How To Cook Kale In Instant Pot

How to cook Kale you will actually want to eat? The answer to that question is so simple yet not many people are aware of it!

The biggest difference is in the way you cook them. I’d like to share my delightful results after I experimented with a few different ways to cook kale.

Finally, my family does not mind having this as a snack or in a salad. I actually prepared Kale twice in one week with no complaints!

So, today let us get down to basics with a simple way to cook Kale using the Instant Pot. With its tender leaves, it is fairly easy to overcook them ending up with less than half the nutrition content.

But eating them raw comes with its own set of issues. So cooking Kale with the Instant Pot needs a little bit of balancing act to get it right. 

I used this method to pair them with a side of quinoa bowl and once with plain brown basmati rice. It was super quick, super nutritious and tasted amazing with just salt and olive oil. 

What types of Kale are perfect?

There are quite a few kale varieties but very few of them actually make it to the produce section in all stores. The most common version is the green curly Kale with its unique look and texture.

You can use any kind of Kale that you can buy. The cooking method depends on what you are trying to prepare. 

I used the common curly Kale as well as the winter Kale that has purple leaves. Regardless of which variety I buy, I wash them at least 3 times in clean water before chopping them. 

 

How to cook Kale in Instant pot

With the Instant Pot, Kale comes out tender and delicious every single time and it is ready in minutes, too!  You start by washing and chopping them. Make sure to discard only the end of the stems.

Once you have put your kale inside the steamer, add water into the inner pot of the Instant Pot and seal the lid. Use the “Pressure Cook” or “Manual” setting with a two-minute timer. 

At the end of the timer, release the steam using the quick release option. When your timer goes off, quickly release the steam or you can wait until naturally release the pressure. 

Ways to eat cooked Kale

• You can enjoy it with just a little sprinkled salt and olive oil.
• Use it in salads with garbanzo beans to balance the fibers with protein.
• Add this to the soups or stews and pasta
• Pair them with a side of whole grains like brown rice or wild rice. 
• Prepare pesto sauce with Kale base (recipe coming soon)

Nutritional value of Kale

The nutritional value of kale is as good as it gets. With as few as 36 calories in a cup, Kale is a fat-free, vitamin powerhouse.

Not surprisingly, Kale is pretty common in smoothies and soups. I try to incorporate this superfood in more than the traditional ways like smoothie and salads to a whole new world of cooked Kale recipes. 

Check out my other  Instant Pot Recipes

Lemon Orzo

Barley salad

Masala Pasta

Vegetable Quinoa

kale lentil soup

Here are the recipe details….

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