Kale has been getting a lot of attention lately. And for good reasons! It’s a powerhouse of vitamins and nutrients, and a highly versatile ingredient. See for yourself—it’s kale all the time, baby.
1. Creamy Beef, Kale, and Tomato Stew
This hot and savory stew is full of nourishing ingredients, like chicken stock (homemade is best, if you have it), rutabaga, chopped kale, red pepper, carrots, coconut cream, beef, and others.
2. Kale and Red Pepper Frittata
Kale and red peppers combine to make this very tasty frittata. It’s a great way to wake up in the morning and supplies you with a few servings of vegetables to start your day, plus protein from the eggs to power you on.
3. Cold Destroying Green Smoothie
Green smoothies are a trendy way to eat your greens, because they can taste fruity, and they save you from having to chew on a giant bowlful of leaves. This kale and orange green smoothie will boost your immune system and may help you get over illnesses faster.
4. Sausage and Kale Over Butternut Noodles
This meal is packed with vegetables, greens, and healthy proteins. Flavorful and slightly sweet butternut squash noodles are sautéed with olive oil and sweet onion, and piled high with wilted kale and savory, delicious sweet Italian sausage (you could also use pork, turkey, or chicken).
5. Sauteed Kale and Mushrooms With Lemon and Thyme
It’s not news that sautéed greens are fabulous with a little bit of lemon. But let’s take it up a level or two, shall we? Let’s add button mushrooms, some ghee or coconut oil, fresh thyme, quality vegetable stock, and some freshly ground pepper. Now we’ve got ourselves a meal.
Photo: GI 365
6. Green Smoothie Breakfast Bowls
Green smoothie bowls are essentially partially deconstructed green smoothies, with toppings. And served in a bowl. This one’s topped with fresh fruit like mangos and strawberries, and sprinkled with bee pollen, hemp hearts, chia seeds, coconut, and other superfoods.
Here’s another fabulous green smoothie to get your morning going, power you before a workout, or help you recharge and recover after a hard one. Frozen banana and berries help this taste sweet and fruity.
This dish is an amazing seared chicken breast and purple sweet potatoes over tenderized kale. Kale gets massaged with olive oil, salt, and lemon juice until it’s tender and wilted, and would be fantastic with the optional addition of hot chili sauce and nutritional yeast.
9. Baby Kale Green Monster Smoothie
This green smoothie uses baby kale, coconut milk (or another nut milk of your juice), an orange, a ripe banana, apple, cinnamon, and a bit of parsley. These greens, especially the parsley, are excellent at helping your body detox after a little bit of overindulgence.
Photo: Our Fresh Kitchen
This fresh and tasty smoothie may be bright green, but there’s no mistaking that it tastes exactly like a pina colada (virgin, of course). Just make sure your protein powder is Paleo-friendly, as not all are. I’d recommend fresh pineapple, as the flavor is best fresh!
My family is primarily Irish, and every year on St. Patrick’s Day, we eat a traditional meal of corned beef and colcannon in celebration. This healthier colcannon recipe uses cauliflower instead of white potatoes (how un-Irish!), and the lovely flavors of chives and spring onions.
This salad is totally green with ingredients like kale, avocado, cucumbers, green apple, and bean sprouts (for Paleo, you can use any kind of sprouts). The cilantro-lime dressing adds a punch of flavor with bright lime juice, detox-perfect cilantro, and extra virgin olive oil.
13. Lemony Chicken Thighs With Kale Salad
This awesome kale salad with a juicy chicken thigh has ingredients like ghee, cashews, Dijon mustard, shallots, and red wine vinegar (you can substitute apple cider vinegar if you need to). It’s savory and rich with umami flavors, and so good for your body, too.
Photo: A Calculated Whisk
14. Spicy Shrimp and Kale With Creamy Rutabaga
This dish has the perfect balance of flavors between the spicy hot shrimp, with jalapeno peppers and lime, and the creamy, comforting rutabaga puree with coconut milk, grass-fed butter or ghee, and freshly ground black pepper. Love that combination!
15. Red Kale and Sweet Potato Rice Bowls With BBQ Chicken
This recipe has a sweet and savory flavor from Tessemae’s BBQ sauce. If you have another favorite Paleo brand, feel free to use that, or make your own! My favorite part of this dish is the sweet potato rice and the delicious wilted kale—or maybe it’s the avocados!
16. Roasted Cauliflower and Kale Soup
This silky soup is full of spring flavors to go with its bright green color. Cauliflower makes a perfect base because it creates a creaminess without any dairy, or even coconut milk. Cayenne peppers give this soup a kick, and massaged kale adds a lovely texture.
Don’t stop reading! I know this sounds totally crazy, but I promise you can’t even taste the kale in these cookies, and they’re sweet from honey and applesauce. Mashed avocado gives these cookies a healthy fat boost that will help them keep you full until lunch.
Photo: Cookies To Kale
To keep this recipe Paleo, use Paleo-friendly croutons or just leave them out altogether—no big deal. This dressing can be made dairy-free by using coconut yogurt (homemade or store-bought), and some nutritional yeast or Parmesan gives this salad a super savory flavor.
This quiche is nicknamed “Portobello and power greens” for its powerful blend of chopped kale, chard, and spinach (baby spinach is my favorite). You could mix and match other greens, if you like.
