There are times when a member of the food group is trending. Yes, I said trending, because there is no other way to describe the movement going on right now with Kale. The beautiful thing is that, this awesome vegetable cuts across cultures. It is not an “oyinbo” thing. Africans are joining the Kale movement and it is getting stronger everyday. Now, Kale is flying off the shelves in supermarkets really fast. I went to two local supermarkets on Saturday, and it was all gone. I asked the people stacking the veggies aisle and they said Missy, everyone wants a piece of Kale now. It is one of their fastest selling veggies. From stir fry, to smoothies, to even Kale chips, Kale is the new fashionable foodie thing right now. It is packed full of anti oxidants, vitamins, chlorophyll, and all those good things nutritionists say your body needs. Imagine my disappointment, I had to drive much further to another store to find it.
If you are wondering what Kale is, it is a very dark, dense curly vegetable. A little angry looking if I might say. I have probably walked past this vegetable hundreds of times and eyed it proper. The same way I eye many vegetables, Cauliflower, public enemy number one. On So You Think You Can Cook, members who live abroad are always finding ways to substitute ingredients used in Nigerian food. For some it is a case of cost, convenience or even no choice at all. When people ask, what western grown vegetable can I use in Efo Riro apart from spinach, many times the word Kale comes up. Mostly, I just ignore as sourcing Nigerian vegetables isn’t too difficult for me, and once convenience is in the mix, I can become a creature of habit. Here’s what it looks like.
You know there is a reason why Times has The Most Influential List. Up until recently, I always looked at those lists with major eye roll, because I say to myself who have they influenced (apart from the obvious ones of course). When I started blogging, I got the gist of what it means to be influential, and how people on such lists, well some of them anyway deserve to be on that list. The analogy behind those lists came up in the most unlikely of places. SYTYCC. Kale had been mentioned on the group several times and many people didn’t pay attention until one of our cooking gurus Phisayo A. cooked with it, posted the picture and shared her experience. Then everybody was on Kale like flies to sugar, and for good reason too, it is a fab veggie. Suddenly Kale efo riro, which I will term Kale Riro started popping up multiple times on the group. Kale Egusi soup too followed by a close second. If sourcing Ugu or Soko been a pain for you, don’t sweat it anymore, go the Kale route. I have planned to try Kale in different ways. Efo Riro, Ottong Soup and two more which I am going to zip my fingers for now, because I am due to trying it this week.
I tried Efo riro first, because it will give me a soft landing in terms of understanding how Kale cooks. The volume of fried and seasoned pepper stock involved, will carefully bath the Kale and provide all the flavour. Kale truly surprised me, and I believe using my mother’s tip about new ingredients gave me a winning recipe. I actually made this for the very first time, for a meal drop off service. I know my mother’s tip very well and it gave me the confidence to try this on a customer’s food and not mine for home consumption. I got great feedback from this Kale Riro, I just knew I had to share. I added spinach to it because during Christmas, my cousin Aunty Bukky, one of my cooking heroes made Efo riro with Ugu and Frozen Spinach, and I found it very interesting. Ugu is a very dense veggie for Efo riro, I wouldn’t advise you to use it alone. It is best in Egusi or Edikang Ikong, as the egusi or water leaf carefully masks its texture. I decided to apply her principle, because Kale is very similar to Ugu in texture, hence the use of spinach. Aunty Bukky used more frozen Spinach than Ugu though, I flipped it the other way. Here’s the 1 bunch of spinach I used, compared to the two heavy bunches of Kale in the picture above
You will need
2 bunches of Kale
1 bunch of Spinach
1 piece of Tatashe – red bell pepper
2 – 3 pieces of ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
Palm Oil
Assorted Meats
shredded stockfish and smoked fish
Palm Oil
Crayfish
chopped red onions
Beef Stock
Salt Seasoning cubes
Iru
Overall, the same method and ingredients as my previous Efo Riro recipe HERE hence, not that much pictures. I was cooking for two meal drop off orders. 9 different dishes, any wonder I even remembered to take pictures. My apologies.
How To
1. Follow my old Efo Riro recipe HERE, when you get to the point of adding vegetables, come back. No need to repeat the same words.
