The ‘strip, stack, and roll’ method for chopping kale like a professional chef

Everyone has their method of how to chop kale, and I feel like I’ve tried them all. But if you haven’t found a method that makes your salads on par with what you’ll find on the menu at your favorite restaurant, it’s probably just because you haven’t attempted to “strip, stack, and roll” yet.

James Beard Award-winning chef Zach Engel recently shared a kale preparation technique with Feedfeed that allows you to make pro-level salads right at home. In the video, he went over the three parts, starting with stripping the kale by holding the top of the stem with one hand and pulling your fingers along the stem with the other as you remove the leaves. Next comes the final two components that make your greens restaurant-worthy: stacking and rolling.

With the stems removed, stack the kale leaves on top of each other then roll the leaves like you’re rolling up your yoga mat. Then, chop it into thin strips. “You can get a totally different experience based on little things here and there. It’s all about the bite—cutting the kale up thin but not too thin,” Engel says. Instead of chunky, hard-to-eat pieces, you’ll have fine bite-sized kale that has an unbeatable texture.

It might not seem like switching up the way you prepare your kale would make that big of a difference in the finished product, but it really does. Once you take your first bite, you’ll never make it any other way.

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