Kale and hearty

FLAVOUR AND GOOD LOOKS HAVE SEEN THIS OLD-FASHIONED HERITAGE VEG MAKE A SPECTACULAR COMEBACK

- Chris Stafford

Kale has become so pervasive in our culture it’s hard to remember a time when it wasn’t all over trendy menus and being juiced by the megalitre in smoothies. It’s hailed as a “superfood” and for once that overused epithet seems entirely justified.

Loaded with minerals, antioxidants and vitamins, including 4.5 times more vitamin C than Popeye’s vaunted spinach, kale is high in nutrients and low in calories, making it one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. It can even lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Yet it hasn’t always enjoyed its present level of popularity. In ancient times, both the Romans and Greeks cultivated the loose-leafed cabbage (the latter reportedly boiled and ate it as a cure for drunkenness) but it appears absent from European history until around the 14th century.

By the late Middle Ages, it was well established alongside cabbage in Scotland as well as other parts of Europe, from Italy to Croatia. In more recent times, kale was one of the key crops selected by the UK’s wartime Dig for Victory campaign to replace nutrients lost to rationing.

Though Russian traders introduced their flat-leaf Siberian cultivar to America via Canada in the 19th century, for much of the last century kale was grown in the US as an ornamental. It wasn’t until the health-conscious 1990s that it began to gather a reputation as a nutrient-rich superfood.

It received perhaps its biggest publicity boost during the Obama presidency. Michelle Obama made kale one of the stars (along with rocket, Thai basil, spinach and chard) of her extensive organic vegie garden on the White House South Lawn and even went on TV chat shows to promote kale chips as a healthy alternative to potato crisps.