Welcome back. I believe you should not have your well fried and seasoned pepper stock ready for the veggies. My mum has a tip, which I have always used when trying something new, it has never failed me. Mummy’s Cooking Tip: when cooking with something you have never used before and it constitutes a major ingredient, always portion it into thirds. You do this to study how the ingredient will behave when cooked, start with the first third and see, then you have time to make corrections if it doesn’t turn out the way you do, or you won’t feel so bad if it doesn’t turn out well. Mama ain’t never been wrong.
2. Turn the heat down to low, and add the first 1/3 of the Kale. Stir and just watch it for about 1 minute, maximum 2, you will see it leach out some of its water. At this point, I thought hmmmn, if spinach is still coming, there will be more water in the pot. Not to worry. That’s all about to change. You will soon see why portioning into thirds is a very good idea.
the beauty with Kale is, it will still remain green, and crunchy.
3. After a 2 minutes, add the other third, this time, add the third with all the spinach. Even though I used 1 bunch of spinach, it constituted the silent partner. 1 bunch of spinach is roughly 1/4 – 1/2 of a whole bunch of Kale.
once you add the send batch, now you will even see more water coming out, at the beginning
give it another minute or so, then bubbles will start to form, turn up the heat and taste. You will notice the flavour of the Kale strongly, with a hint of the spinach, but the interesting part is that the first Kale batch has now softened to merge with the texture of the spinach, while the second Kale batch is still crunchy. Watch it for another minute, and then get ready to add the last third.
Then turn add the remaining ground crayfish to absorb some of the water. See…… Also add the smoked fish and stir carefully.
4. For this last third of the Kale, make sure you turn up the heat. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: this is to quickly reduce the volume of water the last third will produce. Then add the last third batch of Kale and stir. The addition of the last batch, plus the heat will absorb most of the water, leaving you with a bright green, crunchy, but at the same time, soft pot of Efo Riro.
There is a term I used to hear a lot on Food Network. I can’t remember the name now, but it has to do with adding an ingredient in stages or phases and getting different textures and flavours out of it. That proved correct here, even though I was just following my Mum’s tip about using a new ingredient. Despite the staging, or phasing of adding the Kale, the entire thing took roughly 5 minutes. So, don’t be discouraged. ……….and that’s your pot of Kale Riro done. If you have made Efo Riro with Kale before, I urge you to try the stages method with spinach, and tell me what you think.
I found this Kale Riro to be soft, crunchy and mushy, plus it tasted vegetabley, if that’s the word. It meshed beautifully with the rest of the ingredients. Love, love, loved it. The customer loved it too. I am definitely making it again for myself.
This is going to be my first of a series of 4 posts using Kale in Nigerian food. My love affair with Kale has truly started. I hope you join in the fun too.
Love Kale.
I must be a bit slow because I didnt even realise there was a renewed ‘buzz’ around it *shame*
My fave way to make Kale is to add it to reduced pureed onions, chilli and red peppers. Served with spicy stewed gizzard or catfish and grilled plantains (bole)
On another note – just had to say your blog is fab!
Hmmmmn, if you are slow, I joined the game late. Lol. Kale is really trending every where. Pret a Manger now has a ready to go pack of Kale chips. Who would have thought. Lol. Thanks for the compliments about the blog. From a fellow blogger, that means a lot
When useing the kale do I wash it with salt to soften it pls
no you don’t
Here comes the awaited recipe! Knowing there other 3 parts of the series excites me. I hope we won’t have to wait too long. Thanks Dooney for your remarkable effort..
Thank you Tomi. I hope to psot at least 2 of them this week. One tomorrow and the other most likely at the weekend
You could also use collard greens for efo
Yeah, thanks. I’ve also seen pcitures of Collard Riro.
Is collard green good for efo. Is yes what can it be mixed with pls
Yes it is. you can mix with spinach
Made a version of this this weekend, using your efo recipe, it was delicious. Will do your step by step version next week, God willing.
Please do and let me know
Interesting. I usually use collard green and sometimes add kale. It always remains green and crunchy. Would like you to substitute the kale with collard green instead or use all three and tell me what you think. I’m Ibo and vegetable soup is our speciality. We like it green and fresh and crunchy. When I make vegetable soup with either of these veggies it stays green and crunchy until the soup is finished. Well done. Great job.