20. Caesar Kale Chips With Dip
It would be too easy to fill up this list with kale chip variations. I’m not going to do that, but I will show you some of my favorites—like this Caesar kale chip recipe that’s intensely flavorful and comes with a dip recipe (check out the link for a Paleo Worcestershire sauce).
21. The Best Kale Summer Salad
I definitely agree that this one’s the best. All the berries contrast perfectly with the decidedly green flavor of the kale, and the honey mustard dressing provides the perfect layer of spicy flavor to both the berries and the kale. This is one refreshing salad!
22. Sausage, Kale, and Spaghetti Squash Boats
Sausage and kale go together great and provide you with protein and plenty of nutrients. Stuffing them into a spaghetti squash is the perfect presentation and gives you yet another serving of very important vegetables.
23. Chipotle Strawberry Kale Chips
If I’m going to share my favorite kale chip recipes with you, I couldn’t leave out strawberry chipotle kale chips. These are like a spicy fruit leather—but they’re kale! I recommend using ghee as called for, but coconut oil or olive oil would also work well here.
24. Orange and Green Detox Smoothie
This easy smoothie uses orange and frozen banana to cover the flavors of the greens, and if you’re not already a green smoothie lover, you should try this one. I love using bananas, as they cover the bitterness of the kale, and orange masks the green taste fairly well.
25. Spring Greens With Balsamic Soaked Raisins and Pine Nuts
You can use whatever greens you like with this, but I highly recommend kale, as the recipe calls for massaging the greens, and kale is one of the best for this type of treatment. This recipe could make an easy simple snack or a side dish for a larger meal.
Photo: Panning The Globe
26. North African Stew With Sweet Potatoes, Apricots, and Kale
This delicious stew is inspired by North African cuisine, and will fill you up well on any chilly day with chicken, aromatic vegetables like onions, garlic, and ginger, plenty of spices, and a full bunch of lacinato or dinosaur kale (any kind of kale besides curly-leaf kale).
27. Coconut and Pecan Sauteed Kale
This is a super simple recipe that would make a great easy snack or side dish. Pecans are an easy source of protein, obviously, but I love the idea of adding some crispy bacon to this recipe. I could even imagine cooking the bacon first and sautéing the kale in the grease!
28. Kale-Sausage Minestrone Soup
This light but hearty soup is packed with umami flavors of garlic, tomatoes, and Italian seasoning. You can use chicken sausage as called for, or any other sausage you like (double check that it’s Paleo-friendly). I love adding kale to soup, because it helps add texture and color.
This easy detox soup really hits the spot. Make a big pot of it on a cold week and enjoy the leftovers for days! Kale, carrots, and celery add fun textures to this soup, while ground turkey is the perfect protein, and chicken broth provides essential nutrients and gelatin.
Photo: Simple Seasonal
This kale takes just a few minutes to whip up, and tastes great with sweet Vidalia onions, garlic powder, and olive oil or butter. While cooking, it becomes infused with the flavors of the chicken or vegetable broth. I love using purple kale for this, because the color is so lovely.
31. Kale Caesar Salad with Almond-Crusted Chicken
Kale takes the place of romaine lettuce in this Caesar salad and provides lots more in terms of nutrition. Add almond-crusted chicken and you’ve got a balanced Paleo meal that is sure to set you on course for dinner or hold you over till bedtime.
32. Creole Chicken With Sauteed Kale
This dish is a great alternative to some traditional Southern meals, which aren’t exactly the healthiest choices. This chicken is made with Creole seasonings and coconut oil, plenty of red pepper flakes, and healthy, hearty dose of kale instead of collard greens.
33. Fresh and Frothy Pineapple-Cilantro Smoothie
Cilantro is one of the best greens to use for detoxifying your body, but you don’t have to be in need of a detox to enjoy this smoothie made with frozen bananas, fresh pineapple, kale, coconut or almond milk, and a quarter cup of chopped cilantro.
Photo: Jessi’s Kitchen
34. Creamy Kale and Brussels Salad
This salad is made with kale, Brussels sprouts, pumpkin seeds, pecans, and fresh blueberries, and it’s topped with a dressing of avocado, cilantro, balsamic vinegar, and other seasonings. The umami flavors of the balsamic in this dressing pair beautifully with the sweet bursts of blueberries.
35. Chicken, Bacon, and Kale Spaghetti Squash Hash
This easy hash with bacon, chicken thighs, onions, kale, and cooked spaghetti squash would be perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I love recipes that are so versatile they can be eaten any time, with anyone. Also, recipes with bacon. Always recipes with bacon.
36. Sweet Potato and Kale Rosti With Baked Eggs
This is a giant one-pan dish that makes an entire meal. Grated sweet potatoes are a bed for kale and eggs, and the whole dish is seasoned with garlic, red onion, coconut oil, and bright, tangy, lime juice. This one’s great with extra dried chili, if you like them and can handle the heat.
37. Pan-Fried Kale With Toasted Pine Nuts
This recipe is ridiculously simple, and really delicious. You’ll cook your kale in coconut oil with plenty of minced garlic and a handful or two of pine nuts, which have a subtle but nutty and slightly sweet flavor that goes perfectly with the garlic.
38. Kale and Broccoli Salmon Burgers
These salmon burgers are made with kale, onion, parsley, and a few fantastic seasonings. Almond meal acts as a binder to keep them together. You could serve these with Paleo buns, lettuce wraps, or just by themselves with a side of vegetables or sweet potatoes.
