13 Best Kale Recipes

First up in our kale recipes: this spicy kale lasagna! This is one of the easiest ways to convince people to eat kale, we’ve found. It might not be the healthiest, but this one’s a gateway to other kale recipes! Our spicy kale lasagna uses no-boil noodles to cut down on prep time, and cottage cheese for a twist on the classic ricotta filling. The earthy flavor of the kale is complemented by tangy tomato sauce and spicy red pepper flakes, making this dish hard to resist. It’s a fan favorite kale recipe for sure!

This is one of the BEST kale recipes we know of: we promise! This Tuscan kale salad has the power to transform the minds of kale haters everywhere. If your complaint is that kale tastes bitter: it’s true! But after you taste this kale salad you’ll agree that kale smothered in a lemony, garlicky Parmesan dressing can only be one thing: over the top delicious.

If you’re not convinced by kale lasagna, how about kale pizza? One of our favorite kale recipes, the combination of flavors and textures hit the spot. Sauteed kale, crunchy pistachios, and the zing of red onion fit perfectly with gooey mozzarella and bright pizza sauce. We have been incorporating nuts in our pizzas for a while, and love the added crunch! Making artisan pizza is one of our areas of expertise here on A Couple Cooks. Here are all of our secrets to how to make artisan pizza at home, including the best pizza dough recipe, pizza peels, and even a pizza oven.

Next up, on to our healthy kale recipes, starting with ribollita! Ribollita is an Italian vegetable stew traditionally thickened by bread as a way to use up old crusts going stale. It’s gently simmered so that the flavors meld together beautifully. The crusty bread cubes are almost like dumplings when soaked in the savory broth. The kale soaks up the broth too, making it taste super savory instead of bitter. Ribollita is a delicious plant based dinner recipe that’s perfect for company or a night in!

Onto one of those healthy kale recipes that’s gotten exponentially popular in the last few years: kale chips! When we first started our website, kale chips were just starting to become a thing. Fast forward to today, and you can find them at gas station convenience stores! Baked kale chips are an excellent healthy snack for when you need something crunchy and salty. It’s a pretty easy kale recipe; vegan and gluten-free too. While it does take a bit more time than opening a bag of chips, the end result is absolutely worth it!

Gotta have a kale salad in a list of healthy kale recipes: and it’s got to be a kale Caesar salad, right? Kale Caesar salad has also become a bit of a “thing” in the past 5 to 10 years, and you can find it on restaurant menus all over the country. And why is that? Because it’s drop dead delicious. Topped with a creamy homemade Caesar dressing, this kale salad has a unique feature: crispy cornbread bits. The crunchy, lightly sweet croutons makes this kale Caesar salad recipe is one salad you won’t want to stop eating!

Ready for the perfect special dinner for entertaining? Shallot, butter, Parmesan and white wine create some kind of magic in this creamy mushroom risotto recipe. If you don’t know how to cook risotto, we’d highly recommend it. Making risotto is not too difficult (even easy!), and the flavor that can come out of these ingredients is something wonderful. Keep reading for this easy mushroom risotto recipe.

We like to call this one “pizza soup” because it tastes like liquid pizza! Honestly – this Tuscan soup is over the top delicious. The pizza flavor is due in part to the San Marzano tomatoes: San Marzano tomatoes are a variety of tomato that’s grown in Italy. They’re now pretty readily available canned in most stores in the US. Other ingredients that are essential in this Tuscan soup are the fennel and the smoked paprika. Throw in some Tuscan kale to the mix, and you won’t even tell it’s there: you’ll only be able to taste the pizza!

One of our more unique kale recipes is this kale artichoke veggie frittata! The Italian version of an omelette, a frittata is ultra versatile. It can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and served hot, warm, or even cold. (Try it cold on a sandwich, you won’t regret it!). The basic idea for a frittata is to whisk up some eggs, add some cooked veggies, and slowly cook in a skillet over low heat until set. Here, we’ve filled it with chopped kale, tangy artichokes, and savory Pecorino Romano cheese. It’s incredibly delicious and satisfying: serve with crusty bread and a salad.

Ready for the coziest, most comforting superfood soup? This butternut squash lentil soup tastes like a bowl of sunshine. It’s chock full of beautiful, colorful healthy ingredients, and it tastes surprisingly more delicious than you’d imagine from the humble ingredients. Using leeks brings a complexity to the body of the soup, and it’s filled with butternut squash, carrots, onion, and of course: kale! You’ll feel like the healthiest person on the planet after eating this one.

Of course, you can’t have a list of kale recipes without a massaged kale salad! Massaging the kale before eating it in this salad makes it taste tender and sweet, instead of bitter! All you do is use a little olive oil and massage the leaves so they become softer. The massaged kale is paired with pomegranate seeds and an apple cider vinaigrette: it’s sweet, tangy, and so, so good.

Can we do one more kale recipe that’s a soup? (Yes? OK!) This sweet potato and kale soup is Mexican inspired, features black beans, oregano, cumin, and just enough lime juice so that it pops. Sliced green onions stirred in at the end of cooking keep it tasting fresh. With sliced radish and a dollop of Greek yogurt as a garnish, it’s a delicious way to load up on nutrients.

And to round out this list of kale recipes: fried rice! This unique take on fried rice is made with quinoa instead of rice, and packed with baby greens: spinach, chard and kale. Alex and I make quinoa fried rice without a recipe all the time as an easy weeknight meal! Once you make this recipe a few times, you can get the hang of it and customize to use up the veggies in your fridge. You can use baby kale or a regular bunch of kale: just chop that kale into small pieces (see the video instructions above). Ready to get cooking?