This and that ...

I'm not sure that I know what to call this. It ended up being this and that because he wanted hummus and I wanted to make sure I cooked the kale that had been in the crisper drawer before it went bad. I had never cooked kale before, but I knew I wanted to make a warm side, so I looked up recipes. I saw and like this one by Emeril and of course tweaked it just a bit by subbing some ingredients and adding soy Spanish chorizo style sausage. And used it as a side to warm whole wheat pitas with hummus (recipe below), baby greens, cucumber, tomato and sprouts. It was satisfying and will definately be cooking it again. Emeril's recipe had this without the potato and used pasta instead, sounds good! The finishing touch, and this is very important to tie all the flavors togethe,r is a  few drops of lemon juice over the kale with chorizo sausage.

Kale with chorizo sausage

1 lb of kale, cleaned and hand torn to medium pieces

3 sausages from Lightlife Smart Sausages Chorizo Style, sliced to rounds about 1/4 in. thickness

3 red potatoes, diced small and par-cooked in microwave (1-2 min)

1 yellow onion, sliced to 1/4 in slices

2 garlic cloves, minced

olive oil

salt and pepper

1. Heat olive oil on low heat and add onion. Cover and let caramelize for about 15-20 min. Turn heat to medium and add garlic and sausage and let brown for 3 min. Add potatoes and continue browning for another 3-5 min. Add kale, salt and pepper to taste. Toss in the pan and cover until kale is wilted.

Hummus

1/4 cup tahini (sesame paste)

12 oz. chickpeas (can use canned, but if you cook them yourself flavor is SO much better)

1/4 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons) more or less to personal taste

1/2 cup olive oil

salt and pepper

1 clove of garlic, minced finely (optional)

1. In food processor, place tahini, chickpeas, 1/2 of the lemon juice and 1/2 of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, start with about 1 teaspoon of each. Blend until a smooth, soft paste starts to form. It may still be too chunky but open up and taste so you can decide to your taste if it needs more lemon juice or not. Add more lemon juice if desired and more olive oil to continue mixing and getting a smoother taste. Same with salt and pepper, taste and determine if you want more or not. Add judiciously, you can always add more but can't take any out. =-)

Provecho!!!