Kale is an English word for a dark green leafy vegetable, irregular and often lobed or curly.
It typically grows in cold climates (that's why they eat it big in Great Britain) and, good news, even here in the country it exists and we cultivate it; we know it as cabbage black or kale.
They are not exactly the same but they resemble each other since they belong to the same family: the kale it had been a bit forgotten by our farmers, so it is not quite within reach of the supermarket counter, but in many markets in the north and the country it is still possible to find it.
It seems that the kale has a higher concentration of nutrients than the best known cabbage black (that of the Tuscan ribollita to be clear), for this reason it is he who has been identified by many magazines as one of the most important "superfoods": nothing to envy to Goji berries, alchenchengi, maca and the rest of the exotic family of" superfoods ".
Read also Chips by kale >>
The properties of kale
But what are the properties of this kale (and to a lesser extent its younger cousin kale)?
Some summarized:
- it is considered one of the foods with the highest values ORAC (Oxigen Radical Absorbance Capacity): it means that it has a very high content of antioxidants (vitamin C, beta-carotene, quercetin ..) and therefore a great ability to reabsorb free radicals.
- Contains compounds that turn into isothiocyanates in the digestive tract: the latter are compounds now known in cancer prevention.
- Protects the urinary tract, thanks to its wealth in pro-vitamin A and unlike many green leafy vegetables it contains a low amount of oxalates.
Why not try it then? Given the season, we could start with a simple one soup and maybe 1-2 leaves added raw to our salad, you can indulge in trying it in numerous recipes.
Read also
> Wild cabbage, properties and how it works
> Tuscan Ribollita, the recipe
