beeps, take the bowl out.
You can remove the excess water or keep the water in the bowl. Enjoy your tasty and nutritious microwaved kale bowl.
Kale Chips
Unlike kale salad, kale chips are more like a snack and it’s pretty easy to make kale chips in the microwave too.
To cook kale chips in the microwave:
- Wash and chop the kale into pieces
- Place kale pieces on a microwave-safe plate evenly and add seasonings (Salt, olive oil, butter, cheese, etc.) (Make sure the kale pieces do not overlap on the plate)
- Cook the kale chips for 2 minutes to 2.5 minutes in the microwave
- Wait until the microwave beeps and your kale chips are ready to eat