Sharon Hanna has taken her love of kale and turned it into a cookbook. The Book of Kale: The Easy-to-Grow Super Food, 80+ Recipes is published by Harbour Publishing and is available at local bookstores. Here is one of the recipes from the book. Prepared to be surprised by kale!
Savoury Kale Scones
with Pumpkin & Cheese
Whether you pronounce them skawns or skownes these are great in the morning, and leftovers are yummy with homemade soup. Or make tiny scones, cut-out with a fancy cookie cutter, for hors doeuvres.
These are dropped by the spoonful but if youd rather use a cookie cutter or knife to make triangles or other shapes, knead in about cup (60 mL) of extra flour at the end to make the dough easier to handle.
2 cups (475 mL) kale leaves,?loosely packed
2 cups (475 mL) unbleached flour
tsp (2.5 mL) salt
1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
tsp (2.5 mL) baking powder
1 tbsp (15 mL) sugar
1/3 cup (80 mL) cold butter
1 egg
cup (180 mL) buttermilk
cup (125 mL) cooked squash or?pumpkin in small dice
cup (180 mL) cheddar
cheese, grated
Preheat oven to 375F (190C). Set oven rack in the middle.
Steam kale for a minute or two, just to blanch. Chop kale finely, squeezing out as much liquid as you can. You should have less than 1 cup (250 mL) of chopped kale. If you have more, save it for soup or eat it. (Too much will make the scones sticky.)
Blend or sift the flour, salt, soda, baking powder and sugar together. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or your fingers.
In a small bowl, beat the egg, then add the buttermilk, continuing to beat until well combined. Add egg/buttermilk mixture, along with squash, kale and cheese to dry ingredients, mixing with a fork just enough to combine.
Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment-paper-covered cookie sheet. Bake about 20 minutes until lightly browned.
Makes eight to 10 large scones.
