All hail, Kale!

07 Jun All hail, Kale!

Last Friday, I attended Cooking Crew Academy for the second time. Cooking Crew Academy, held at Comegys Elementary School in West Philadelphia, is an after school activity that empowers kids to become young chefs by cooking healthy dishes for themselves and their peers.

The kids are given a great amount of autonomy and jump right in. They get to choose what dish they want to cook from an array of ingredients with an emphasis on vegetables such as kale and spinach. Adult supervisors like myself are there to facilitate the vision that the kids have for their dish, among other technical things.
Last week, the kids broke off into two groups. One group decided to make a kale smoothie. The group I worked more closely with decided to make a kale frittata. Sounds fancy, right?
With the help of Chef Bruce, a longtime participant of Cooking Crew Academy, they began by washing and finely chopping kale and onions. The kids have amazing knife skills! They put mine to shame, no doubt about it. The onions and kale were sauteed in a frying pan with olive oil and salt.

I remember asking some of the kids if they thought kale was tasty. Some of them replied no. I wasn’t surprised. Many kids, especially in poor or working class communities, do not have much exposure to vegetables. This is usually because of a lack of access to grocery stores with healthy foods such as fresh vegetables and fruits, but in my opinion also because they are socialized to view these type of foods as undesirable.

Once the spinach and onions were cooked enough, eggs were added to the frying pan. Sliced apples were placed on top of the eggs as a refreshing and sweet element. The pan was covered to trap in the heat. Below is a great shot of Chef Bruce uncovering the frying pan. You see that steam? That’s the frittata proclaiming its healthiness and yelling, “eat me!”

The frittata was a little over cooked, or should I say crispy, but that’s okay!
Both of the two groups complied their dishes (the kale smoothie and kale frittata) and waited for their peers to arrive to try out their healthy creations! They also get to try out their own food. The kale smoothie went fast. I don’t recall there being any kale frittata left by the time we finished either. Hopefully this dish opened up the minds of the kids that said they didn’t enjoy kale.

 
All hail, kale!