I see others always strip these leaves before cooking but it is a bit of a pain to me. Are they throwing out any nutritional content with these stalks or rather are they taking advantage of a higher nutritional content in the "leafy" part of the leaves?
I don't eat kale myself - too dull. But with spinach I break off fat, or long, stalks and cook all the rest. The big stems can be fibrous but I think that's the only reason for removing them. With supermarket spinach you can eat the whole thing, but that has far less taste and body to it than bunches of leaves from the market. Now with cavolo nero, which I love, I do strip the leaves each side from the central stem, as this is really quite woody.
The best spinach is hard to grow as it bolts easily. I grow Swiss Chard and perpetual spinach but the stuff in the supermarket is the real deal (variety) and tastes better imo I also grow the cavolo nero.(should you maybe add stock or bacon to your kale?)
Hmm, seems a bit like turd-polishing to me. But smoked meat does go well with brassicas, I agree. Bacon, or smoked sausage (and shallots), are good with Savoy cabbage when pot-roasting or braising a guinea fowl or chicken.
