25+ Healthy Kale Recipes to Make You Crave Kale

Updated March 27, 2019

Amazing healthy kale recipes from around the blogosphere for delicious and nutritious meals, snacks, and sides. These healthy kale recipes will have you eating lots more kale — a very good thing!

Have you already joined the kale fan club or have you yet to get crazy for kale? Though there are a lot of “superfoods” out there, kale not only deserves the hype it gets, but unlike the more exotic superfoods, it’s pretty inexpensive and easy to work into all kinds of dishes.

It’s also a snap to grow your own kale, and you can be harvesting your own super-healthy kale all season long. (Instructions here. Not a gardener yet? Let me help you get started with a FREE quickstart guide to growing your own food for total novices.)

Kale is a great fall food, a little heartier than lettuce for really satisfying, gorgeously green salads with a bit more heft, and perfect for baking into casseroles or tossing in nourishing soups. Here in Minnesota, where the average first frost date is mid September, the pop of green our kale plants can offer in the snow are a welcome sight indeed.

Plus something fresh to eat from the garden when everything else is dead? Oh, yeah!

What to do with these tough green leaves? They’re surprisingly versatile, wonderful in salads, dried into crispy chips (where most of our kale winds up), tossed in warming winter soups, even baked into cookies!

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If you’re planning to add kale to smoothies in one of the recipes below, you want a high-power blender that can deal with the tough leaves, like this one or this one.

Why You Want to Eat More Kale with these Healthy Kale Recipes

Kale is chock full of nutrients your body will appreciate in the challenging winter months. It’s a rich source of vitamin A, which plays an important role in immune function. It’s also an exceptional source of vitamin K, critical in bone building.

Vitamin K also helps with blood clotting, so those on blood thinning medications shouldn’t go overboard on kale. In the crucifer family with other fall faves like brussels sprouts, cabbage, and broccoli, kale contains the same compounds that have been linked with a lessened risk of cancer.

Kale is also a great source of fiber, which we need to cultivate a healthy gut. One cup also supplies a decent amount of potassium and more than the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C, another potent anti-inflammatory that also supports your immune system.

You might remember a 2015 story about thallium in kale. (It’s actually in a lot of crucferous veggies.) Though the article did make a splash on social media, if you read it, you’ll find that the concern is for people who eat really huge quantities of cruciferous veggies. Don’t go crazy with kale juice, OK?

Raw kale and other raw crucifers should also be consumed in moderation due to their high levels of progoitron, which can affect thyroid function, especially in conjunction with iodine deficiency. (More on that in a future post.)

So how about some healthy kale recipes to make the most of this oh-so-healthy fall food? These mouth watering ideas from around the blogosphere will have you clamoring for more kale!

Healthy Kale Recipes

Healthy Kale Recipes: Snacks and Salads

Breakfast Kale Egg Cups (Prepare and Nourish)

Sprouted Hummus with Kale and Chives (Today in Dietzville)

Kale Pesto (Dr. Karen S. Lee)

Kale Pesto with Sunflower Seeds and Pepitas (Sweet Peas and Saffron)

Spicy Chipotle Kale Chips (Today in Dietzville)

No Fail Kale Chips HealthyGreenSavvy

Dairy-Free “Sour Cream” and Onion Kale Chips (Dr. Karen S. Lee)

Kale and Bok Choy Slaw with Spicy Sesame Ginger Dressing (Small Footprint Family)

Kale Salad with Cranberries (Attainable Sustainable)

Red Winter Kale Salad (Strength and Sunshine)

Kale Chicken Caesar Salad (The Organic Kitchen)

Healthy Kale Recipes: Mains & Soups

Low-Carb Zuppa Tuscana (Today in Dietzville)

Kielbasa And White Bean Soup with Kale (Reformation Acres)

Spiced French Lentil, Kabocha, and Kale Stew (Nourishing Days)

Kale and Cauliflower Soup (Running on Real Food)

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Kale, Spinach, and Mushrooms (Finding Happy in Healthy)

Parmesan Kale Turkey Meatlets (Prepare and Nourish)

Kale and Black Bean Quesadillas (Turning the Clock Back)

Crustless Quiche with Kale, Zucchini and Garlic (Eat Beautiful)

Slow Cooker Green Chicken Chili with Kale (Nourishing Days)

Kale Quinoa Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (Green Healthy Cooking)

Healthy Kale Recipes: Sweets and Treats

Coconut Kale Lime Cookies (Life Infused)

Kale Banana Muffins (Vegging At the Shore)

Chocolate Chip Kale Cookies (Chocolate Covered Katie)

Kale Pineapple Smoothie (Well Plated by Erin)

Green Pumpkin Smoothie (Cadry’s Kitchen)

Coconut Kale Banana Smoothie (Ilona’s Passion)

Kale Berry Smoothie (Baking-Ginger)

Super Kale Pops (Super Healthy Kids)

What are your favorite healthy kale recipes? Share in the comments!

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Photo credits: anandasandra, pompi, The Organic Kitchen, Life Infused, Finding Happy in Healthy