How to Cook Tasty Kale: Kenyan Sukumawiki Recipe

Are you a kale (sukumawiki) lover or hater? Either way, try this Kenyan Sukumawiki recipe and you will either begin to love kale or love it a lot more!

Sukumawiki in Kenya

Sukumawiki is the Swahili word for kale (or collard greens, as some may argue) and it is a very popular dish in the country. Kenyans often enjoy this leafy green with ugali and beef stew – the ultimate Kenyan combo. Sautéing, as demonstrted in this recipe, is the most common cooking method for sukumawiki in Kenya, but other recipes do exist too.

Kale in the United States

In my observation in the United States, perceptions about kale vary widely and opinions can be quite strong. On one hand is a group of people who thoroughly enjoy kale and love to add it to their smoothies and salads, and on the other hand are people who totally hate the vegetable and think it is disgusting. My thoughts? Indeed, consuming raw kale isn’t for everyone. Hence this recipe.

Print The Kenyan Sukumawiki Recipe

Serving suggestions for sautéed kale

Serve your kale with this absolutely delicious beef ribs stew for dinner or with these soft and moist scrambled eggs for lunch alongside your other side dishes.

Additional tips and instructions for this Kenyan Sukumawiki recipe

1. This recipe is for curly kale and not collard greens.
2. To remove the kale stalks, hold each leaf up by the stalk and use the other hand to pull down the green leafy parts to separate them from the stalk. Pull all the way to the end if you wish to remove the whole stalk. Otherwise, pull the leafy parts halfway and break the stalk to leave in part of it (some people love the crunchiness of the stalk and love to have some of that in the dish.
3. To chop your kale into small pieces, you will need a chopping board and a sharp knife. Take a bunch of cleaned kale leaves and place them on the chopping board. Press on them with one hand and chop with the other (see this video). On a side note, expert kale choppers usually don’t use a chopping board at all, and they chop extremely fast. Take a look if you don’t mind getting scared.
4. Keep the heat on high throughout, but do not overcook your kale. Take it off the heat as soon as it is all wilted and evenly cooked. The texture should be tender but a little crunchy.
5. Feel free to garnish your kale with peppers of any color. They do not have to be red. Yellow and orange bell peppers, for instance, would do a great job too. Some people add green peppers even though those get lost in the kale. You can also choose to mix colors. Whichever option you go with, ensure that the amount of bell peppers you use totals up to a quarter of a whole pepper for this recipe. You do not want to overuse the peppers as they have a taste and texture of their own.

Variations to the recipe of sautéed kale

The recipe for sautéed kales can have several variations. Try out any of these five variations depending on your preferences as well as which ingredients are available to you. I have included a brief description of the recipe change as well as what each resulting dish would look, feel, or taste like to give you an idea.

#1. Add tomatoes: For this recipe, you would add just one medium-sized tomato.  Dice the tomato and add it after frying the onions (step 5 above), just before adding the kale. Cook the tomato until mushy, add the kale, and follow the rest of the steps to the end. Tomatoes will give kale somewhat of a sour taste.

#2. Add grated carrots: For this recipe, you would add ¼ cup of grated carrots (grate on the smaller side).  Add the carrots after frying the onions (step 5 above), just before adding the kale. Sauté the carrots for about half a minute, then add the kale and follow the rest of the steps to the end. Carrots will give kale somewhat of a sweet taste.

#3. Add Royco cubes: These cubes introduce new flavors to the kale. Royco cubes are very popular in Kenya and they exist in two main flavors – beef and chicken. So, you can make your kale taste beefy or chicken-y by adding these cubes to it. For this recipe, you would add two cubes. Crush the cubes before adding them to the kale to speed up their incorporation. Add the crushed cubes into the pot as soon as you add the kale so that you do not extend the cooking time. Note that Royco cubes are quite salty, so taste your kale before adding any salt to see if there’s a need for any more.

#4. Add carrots and eggplant: The eggplant will enhance the softness of the kale and significantly add to its overall flavor, while the carrots will add color as well as flavor. This is basically a whole new recipe.  It involves adjusted measurements and a little bit more detail. Here is the link.

#5. Cook the kale together with beef: This is an amazing recipe as well and a whole new one too. It starts with the preparation of ‘wet fried’ beef and the kale is added towards the end. Here’s the recipe video, and once I have the written recipe ready, I will link it here.