Pressure Cooker Chinese Kale

I was checking out our new Whole Foods 365 store, and saw bunches of kale on sale for 50 cents. Sale kale? Pressure cooker time!

I know, I know, "Whole Paycheck"…but I always like having another option for good ingredients. And, as I've said before, if you want good vegetables, go to a store that caters to vegetarians. (And, I was pleasantly surprised by how low the prices are. Not sure if it's the Whole Foods 365 concept, or the Amazon.com influence, but the prices seemed reasonable.)

This is my pressure cooker kale basic technique by way of China. Or, at least Chinese-American. It is inspired by the plates of steamed Chinese vegetables I order at dim sum restaurants. (I need a little something green to counteract all the steamed dumplings and sticky buns.)

If there's a trick to this recipe, it's trimming the kale, and cutting out the thick inner stem. That prep work takes as long as the rest of the recipe. When I'm in a hurry - and the kale sale is over - I will cheat and buy bags of pre-washed, pre-trimmed kale. Hey, sometimes you just need an easy green side dish, you know?

Video: Pressure Cooker Chinese Kale - Time Lapse (1:33)

Pressure Cooker Chinese Kale [YouTube.com]

Pressure Cooker Chinese Kale

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5 from 1 review

• Author: Mike Vrobel
• Total Time: 20 minutes
• Yield: 4-6 servings

Print Recipe

Description

Pressure Cooker Chinese Kale. A quick green side dish from the pressure cooker.

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Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
• ½ inch slice of ginger, peeled and crushed
• 1 scallion (green onion), trimmed and sliced things
• 1 pound kale, cleaned and stems trimmed
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt (or Sichuan Roasted Pepper Salt)
• ½ cup water (or the minimum amount for your cooker)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

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Instructions

 

1. Lightly sauté the garlic, ginger, and scallion, then add the kale: Pour the oil into the bottom of the pressure cooker pot, and add the garlic, ginger, and scallion to the cold pan. Then turn on sauté mode in an electric PC or set the pot over medium heat in a stovetop PC. (Starting with a cold pan helps toast the garlic without burning it.) Heat until the garlic just starts to sizzle – we want it to bubble around the edges, but not brown – about 3 minutes. Stir a big handful of the kale, tossing to coat with the garlicky oil, then start packing in the rest of the kale. Don’t worry about the max fill line on the cooker – it will wilt quickly – but you need to pack it in enough to close the lid. Sprinkle the kale with the ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, then pour the water over the top of everything.
2. Pressure cook the kale for 5 minutes with a quick release: Lock the lid on the pressure cooker, bring it up to high pressure, and cook at high pressure for 5 minutes (for either electric or stovetop PC). Quick release the pressure. Remove the lid carefully – the steam is hot enough to scald.
3. Season and serve: Drizzle the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil over the kale in the pot, and toss to coat. Scoop the kale out of the pot with a slotted spoon or tongs, leaving as much liquid behind as possible. Serve.

Notes

Don’t feel like trimming kale? Get a bag of pre-washed and trimmed kale. Look near the bagged salads. It won’t be as fresh as the bunches of kale...but sometimes perfect is the enemy of good enough.

Tools

• This recipe fits in a 6 quart or larger pressure cooker. (I love my 6 quart Instant Pot)
• Tongs are my hands in the kitchen. They are the right tool for tossing and packing the kale in the pot, and then for scooping out the kale and leaving the excess liquid behind.

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Category: Side dish
• Method: Pressure Cooker
• Cuisine: Chinese

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My other Pressure Cooker Time Lapse Videos

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