German kale recipe with sausages

Jump down here for the German kale recipe with sausages, or here for the vegetarian kale recipe!

And do have a look at the white cabbage stirfry here!

While kale is hardly even known in the southern half of Germany, it is an essential food item for northern Germans. We miss it as much as we miss our sourdough rye bread when we are abroad (or in the south, which can actually feel like somewhere abroad). So when the great kale hype swept across America a few years ago, Northern Germans sat back and watched in amusement and bewilderment at the same time. And, to be honest, also with a great deal of smugness. So they´ve discovered kale at last! Wait, what? Didn´t they know it before? How could they even survive without kale?

To be fair, the kale recipes that the health food scene prepared and shared then did not have much to do with kale as a winter staple the way (northern) Germans have known it for centuries. We don´t make kale chips, and shudder at the thought of kale smoothies. We consider kale health food, too – but more in the sense our Oma would have in mind: “eat, child, eat, so you´ll grow big and strong!”

Kale, for us, is very much a winter food. You can harvest it in autumn, but it will survive outside throughout winter and does, in fact, taste much better if it is left on the field until after the first hoarfrost mornings, or even longer. Kale as a plant is not much bothered by a blanket of snow! Which is why kale and its ancestors have been so common and popular in northern Germany for as long as history has known anything about German food. Our ancestors ate it in their huts of mud and straw long before Christianity reached this part of the world – that´s why we also call it “Wotanspalme (Odin´s Palm Tree)”. It adds some pleasant green to the brown and grey winter gardens and fields. I don´t know how old the specific German kale recipe below is, but it certainly is a traditional one.

German food being so heavy and greasy in general is a stereotype that does not have much to do with reality – I suppose it arose in the late 1950s when German food culture was very much influenced by the experience of two world wars and a dramatic recession, which meant that many people had lived through three hunger periods. So they were not much interested in vegetables or lettuce – that´s what they had been gathering when nothing else was available! They were terrified of not getting enough calories. So they preferred greasy food with lots of meat, dairy, eggs and flour. This is, however, not typical German cuisine; rather, it´s German post-war, famine trauma cuisine.

On the other hand, there ARE some traditional dishes that really are that heavy. And the way we usually prepare kale is a very good example (note that it´s a vegetable based meal, though!). As I said, we regard kale as a winter food, best from late December to early February. This is the best time for harvesting kale. But it´s also the time for butchering pigs, making sausages and gaining fresh lard. In the cold winter weather, kale prepared according to a traditional German kale recipe with spicy sausages and lard will not only give you the strength for work like cutting trees and chopping wood, it will also keep you warm.

Nowadays, few people do much hard physical work. So people have found another way of combining kale with exercise: The Grünkohlwanderung (kale hike). Associations like, for example, the local fire brigade or sports club or some other local group will invite for a hike through the snow or rain. Depending on the local tradition, the hike can last for one, two or even three hours; the event mainly aims at adults, but it´s okay to take the whole family as long as you don´t mind the fact that many of the participants will be getting more and more drunk along the way. Because Schnaps definitely is a part of it all.

The hike ends at a village inn or village community center where a large amount of steaming kale with sausage is already waiting, prepared by a hired cook or volunteers. Now begins the kale eating contest – the participants do not compete for money or any material prize, but for the honor of being proclaimed Kale King or Kale Queen. In my particular region, people would be drinking Lüttje Lage (“little layering”) – that is the art of holding a glass of beer and a small glass of Korn (strong alcohol, like vodka) in one hand and managing to gulp both of them down at the same time. This it not compulsory, though, and it is totally possible to participate without drinking alcohol. However, for those of you who wish to join in the Lüttje Lage drinking, here is an instruction video!

Heavier or lighter options

Of course we also eat kale at home. If you prepare it in one of the traditional ways, be prepared to follow this ancient piece of advice:

Nach dem Essen sollst du ruh´n – oder tausend Schritte tun!

(After a meal you should rest – or walk a thousand steps!)

The kale meal will be much lighter if you choose to prepare it as a vegetarian meal. So I´ll just share both options with you. But – although traditional German cuisine includes a high vegetable content, the meat is needed for a German kale recipe to be a traditional one.

Choosing the proper sausages

By the way, the kale recipe that is traditional for my region requires a particular sausage. It is called Bregenwurst, or Pinkel. Since I suppose you can hardly get it in other regions of Germany, let alone in other countries, I chose for you a recipe with Mettenden. These are easier to replace, I think. Basically, you want a very spicy, but not hot, smoked sausage from coarsely ground pork (combined with beef, or just pork). Mettwurst is very similar to Salami, and Mettenden are small Mettwurst that are smoked and can be eaten as they are, but are also suitable for cooking or putting on a barbecue grill. For the vegetarian meal, I chose smoked tofu as a replacement for the sausages. The meat is not necessarily required for the proper taste, but the smoke aroma is!

