It’s time for hearty, honest and slightly less fattening food! At least for my thighs it is. Here’s a family favorite for your winter hodgepodge collection. You can never have enough of them! It’s a traditional hodgepodge with a slight Kayotic twist. Slight being the understatement of the year.

If you don’t like salami, skip this one. Big part of the flavor that makes this hodgepodge so special comes from salami. If you don’t like the curly kale structure, skip this one. It’s not going to change much there. But what this recipe will do is take your curly kale, wrap it in a blanket of stars and fly it to the moon. Or something like that.

Either way, it will transform a rather boring but pretty healthy vegetable into an easy, flavorful one-pot meal that you might even get your kids to eat! Though I don’t make any promises.

Ingredients:

2 pound potatoes
1 pound curly kale
1 large onion
1 red bell pepper
6 oz deli salami
2/3 cup milk
2 oz cream cheese
1/2 a beef bouillon cube
1 tsp curry powder
pepper
salt

Optional: feta



Directions:

Peel, wash and cut 2 pounds potatoes in half. Or in 4 if they’re particularly large. Transfer them to a really, really big pan and add about 1 tbsp salt. You can add more salt afterwards.

Top the potatoes with 1 pound stripped curly kale. Uncooked this looks like a huge amount, but it’ll shrink during cooking.

Fill the pan halfway with water and boil the potatoes and kale for 20 to 25 minutes. Until well done.

Finely mince 1 very large or 2 smaller onions. Peel the bell pepper with a vegetable peeler and mince it as well.

Heat 2 tbsp oil and cook the onion and bell pepper for 5 minutes. Until soft but not brown.

Those 5 minutes should give you enough time to chop the salami.

As soon as the onions are soft, add 1 tsp curry powder and cook for 30 seconds. Pour in 2/3 cup of milk, add the salami and melt 2 oz cream cheese in there. Season with a generous amount of black pepper, and crumble in 1/2 a beef bouillon cube. Simmer the sauce for a few minutes.

As soon as the potatoes and curly kale are done, drain them and mash them.

Pour in the salami mix and combine everything. Taste to check the seasoning.

Now this is completely optional, but man, it sure tastes good. You’ll really regret not adding it! Crumble in some feta cheese, not too much, 2 or 3oz or so. This gives your hodgepodge a really good kick. I even add some finely chopped black olives when I have them lying around doing nothing particularly useful anyway.

Serve with a little extra crumbled feta cheese on top and dig in! I love these hodgepodges with a twist. Every single bite tastes different, turning a simple meal into a really flavorful journey.

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