The other day, we visited a farm stand and bought a huge bunch of organic kale for $3. When I say “huge,” I mean to say that the kale we used to make 20 tots was about 1/3 of the total kale bundle. Anyway, with all that Kale on hand, we wanted to come up with some new ideas to eat kale in ways we never had before! We based this idea on our Spinach Stuffing Balls, but we went with a much higher greenery:breading ratio, and we fried instead of baking. The results were acceptable.
The real fun here is picking a dipping sauce! We went with a classic BBQ sauce, but Duck Sauce, General Tso’s sauce, your favourite aioli, ketchup, or a funky mustard would work really well too.
Time: 30 Minutes
Ingredients (makes about 20 tots):
- 4 Large Kale Leaves
- 3 Eggs
- 1/4 Cup Corn Meal
- 1/4 (maybe a little more) Bread Crumbs
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
Method:
- Wash your kale, and rip the leaves away from the stems.
- Place the leaves in your food processor (may need to work in batches), and shred them into tiny pieces. Transfer all your shreddings to a large mixing bowl.
- Add your eggs, corn meal, bread crumbs, and salt into the mixing bowl, and mash everything together by hand until you have what is essentially a thick kale paste that binds to itself when you squeeze it.
- Form your kale into tots/croquettes, and set aside.
- Heat some oil in a cast iron pan (or other frying vessel), and when the oil is hot, carefully place your tots in.
- Cook for about 3-4 minutes, flip, and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
- When all of your tots are crispy golden brown on the outside, they’re ready. Carefully, remove from the pan, and either plate them (they shouldn’t be greasy if the oil was the right temperature), or set them on a paper towel to absorb any excess oil.
- Plate, devour, and enjoy!
