The Easiest Way to Remove Stems from Kale

Removing the hard, fibrous stems from kale has always been a challenge for me. I used to cut the stems off, a tedious process. Later, I tried tearing the leaves from the stems, but that was even more tedious and took forever. Finally, I landed on a simple method of getting rid of those nasty stems in one swoosh.

Here’s what you do: Hold the piece of kale in one hand at the bottom of the stem. Grasp the stem with your other hand just above your first hand, and swoop upwards along the stem, removing all the leaves that will easily tear off. You may have a little stem left at the top but that’s the softer part of the stem, so it’s OK. This method works best with very fresh kale. Older kale leaves may be too stiff to break off easily.

Once I figured out how to do this, I looked forward to cooking kale. Removing the leaves from a huge bunch of kale takes only a couple minutes, at most. No knives or annoying tearing involved.

If you’ve already figured this out, you’re way ahead of me. It took me years to discover this easy-peasy method of removing kale stems! But hey, better late than never. My days of shunning kale are in the past.

Springhouse Turtle

Wash and dry a big bunch of kale.