Cooking Strange Leafy Veggies Part 1: Success! Kale, Sausage, and Potatoes.

My mom signed up for a local CSA farm (Community Supported Agriculture) and is splitting her shares with myself, my brother and sister-in-law, and my sister and brother-in-law.  I think my mom has been doing this for a while now.  I remember going with her and picking stuff up.  They set up all these veggies in kind of a U shape in this barn.  Each share gets so much of everything, according to how much of each they have that week.  So they write a big list on a chalkboard, like this:

Tomatoes: 2
Radishes: 2
Kale: 1 bunch
Lettuce: 4 handfuls

Anyway, the list is much longer than that, and has much stranger things on it than that.  I don't know what all was there this first week, since we're splitting it between the 4 couples, and I wasn't the one to pick it up.  I just know that we got kale, a lettuce mixture, and some garlic somethings that I was told to make hummus with.  Research, cooking, and maybe recipe to come, when inspiration strikes.

This evening, when I was tired and hungry and in a hurry to make dinner, I also wanted to use up our kale, knowing that we have different things planned to eat or places to go the next few days.  I had made a dinner before with sausage, onions, potatoes, green peppers, and who knows what else cooked together in a pan.  Nick likes to call this a hobo meal, although I found this slightly offensive.  Urban dictionary says that a hobo meal is one requiring "no plates or dishes to cook with".  The first time I made something like this it was some internet-sharer's grandma's famous Italian sausage bake or something... which I worked hard to make, and I was slightly offended when it was called a hobo meal!  Nick had "hobo meals" when he was camping a few years back, which happened to have ingredients similar to this dish.

Oh darn!!! Just realized I have no picture of this fabulous meal!  Please humor me as I send you to look at pictures on a different website of something that is similar, but not the same.  That link is a recipe like what I made a few months ago.

Tonight's recipe has no measurements.  It's more of a dump-and-go thing.  I used up half an onion we had, the rest of some potatoes we had, and all of our kale.  Here's the general idea:

1.  Heat a pan over medium heat.  Add oil and let it heat up.  While heating your pan and oil, cut up some potatoes into chunks or slices that will be able to cook in 15-ish minutes.  Throw them in your pan and let them start to cook.  Loosen them from the bottom and stir every few minutes.

2.  Cook 2 sweet Italian sausages in another pan.  Either remove the casing before cooking sausages, or slice after they're done cooking.

3.  As sausage and potatoes are cooking, cut up onions, kale, and whatever other veggies you want to put in.  Once potatoes are tender, add veggies.  (If you're using carrots or another veggie that would take longer to cook, use your own discretion for when to add them and how long to cook them).  Optional: add parsley, basil, and any other spices you think would be yummy.  Add sausage, mix, serve, and enjoy!


Similar kale and other strange leafy vegetable posts to come as the summer goes on.

Please let me know if you have any kale suggestions!!