German Kale Recipe – traditional with sausages, and vegetarian

Traditional recipe with sausages

There is, of course, more than one traditional German kale recipe. This one is one of the lighter versions. Others may include pork belly bacon, other pieces of meat, and oatmeal – ALL of them in addition to the lard and sausages!

Ingredients for four servings

Kale – 2kg of whole, fresh kale leaves; or 1kg of frozen, finely chopped kale

Lard – 3 tablespoons

4 – 8 smoked sausages (see above), depending on their size

2 onions, medium sized

Potatoes, 1kg

Some salt and pepper, hot mustard

What to do

1. Cover the bottom of a pot with water (about 300 ml). Add the sausages. Bring to a boil and leave them boiling (lid closed) while following the next step.
2. If you have bought fresh kale, check thoroughly for white flies and caterpillars (sorry, but they just love kale), wash and remove the thick and coarse parts of the kale leaves. Chop finely. Frozen chopped kale will save you a lot of time! – If this takes you more than 20 minutes, take the sausages off the flame, just leave them in their cooking water with lid closed
3. Chop onions. Melt lard, add onions and sauté them for one or two minutes. Add a teaspoon of salt (or less if the lard is already salted) and stir well.
4. Add the kale. Sauté for about five minutes. Stir so it won´t burn!
5. Put the sausages on top of the kale, then boil for 50-60 minutes, adding sausage water bit by bit; but make sure you don´t turn it into a soup by adding too much water! (Some people don´t bother and just re-thicken with flour or oatmeal, but I really cannot recommend that. It makes the whole thing slimy and harder to digest.) During this process, add some salt and pepper. You can also add a bit of mustard (optional).

That´s it! We usually serve kale and sausages with Salzkartoffeln (peel potatoes and steam them for 15-20 minutes in salted water; start preparing this while the kale is cooking). Hot mustard goes well with the sausages (please do NOT serve ketchup with them).

Alternative: Kale Stew

This is how we usually serve leftovers of the above meal, but you can also prepare it as a stew in the first place: Just cut sausages and potatoes into pieces, stir, add some more lard and heat up. Or, if you prepare a kale stew right away, follow the above recipe but cut the sausages into pieces and stir them into the kale rather than putting them on top. Peel the potatoes and dice them (not too small); add them to the kale 10 minutes before the end of cooking time. Optional: After putting the stew on plates, add some ground mustard seed on top. You can still serve hot mustard for the sausage cuts.

Traditional kale recipe – Vegetarian alternative

Ingredients for four servings

Kale – 2 kg of fresh, whole kale leaves; or 1 kg of frozen, finely chopped kale

Smoked Tofu – 250g

Coconut oil – 3-4 tablespoons

2 onions, medium sized

vegetable stock – 250 ml

Potatoes – 1kg

Some salt, pepper, hot mustard

Optional: Vegetarian sausages or patties

Optional: Freshly ground mustard seeds or lightly roasted sesame seeds

What to do

1. If you have fresh kale, remove the thick and coarse parts. Chop the leaves finely.
2. Chop onions, dice the smoked tofu.
3. Bring the vegetabe stock to a boil, add kale and steam it for ten minutes.
4. Melt the coconut oil in a wide pot, big pan or wok. Add onions and a teaspoon of salt and sauté for two minutes.
5. Add kale without its cooking water (keep that in another vessel for later) and sauté until you can see that it´s in danger of burning (do not wait for too long!). Now begin to add the water bit by bit. Make sure it won´t become a soup, though. Add some salt and pepper and, optionally, some mustard. Cook for 60 minutes,
6. While the kale is cooking, prepare Salzkartoffeln: Peel potatoes and steam them for 10-20 minutes depending on sort and size.
7. 10 minutes before the end of the kale´s cooking time, melt a little bit of coconut oil and sauté the diced smoked tofu for one to two minutes. Then add to the kale.
8. Serve the kale with steamed potatoes at the side. Vegetarian sausages or patties go well with this dish, but you can also have it on its own. Serve some hot mustard to dip the tofu dice! You can also sprinkle the kale with ground mustard seeds or, if you don´t like it hot, with lightly roasted sesame seeds.

Again, you can also serve leftovers as a stew. Just dice the potatoes and stir them in. Or, if you want to prepare the meal as a stew in the first place, peel and dice the potatoes and add them to the kale ten minutes before the end of its cooking time.