I know, I know…I’ve written a lot of kale recipes of late.  I’ll watch that for a while so that we can explore other vegetable options moving forward.  If you don’t have kale or would rather use a different vegetable you can certainly use other vegetables such as Swiss chard, Brussel sprouts, potatoes (sweet or regular), carrots, parsnips, cauliflower…anyway you get the idea; there are a lot of options with this recipe.  I made this dish for our Thanksgiving family dinner and it was actually one of, if not the actual favorite(s) of the day.  The good news with serving this dish for Thanksgiving is that it is very easy, fairly quick to make, and can be made ahead and simply finished at the last minute.  Apologies about the picture…it’s a bit blurry.  I was moving quickly to take pictures while at the same time getting dinner ready for us and our friends.  So it was more of a moving target with this meal…recipe follows after the jump.

Ingredients:

2 Bunches of Tuscan kale, chopped into ribbons

1 Onion, chopped finely

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

2 Tablespoons AP flour

1 Cup whole milk

Dash of nutmeg

Dash of cayenne pepper

Kosher salt

½ Cup grated gruyere cheese

½ Cup grated parmesan cheese

½ Cup coarse bread crumbs

Olive oil

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Wash the kale and chop it into ribbons. Set aside.
• Finely chop an onion. Heat a sauté pan over medium heat.  Add a few tablespoons of olive oil and add the onion.  Add a pinch of salt.  Cook the onion for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the kale to the pan (you may have to do this in a couple batches due to the bulk of the kale). Cook the kale over medium heat for a couple of minutes, stirring the kale around the pan so that all the kale touches the pan.  Cook until wilted and place cooked kale in bowl and set aside.  Season with kosher salt to taste.
• Gather the butter, flour, and milk.
• In a saucepan, add the butter and flour and cook over medium low heat stirring often (I use a whisk). Once the butter and flour mixture has come together, cook a few more minutes, stirring often but making sure the mixture does not change color to brown.
• After a few minutes of cooking the butter and flour, slowly add the milk, a little bit at a time, whisking the milk into the flour and butter mixture until well combined. Continue adding milk to the pan, little by little and whisking until all the milk is used.  As you continue adding the milk, the sauce will change color and become a white sauce.
• Grate a bit of fresh nutmeg into the sauce. Add a dash of cayenne pepper.  Add a dash of salt.  Taste and adjust seasonings.
• Pour white sauce into the bowl containing the kale and stir to completely combine.
• Place the kale and sauce mixture in an oven safe casserole dish. Sprinkle the cheeses and breadcrumbs over the top.
• Place the gratin in the preheated oven and bake until the topping is nicely browned, about 25 minutes.
• Allow gratin to rest five minutes or so before serving.

Serve while hot.