I don’t think I can get collard greens here. It is an American veggie. If I do see it though, I will try it. Thanks
Snowed in today. Would have been a great day to make efo riro. Will venture out later to snag me some Kale. Thanks for the recipe. Viva la Kale….
I love that. Viva la Kale. If you don’t mind, I will use that for my next post
I’m a real big fan of Kale. I juice it with mangos, I combine it with apples for salads and I steam it to eat as a side. For Efo Riro though (Shout out to your recipe Dooney) I mix it up with Mustard Greens or Turnip Greens because I don’t like the soggy feeling of spinach. It is amazing how these vegetables come together. The other greens are not as tough as Kale but still find a way to hold their own in the soup.
P.S. Dooney we are twins :)! My mum is from Iperu Remo and my Dad is from Asaba 🙂
You juice it with mangoes. Wow, you are gangster. Wowzer, I don’t seem to like greens though. I love, love, love, Tete Nigerians own version of greens and these oyinbo ones don’t do i for me. I will take your suggestions and try them, lets see. Yup we must be twins. Ah Ah, my fathers village is Ibusa which is not far from Asaba at all.
Hi Dooney.
Love the blog! Noticed you shopped in Morrisons. The UK/English equivalent for Collard greens or similar family is “Spring Greens”. You can usually find it chopped up or in a bunch like a vertical cabbage.. (If that makes sense) I use that to make my vegetable soups. It really does stay crunchy and doesn’t wilt and soften up easily.
Kale has quite a strong flavour which I’m not too crazy about.. when I use it in smoothies I try and mask it with lots of pineapple and banana. Was the flavour prominent in your kale riro? Especially from the last added bunch?
No it wasn’t at all. Portioning it into thirds really helped, plus the well seasoned fried pepper stock had enough flavour to match the Kale. It was absolutely perfect
about to try my kale for the first time hope using spinach,kale and ugu will make a delicious efor ri ro?
Ooooooooh, take out one veg, if you can, preferably the ugu.
I just made my first Kale riro! Luv it! Much thanks to tips from your blog. I made mine with kale and spinach and totally luv the crunchy texture the kale gives, I’m literally doing a happy dance in my head…lol. God bless u!
Aaaaaw, well done Ayo. Glad you loved it. Amen and you too.
Pls what can I use in place of kale for the okro as I can’t find kale leave
Hi Lastel, use Ugu vegetables
Hi Dunni, please do I need to blanch the kale?
PLEASE WHERE CAN I BUY KALE LEAVES FROM?
Hi Dooney,
Made your kale riro yesterday. Tasted very yummy, first time ever that my efo wasn’t so so wet but I had a minor issue with the recipe. I couldn’t get the bell pepper and scotch bonnet to blend without adding a lot of water which meant i had to boil the blended pepper to evaporate the excess water first.
How do u blend yours?
Hi Wande, thank you for the feedback. I chop mine in little bits when i know it is going to be used for efo riro. it makes me use less water
please what is kale called in Yoruba?
Adesola, Kale is not a Nigerian veg. If you live in Nigeria, you can use Efo Shoko to make this
I never thought of using kale to cook efo… I only blended it for green smoothie. Well, Thank God He Created Dooney. This is amazinggggggggggggggggggggggggg…. Way to go mama, please keep it coming.
Hello Dooney, I just made Kale egusi soup last night. Not sure if Kale goes well with egusi nutritionally, I decided to Google it and came across your site. I am particularly excited that there are people who are amazingly researching out ways of using available vegetables to create meaningful Nigerian local delicacies. Thank you for all the details in the use of Kale and spinach. I shall try that next.
Dooney you are a life saver! I live in Canada and bought a bag of baby kale and spinach, i thought, as usual, i’ll just come to your blog to get the recipe for normal efo riro and i just found this link!!! Wish i could show you the picture of the veggies i bought…. Bear hug from your biggest Canadian fan!
Well out of curiosity and the fact that kale is a good veggie, i cooked efo riro with kale some time ago before coming across this and i couldnt eat the whole pot, i had too give it out. the kale taste was so strong. so my question here is with this method you have used, does it take of the kale test.
hmmmmmn, i really can’t say what went wrong o. you are the first person i have ever heard from that had a problem with Kale. I really don’t know what the problem could have been