Sauted Kale with Goji

I couldn’t believe how many products with goji berries I saw at the Fancy Food Show this year. We seem to require a new superfood every year (blueberries and pomegranate have dominated this category over the past two to three years), and I think it might be goji’s turn. In a perfect mirroring of this trend, I’ve seen them for sale in fancy health food stores and, heaven forbid, farmers’ markets, anywhere from $12 to $25/pound, but I was able to pick them up in my local market in Chinatown for $2.39/pound. Chinese just eat them, probably oblivious to the trend’s current status (and the Chinese merchants, miraculously, must be unaware of how much they could actually charge per pound, with the right marketing), whereas we “better health through better food” people seek some kind of nutritional botox effect from them.

They’re sort of like a cross between a dried cranberry and a rasin. Sort of! They are in any case the perfect fruity chewy foil for a large bunch of hyperfresh kale, trimmed of its stems. Dice and saute a red onion in fat of choice (I used macadamia oil, which was delicious, but this could be done with olive oil, butter, ghee, or a combo of these). While the onion softens, rinse the trimmed kale and chop into 1-inch segments, and add to the onions once they’re nice and soft. Add plenty of salt (of choice) and pepper. I also tossed in some ground fennel seed, which seemed to add some complexity to it, but this could easily be omitted. Then a big handful of goji berries. Just saute for a few more minutes, and you’ll soon see what a delightful combination this is; it also has the added bonus of being extremely pretty, not to mention about as healthful as it gets. Try a big bowl of it, and notice how you feel afterward–completely sated yet happy and light enough to want to go for a nice long walk.