Today I tried yet again to discover that elusive proper preparation: bought this morning, rinsed, trimmed all the stem-stuff out, tossed with high grade olive oil, dusted with salt, toasted in oven at Broil for a couple minutes.
Verdict: not good.
Ah well. Sometimes the answer to any research process is "well, not THAT way".
Comments
First off, I _like_ bitter greens. If you don't like bitter, even a little bit, you won't like kale. That said...
I saute a chopped up onion until it is limp. I add a 1 pound bag of frozen chopped kale and 1 can of "seasoned tomato product". I cover this and lower it to a simmer until the kale is thawed and the flavors incorporated.
Notes:
a) You can use fresh kale. It is probably more nutritious but it will take a _lot_ longer to prep and to cook.
b) You can add meat to this. Ground meat or sausage work better than chunks of meat.
c) Seasoned tomato product is something that comes in cans. Generally it is crushed tomatoes with green chilies, or onions and garlic, or garlic and basil. Use ones that appeal to you.
d) More seasonings that coordinate with the tomato product can be added at the onion saute stage.
e) This can be done with spinach or mustard greens. Collard greens and turnip greens are enough tougher that I don't think they would work terribly well.
This stuff goes well on a starch substrate. In my house, we have used rice, couscous, corn tortillas, hash browns, and I think bean thread noodles.
Hope this works for you.
Also ask Nora, I bet she's got several recipes.
Other than that, kale likes acids to brighten it up, like tomato and lemon. It needs flavors strong enough to compete successfully with it. And if you feel a need/desire to have the health benefits but don't care for the flavor, the trick is to shred it into relatively small pieces and cook it into things like chili and spaghetti sauce, where really and truly you'll never know it's there.
If you like (or at least don't hate) the flavor of kale, it can be nice in a salad with things like apples, grapes or raisins. It needs to sit in salad dressing for a little while to soften up, so prep your salad a few hours ahead and let it marinate. Sbarro has recently started offering a kale and apple salad that is dressed with oil (and probably vinegar, and very likely some sugar; hard to tell exactly what all's in there). It's very good.