Purple Kale over Brown Jasmine Rice – Easy and Delicious

This sautéed purple kale with brown jasmine rice makes for a simple, wholesome meal! It tastes delicious, is quick to make, and provides the nourishment you and your family need for busy days.

The purple kale is sautéed with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt, and rests on a bed of brown jasmine rice cooked with vegetable broth instead of water – an easy pilaf, if you will. You could easily double this recipe if you are meal-prepping for the week.

If you’re interested in a slightly fancier meal, try drizzling some of my spicy cashew dressing over the top, or if you like spinach and mushrooms, my pierogi sauce!

What does purple kale taste like?

As it happens, purple kale tastes much like green, red, or lacinato (dinosaur) kale.

When kale first became trendy, people spoke about it as if it were this intimidating plant that you had to do a lot of work to in order to make it palatable. People said it was very bitter and that you needed to massage the kale with salt, lemon juice, and/or vinegar to break it down enough to be edible.

So, I waited a while to get on the kale bandwagon. Let me tell you, that fear-mongering hype couldn’t be further from the truth.

If you enjoy vegetables like broccoli or Brussel sprouts, I think you’ll really like kale. (If you already like greens like Swiss chard, collard greens, or mustard greens, I really think you’ll like kale.) I think it’s much less bitter than arugula or radicchio, if that makes you feel better.

Kale is delicious with lemon juice, salt, and vinegar, but you do not need to massage it in. (I tried it once and could not taste the difference, but ended up with olive oily hands.) Just chop the kale and throw it into whatever you’re cooking.

One huge benefit of kale is that it keeps in the refrigerator much longer than more delicate vegetables like lettuce or spinach. For that reason, I substitute kale in many recipes that you would expect to find spinach in: omelettes, soups, stir-fries, etc.

Are purple kale and red kale the same thing?

Technically, no. Most grocery stores call this red kale, even though it is clearly purple, just as we call red onions red, despite many of them also being evidently purple. To make it more confusing, many people do call this purple kale.

There is another kind of purple kale, which I have never seen in a grocery store, that has purple leaves on the inside and green leaves on the outside. In addition, Redbor kale is incredibly purple. Finally, Red Russian kale (also called Ragged Jack) has quite green or blue-green leaves, with red and purple at the stems and ribs.

If you’d like to see some pictures of these different kale varieties, you can do so here.

What is a pilaf?

A pilaf is a rice dish you can make by cooking your rice in stock or broth rather than water.

Typically, people add aromatics like dried spices (paprika, black pepper, etc.), onions, garlic, parsley, green onions, or sometimes mushrooms or carrots to make it more flavorful. For some recipes, people use sweeter ingredients, too, like raisins or dried apricots. Some people use meat as well.

This recipe just uses vegetable broth in place of water, which you could consider a lazy (read: easy) pilaf, or pilaf light.

Purple Kale with Brown Jasmine Rice Pilaf Ingredients

Before you begin, you will need:

• 1 bunch of purple kale (you could easily add a second bunch if you’re not in a rush as it cooks down quite a bit)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds (optional, but they add some protein and look nice as the purple kale dyes them a bit pink)
• Lemon juice, to taste (I used 1 Tbsp while cooking the kale, and then you can garnish with more)
• 1 cup of brown jasmine rice
• 1 cup of vegetable broth
• Salt, to taste
• A skillet and turning device for the kale
• A pot for the rice (I used my Instant Pot)
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Knife and cutting board

How to Make Purple Kale with Brown Jasmine Rice Pilaf

1. To begin, rinse your rice and place equal parts rice and vegetable broth in an Instant Pot. Add a pinch of salt if desired. Set to manual mode for 24 minutes. (If you are using a saucepan, use the same proportions you normally would to cook rice, but just swap the vegetable broth in place of the water. With typical evaporation, you’d need about 2 parts liquid to 1 part brown rice.)
2. While the Instant Pot is pressurizing, wash the kale (you don’t need to dry it) and begin chopping it into bite sized pieces. You can eat the purple ribs, but many people prefer not to. It mostly depends on how much time you want to spend on the chopping portion.
3. Set a skillet on the stove over medium heat. Once it heats up, add the olive oil and a handful or two of the kale. As the kale begins to wilt and there is more room in the pan, clear the middle and keep adding more purple kale until all of it is wilted.
4. Then, add 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. Sprinkle salt evenly over the kale (I used kosher salt), and stir to combine.
5. Next, clear a space in the middle of the pan and add the slivered almonds. Cook until warm and just barely starting to brown.
6. Blend the almonds and kale and remove from heat.
7. Once the rice is done, let it depressurize on its own for best results.
8. Scoop some brown jasmine rice onto your dish, cover with a layer of purple kale and almonds, and dig in! You can garnish with additional lemon juice and salt if you’d like.

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Variations on this Purple Kale and Brown Jasmine Rice Pilaf

If you can’t find purple kale, any kale you can find would taste great in this recipe. Alternatively, so would greens like mustard greens, collard greens, or Swiss chard.

While brown jasmine rice is fragrant and delicious, any rice you have in the cupboard will work perfectly well.

Feel free to add cheese to this dish if you don’t need it to be vegan. If you do add a rich cheese like halloumi, I would recommend adding red wine vinegar in addition to the lemon juice. This will make it extra tangy.

Fresh garlic would be good with the purple kale as well.

To make the rice more of a true pilaf, you could use the saute button on the Instant Pot to cook some onion and/or garlic before adding the rice and vegetable broth. If you have fresh parsley, add half to the rice while it cooks and use the rest as a garnish.

You could always add tofu for a more filling dish.

While I left this dish quite simple to let the flavor of the purple kale shine, this would be delicious with a peanut butter, ginger, and soy sauce dressing as well!

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Related Kale Post and Another Recipe for Rice

This baked halloumi tray bake is great with any kind of kale you can find!

If you have leftover rice once the kale is gone, you may wish to try my curried chickpea cholay to go with it.

I hope you enjoy this purple kale with brown jasmine rice recipe!