This is a pear-fect holiday dish.  The fragrance of vanilla, ginger, and cinnamon wafting through your kitchen will get you into the holiday mood.  This is a lovely accompaniment to turkey, beef, or lamb.  Try this dish instead of marshmallow or candied yams–you’ll still get the sweetness you crave without all the crap sugar.  Your body will thank you!

Note: If you notice the photo looks suspiciously like the one I used for my Apple Fennel Kale post, you would be correct.  Good job Watson!  I somehow forgot to photograph the dish before eating it.  Whoops!  But the dish looks very similar to this photo, so I used it again.  Hope you don’t mind!

Recipe for Pear-fect Kale

The amounts of these ingredients can be adjusted to suit your taste preferences.

1 bunch green kale; stems cut into ¼ inch pieces, leaves sliced into ½ inch strips – Watch this video to see how

about 1 cup chopped pears – Make sure they are very ripe

fresh ginger, grated

1 tablespoon butter

couple tablespoons chicken or vegetable stock

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

couple pinches Chinese Five Spice Powder – This is a mixture of cinnamon, fennel, cloves, star anise, and white pepper.  Frontier makes a nice one.

sea salt to taste

Melt butter in deep sauté pan, add stems and stock and cook for a few minutes.  Add ginger and continue cooking for another minute.  Add pears and vanilla extract, cook for another few minutes.  Add kale leaves, cover pan, and cook until leaves turn a vibrant green.  Uncover, shut off heat, mix ingredients.  Add spice powder and sea salt, mix again.

Merry Christmas!