Dear Kid,
The next kale has arrived. This is a good thing, because the last kale was, well, kale.
Just to be clear, kale is not a vegetable. Kale is a garnish that people discovered you could turn into chips by drowning pieces in oil and spices. As “chips” kale became a great conveyor for salt and you could barely taste the kale part.
As far as some of us are concerned, even that much kale was pushing it. Which is why you’ve never been served kale in our house. (Yes, I am just anti-kale and you’ll just have to accept me as I am.)
The newest food trend is—are you ready for this?—chickpea water.
It sounds better if you call it aquafaba, but whatever you call it it’s the stuff you pour off when you open a can of chickpeas.
The good news is no one is suggesting drowning chickpea water in salt and oil and somehow turning it into chips.
The better news is it’s not kale.
Cooks and bartenders are using aquafaba as an egg white substitute for all sorts of things like meringues and whipped cream and ice cream and those creamy drink things that bartenders make with raw eggs. (Not sure where to classify raw egg consumption on the ick scale, but I’m guessing it lands pretty close to kale.)
The cool part is that people are reducing waste by taking something that was just going down the drain and turning into YUM.
I haven’t decided if I’m going to follow the trend and try using chickpea water to make meringue. But I have to say, I’m a bit intrigued.
And it’s not kale.
Recent Comments