Kale, Potato, and Bacon Toscana Scalloped Potatoes

Our family loves to garden and cook.  We took our fresh harvest of Kale and the potato in two of our favorite recipe flavors of Tuscana Soup & Scalloped Potatoes.

We then smashed these flavors into one amazing original meat and potato casserole recipe: Kale, Potato, and Bacon Toscana Scalloped Potatoes

 This recipe started as I was harvesting some of our prolific Kale harvest – See a picture of just a few of our Kale plants below!  The kids are not big fans of raw or cooked kale, but it has so many health benefits that I try to sneak it into as many recipes as I can.  Cooked and chopped very thin usually works the best.

They LOVE potatoes, so the two would be a perfect combination! We grow a few potatoes in the garden, but only to see the process. Almost all of our potatoes come from the store.  THANK YOU potato farmers!  Gardening truly helps us to have a lot more understanding of the farmers growing our foods and when we purchase a bag of Idaho Potatoes from the store, we know how much time and effort went into growing them for us.

On harvest days, I have a system in place. Triple wash the leaves in the right basin.  De-stem (stems go in the compost) and tender leaves go to the left. The leaves get washed again.  I usually have enough to make a recipe with and some to blanch and freeze for later. It has been the most cost effective vegetable I have grown to date. The kids help wash and take the stems off the kale.

No Kale in your garden? Don’t worry, most grocery stores carry it!

I was trying to think of the best way to combine Kale with potatoes.  The answer came as I was reaching in the fridge for a glass of lemonade in between batch processing – BACON!Oh yeah, the flavor of bacon would combine well with the kale and potatoes.  Adding in a spicy sausage and red pepper will give it a little kick.So we got to work slicing and layering, then waited while it cooked.The flavors were fabulous together. The whole family (including the picky eater) devoured it and asked for seconds!

Kale, Potato, and Bacon Toscana Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 6 slices of bacon
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 4 ounces of spicy ground sausage
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3 cups of milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 tbs of crushed red pepper
• 3 pounds of  potatoes (5 large or 8 medium)
• 2 cups of thinly sliced kale
• 1 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 1 cup of shredded Monterey jack cheese

Directions to Make:

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 11×13 casserole dish.

1. Sautee the bacon, onion and ground sausage in a pan on medium heat until the onion is translucent and the meat is slightly browned. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.

2. Melt butter in a pan on medium heat. Whisk in flour. It will be slightly chunky. Slowly add the milk, whisking to blend each time. The mixture should be smooth. Stir continuously and cook until the mixture boils.  After one minute of boiling remove from heat. Stir in salt and peppers.

3. Peel and very thinly slice the potatoes. Layer 1/3 of the potatoes on the bottom of a casserole dish. Top the layer with 1/3 of the bacon/sausage/onion mixture, 1/3 of the kale, and 1/3 milk mixture.  Repeated the layers until all of the bacon mixture, potatoes, kale and milk mixture are used.

4. Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake for 55 minutes.

5. Remove the cover from the potatoes, top with cheeses and bake an additional 45 minutes uncovered; until the cheese melts and the potatoes are soft when pierced with a fork.