Excuse me, but I think you have something in your teeth . . .

Mama's little Popeye!

Though that bright green goodness on his face isn't spinach, but kale.

I made my first batch of dark green, leafy baby food this weekend and it was a rousing success!

Kale is considered to be one of the most highly nutritious vegetables, with powerful antioxidant properties and is anti-inflammatory. Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, lutein and zeaxanthin and reasonably rich in calcium. I want LL to enjoy a wide range of foods and vegetables and decided to start adding this into his diet a few times a week.

Making kale baby food was, admittedly, a bit more work than other baby foods I've made, but well worth it (and really not that hard or long, just more difficult than mashing a banana or scraping out and blending the inside of a sweet potato! :) Simply . . .

Kale Puree

Take three to four bunches of kale. I used three this time and wished I'd had one more as it really cooks down a lot. Get your biggest pot and put a little water in the bottom and a steamer basket on top. Start the stove to get the water to simmering.

Meanwhile, while the water is getting hot, immerse your kale leaves in a sink full of cool water and swish around to clean. Then take out the leaves, and, leaf by leaf, fold in half along the stemline and pull the leaves from the stem, discarding the woody stem. This takes a leaf or two to master, but only will take a few minutes.

Now, when the water is boiling and creating good steam, stuff as much kale as you can (mine took about one and a half bunches of kale per pot, so de-stem the second half while the first half is cooking) in the pot and put the lid on it. Set a timer for five minutes and do whatever else you want to do (like de-stem the rest of the kale! :)

When the timer beeps, take the lid off the kale and take your pasta strainer spoon and scoop the kale directly into your blender or food processor. Add the second batch of kale into the pot and put the lid on and the timer to five minutes.

Now - make sure that you leave space for the steam to escape before blending. If using your blender, take the little plastic thing out of the top and put a dish towel over the top to prevent pureed kale from hitting your ceiling. Blend, adding water if needed, until the kale is well cut up.

Now, take one of your utility tea towels. One that is stained or you won't mind staining, you know you have a few of these laying around. Lay it in the bottom of your colander in the sink and pour the blended kale into it. By this time the second batch should be done steaming, put it directly into the blender, blend as before and then pour that batch into the tea towel as well. Lift the ends of the tea towel and twist into a knot, leaving a ball of kale at the bottom. Now, squeeze the liquid out of the kale.

Ruth Yaron says that she saves this green leafy kale water and drinks it. I didn't go that path but know that my hands got more vitamin enriched green goodness on them through squeezing the water out and that should count for something!

Once the water is out, freeze as you would any other veggie cube, scraping the tea towel (it is useful to use the colander to hold the kale in the tea towel once done squeezing) to get all the goodie out of it. It will make less food cubes than you think (three bunches of kale made ALMOST two ice cube trays full) but baby, these are POTENT cubes. I mixed one with two sweet potato cubes and a few spoonfuls of whole, plain yogurt and it was still as bright green as, well, look at the pictures above and see for yourself!

So, it takes a little bit of work, maybe twenty minutes worth from start to finish, but since kale is one of the best vegetables IN THE ENTIRE WORLD to give your baby, isn't it worth it?

Bon Apetit!