Sautéed Kale Recipe: How to Sauté Kale

Sautéed kale is a vegetable side dish featuring kale leaves cooked with oil on the stovetop until wilted. Kale is a dark leafy green with a slightly bitter flavor that benefits from being cooked in olive oil or another fat. Popular types of kale include curly kale and Lacinato kale (also known as Tuscan kale or dinosaur kale). Cooking kale takes longer than cooking spinach because the leaves are more fibrous, but the result is similar to sautéed spinach. Learn more about sautéing.

Sautéed kale has a mild, vegetal flavor. Incorporate the greens into your favorite main dishes for a boost of color and nutrients, or serve them as a side dish with a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt.

1. 1. Add it to a quiche or frittata. Slightly bitter sautéed kale cuts through the richness of an eggy quiche or frittata. Use this spinach quiche recipe as a guide, but swap the spinach for kale. To make a kale frittata, whisk six eggs with a generous glug of olive oil, a handful of grated Parmesan, and salt and pepper. Sauté the kale with a grated garlic clove in a 9-inch pan, then pour the egg mixture over the cooked kale and cook, using a spatula to pull up the edges of the frittata to let the raw egg mixture run underneath. When the bottom is golden brown, finish the frittata in the broiler or by flipping it over into another pan.
2. 2. Serve it as a side dish. Sauté the kale in olive oil with garlic for a vegetable side dish that complements grilled steak, fried chicken, or meatloaf. Cook the kale until the leaves are tender and the edges are crispy (but less crispy than kale chips).
3. 3. Use it as a pizza topping. After cooking a pizza at a high temperature, top it with sautéed kale. (If you top the pizza with sautéed kale before cooking, the kale may burn.) The kale adds a green element to the pizza and a variety of textures and flavors.
4. 4. Toss it into pasta. Whether it’s homemade baked macaroni and cheese, pesto pasta, or classic spaghetti in marinara sauce, toss sautéed kale with any saucy pasta. Use tongs to break apart the kale to disperse it throughout the pasta evenly.

Sautéing tougher greens like kale is as easy as sautéing less-fibrous greens like spinach. Try one of these tricks for sautéing fresh kale:

1. 1. Massage the kale before sautéing. Take a handful of raw kale and scrunch it in your hands to break down the tough fibers. Chopping the kale also works. Breaking down the fibers ahead of time cuts down on cooking time.
2. 2. Blanch the kale before sautéing it. Blanching kale retains its bright green color and softens it. Transfer blanched kale to a sauté pan with olive oil and garlic. Sauté until the excess water evaporates and the kale takes on some color.
3. 3. Add liquid to break down the kale. Since kale is fibrous, it needs a small amount of liquid to break it down and help it tenderize while cooking. Use water, chicken stock, or vegetable stock.