Best Ever Sauteed Kale

Sauteed kale is the best way to eat this healthy leafy green! Scented with garlic and cooked in olive oil until tender, you’ll want to eat it every day.

“I’m going to eat this every day.” That was Alex, after the first bite of this sauteed kale. The flavor of this kale is so good, it will have you wanting to make it daily. Which is a big feat! Leafy greens can be a difficult flavor to acquire when they’re served solo (versus stuffed into spinach artichoke dip). But it takes only 10 minutes to make kale into a side dish you won’t want to stop eating. It’s lightly flavored with garlic and cooked until bright green and tender. Here’s what you need to know to make this healthy vegetable part of your everyday!

Tuscan kale vs curly kale (use Tuscan if you can find it!)

First off: if you’re going to make this sauteed kale, look for Tuscan kale. It’s sold in most mainstream grocery stores, and it has a milder, sweeter flavor than curly kale. Of course, you can use curly kale too! Here’s a breakdown:

• Tuscan kale is also called Lacinato kale, dinosaur kale, black kale, or cavolo nero (black cabbage in Italian). It has flat, ruffly leaves that are green black. The flavor is milder and sweeter than curly kale; because of that, it can appeal to people who think they don’t like this veggie!
• Curly kale has very curly leaves and a more bitter flavor than Tuscan kale. It’s an easy to find variety of kale. It also works in this recipe, so don’t shy away from it! We just like the flavor of Tuscan kale best.

How to cook kale

Now, learning how to cook kale is very easy: it’s simply a matter of sauteing it in a hot pan with olive oil and a little garlic to flavor it! The nice thing about this recipe is you’ll use whole garlic cloves to infuse flavor: so you don’t even need to mince it! All you’ll need to chop is the kale. Here are the basic steps:

1. Step 1: Destem and roughly chop the kale (see the section below). Smash and peel the garlic cloves.
2. Step 2: Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the garlic and kale and cook for 3 minutes, stirring often, until the kale is wiled and bright green.
3. Step 3: Remove from the heat and add salt and pepper. That’s it!

For the full quantities, head to the full recipe below.

How to chop kale

Before you can cook kale, you need to know how to cut it! This method shows you an easy way to remove the stem of the kale. Technically you can cook with the stem of Tuscan kale since it’s not as tough as curly kale, but we still like to remove it to make it easy to eat. Here’s how to do it: make sure to watch the video below!

1. Fold the leaves of the kale together and hold them with your non-cutting hand. Use a large chef’s knife to cut off the tough stem.
2. Roll up a few kale leaves at once.
3. Cut the kale into thick slices, using a circular motion with the knife. Rotate the slices and then chop them in the other direction to make small pieces. Repeat for all the kale leaves.

Ways to serve sauteed kale

This sauteed kale is an easy side dish perfect for food plant based (WFPB) meals. It pairs with main dishes of all kinds. Because it’s made with Italian kale, it’s particularly nice with Italian or Mediterranean-style recipes. You could even serve it as part of a bowl bowl with a whole grain like quinoa or farro! Here are some ideas:

• Pasta. Try with Creamy Gnocchi, Vegan Lasagna, Baked Rigatoni, or Roasted Eggplant Pasta.
• Shrimp. Sauteed kale is perfect with any of our healthy shrimp recipes, like Garlic Shrimp or Sheet Pan Shrimp.
• Salmon. Try it with Oven Baked Salmon or Lemon Dill Salmon.
• Grain Bowl. Add it to a grain bowl with quinoa or farro, and top with our Lemon Tahini Sauce or Cilantro Sauce. An easy lunch or dinner!

Want more with kale? Go to our Best Kale Recipes.

This sauteed kale recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

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More easy side dish recipes

There are so many tasty and easy ways to cook vegetables! Here are some of our best vegetable side dishes:

• Best Ever Sauteed Mushrooms or Roasted Mushrooms Here are THE perfect mushrooms recipes! They bring out the best savory flavor with lemon and fresh herbs.
• Sauteed Rainbow Chard Top this leafy green with Parmesan and pine nuts and it’s outstanding.
• Roasted Broccoli Tastes SO GOOD you can’t stop sneaking bites! It’s charred until tender, then spritzed with lemon juice.
• Sauteed Spinach (That Tastes Amazing) Wow, this sauteed spinach really does taste amazing! It’s scented with garlic and lemon.
• Roasted Okra The best roasted okra around! Baking it might be the best way to cook this vegetable.
• Peas with Lemon This peas recipe takes just 5 minutes! Cooking frozen peas with garlic and lemon makes them taste incredible.
• Roasted Carrots The best way to make this healthy vegetable taste amazing? Bake slices with lemon wedges and fresh thyme.
• Homemade Sauerkraut A surprisingly tasty side filled with probiotics!