Curly kale
Brassica oleracea 'Sabellica' · Brassica
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Curly kale — the Scotch or curly-leaf kale of the Brassica oleracea Sabellica type — is the kale most people picture: a loose rosette of broad, deep-green leaves whose margins are tightly curled, crisped and frilled into dense ruffles, sometimes flushed purple at the edges in cold weather. It is the most robust, fibrous and frankly peppery-bitter of the everyday kales, with a pronounced raw-cabbage bite that softens and sweetens markedly once the leaf is cooked, crisped into chips or massaged with oil and salt.
Picking a good onedrag
Stiff and blue-greenYellow and limp
Shop freshEveryday bestThe all-rounder: raw or massaged, sautéed, braised, blitzed into soup.
LeafEven green, bloom rubbed off
The bendRib bends, leaf still stiff
Cut endRim drying, pale inside
SmellNeutral, a little cabbagey
These cues are Kale's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
71%
Edible part
355 g · ribs and stems stripped
500 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
A domestic fridge holds it about 5× longer than the counter.
95–100%
Humidity
Loose, never sealed
Airflow