Imagine for a moment the wonder that could be if Brussels sprouts and kale had little babies. Now, contain your excitement, because it is a thing, and has been for a number of years. They also go by the name of kalettes, and they’ve been popping up all over the place, from conventional grocery stores to Trader Joe’s.
There’s a little misunderstanding about them, and their true origin. For marketing purposes (see my opening paragraph 🙂 they’re usually referred to as a “cross between Brussels sprouts and kale, a misleading phrase that I’ve seen used by small, organic farmers and conventional broadline purveyors alike.
Just like everyone else, hearing that they’re a cross between two plants made me assume that in order to get some or have a farmer grow some for me at a restaurant, it might require some funky planting techniques, manipulation, or some other adjustment to a farm’s processes.
With the exception of a couple herbs, I haven’t had very good success getting farmers to grow interesting things and by the same token, I know many farmers will complain that they haven’t had success getting chef’s to buy things they’ve grown especially for them. I think a form of growing contract might be a nice mutually beneficial arrangement, but that’s outside the scope of this post.
Back to the wee kale sprouts. This fall I was walking through the gardens at the farm in Menomonie, getting ready to pick a few Brussels sprouts. As I picked I wandered through the different gardens, looking at the different plantings of Brussels, cabbage and kale. When I went up to the kale, I noticed at the base of the stalks where the greens had been harvested in the past few weeks there was new growth. I started to feel the excitement that comes with a paradigm shift, the sort of discovery that makes something old seem completely new. Here’s what I understood as a new truth:
Kale sprouts are not a futuristic cross between Brussels sprouts and kale. The only similarity/connection between Brussels and kale sprouts is in the stage when they’re harvested.
Conversely, as kale sprouts are kale harvested young, you can see new possibilities for working with Brussels sprouts by seeing them mature. The leaves become larger, the small heads on the stalks loosen and grow in size, lending themselves to cooking methods you might use with cabbages or other leafy greens, like kale. Maybe I can take some shots of that next year.
As far as cooking the kale sprouts, from a culinary perspective, you have 2 different vegetables in one here, a firm stem that requires extended cooking, and fluffy, tender leaves that cook very fast. There are a few recipes online that suggest roasting your little kale sprouts to crunchy nubbins, but I find roasting too aggressive for delicate sprouts like this, personal opinion.
Scoring the stems as with Brussels sprouts helps ensure even cooking.
Instead, I use a two step process you could call the pan-steam, it’s really simple, all you need is a pan with a lid. From there, you just put them on a plate and eat them as part of a dish, I don’t usually do anything else to them at all, I think they’re just perfect the way nature made them. They do make fun pickles though.
These are great alongside a piece of meat. Pictured is a cut of pork near the shoulder called secreto, and a little wild plum tkemali.
Pan Steamed Kale Sprouts or Kalettes
Ingredients
- 2 handfuls of kale sprouts
- Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
- A tablespoon of butter or oil
- 1/4 cup stock, wine, or water
Method
Score the stems of the kale sprouts with an X to help them cook evenly, and trim any excess large leaves if you want. Warm the butter or oil in the pan on medium heat, then add the kale sprouts and season lightly. Toss the kale sprouts to coat with the fat, and cook for 2 minutes, watching closely to prevent the leaves from browning. Add the liquid to the pan and cover, then cook for 3-4 minutes more on medium heat, or until the sprouts are just tender. Double check the seasoning and adjust as needed, then serve immediately. If the kalettes seem a bit wet, blot them quickly on a towel before plating, or plate with a slotted spoon.
Cute little things.
another variation of the same species of plant.
Cute little things.
another variation of the same species of plant that is both kale and brussels sprouts.
There is a lot of misinformation out there. They are just a brand name for kale sprouts. – However – I think they really are a hybrid plant, not your average kale. The official page explains it briefly. I’ve been reading in different sources that kale and kalettes sprout at different times of the year, so I guess it really is a new variety. It’s all very confusing.
If they are crossing brussel sprouts with kale, I believe they are just creating a new cultivar since the plants are in the same species. Kind of how a mutt isn’t really a hybrid animal but a pluot would be a hybrid fruit. Regardless, this is the first I’ve heard of kalettes and am excited to look for them. Thanks!
Thanks Ron, from what I see in our gardens at the farm in Menomonie WI, it seems to me that all that’s being done is harvesting them at an earlier date, since the kale sprouts I was picking and are pictured here are *exactly* the same as varieties I’ve purchased wholesale through 2-3 local purveyors. Either way, they’re great. Keep an eye out for them.
The Kalettes that I have seen growing look more like brussel sprouts – a big thick stalk with tons of little kalette sprouts coming out all over it. And you can probably harvest a lot more “kalettes” all at once from one plant. Perhaps if a kale stalk was old enough and had been harvested enough, it would sprout lots of new growth all over it, and would look similar. It would be an interesting experiment to try to prune a kale plant in such a way that it would produce a lot of sprouts. I might try that next year. I agree that both kalettes and kale sprouts taste great. And there might be more than one way to arrive at the same good tasting destination.
Thanks for highlighting a form of the kale plant not typically eaten. So many great tasting parts of plants are neglected. Kale and collard buds look like little broccoli heads, but with a kale or collard flavor. Rattail radish pods are simply radish seed pods that have been bred for length and tenderness. Bolted lettuce stalks are extremely succulent and usually not very bitter when peeled. Yet everyone throws out their lettuce once it bolts.