Crispy Kale… and Angulimala!

For today’s Wednesday Workshop, I chose the famous Buddhist story of Angulimala.  Knowing the boys in my group this term, I thought they’d find a story about a fierce bandit brandishing weapons very appealing 😉  As the story is so violent, I thought I’d better create a milder version, suitable for the primary school age group.  I didn’t want to be responsible for nightmares about murderers and necklaces made of severed fingers!!!

Last night, M drew fantastic pictures of Angulimala (pre and post meeting Buddha) for the children to colour.  I loved the “embellishments” that the children made to the pictures.  A couple of boys drew lots of swirling black smoke around the head of the ‘robber’ Angulimala and then golden light around the head of Angulimala the monk.  Apparently, this was to demonstrate the state of Angulimala’s mind (black smoke = troubled/suffering; golden light = calm/positive).  I was very impressed.  These kids are only 7!

Leon Angulimala

As usual on a Wednesday, Lil’ L wanted spinach pancakes for dinner.  As I didn’t have any spinach left, I made regular pancakes and filled them with pieces of roasted sweet potato, roasted garlic and pine nuts.  To make sure he had some greens, I roasted half a bag of kale to make ‘crispy kale’.  This was meant to be shared by the whole family, but by the time I sat down for my dinner… the whole lot had been munched!

Crispy Kale

We’re all loving “crispy kale” at the moment.  When we stopped having dairy at home, I needed to make sure we increased our intake of other sources of calcium.  Kale is a true “super food”, packed with calcium and other good stuff.  I looked on the web for inspiration of tasty ways to serve kale, and kept coming across American recipes for ‘kale chips’.  I decided to have a go at roasting kale and was amazed to find how deliciously crispy it turns out!  It tastes very similar to the ‘crispy seaweed’ that we get in our Chinese takeaways.  Our kale intake has gone from one extreme to another this year… a bag of kale used to languish at the bottom of the refrigerator, used occasionally to make ‘5 veg mash’, but now we’re going through 1-2 bags a week!  Lil’ L absolutely loves it.  It’s a great way to get kids eating their greens!  The recipe can be found here.

5 thoughts on “Crispy Kale… and Angulimala!

  1. Hi Sharon. I just love Lil’L’s drawing – very graphic (even without the finger necklace!!).
    I have started using curly kale more often. I stir fry mine with mini tomatoes and Tamari. I will try roasting it next time.
    When are you coming to Manjushri – need to catch up!!!!
    Hugs, Viryaxx

    1. So lovely to hear from you, my beautiful sangha friend ♥ Yes, I definitely want to visit this year. Unfortunately I can’t make the summer, but I’ll hopefully be able to arrange something for autumn.
      Stir fried kale and tamari sounds like my kind of dish… simple, quick and tasty. Thanks for the tip. I can’t wait to give it a try 🙂
      Have a wonderful time at the summer festival. I’ll be thinking of you all xxx

  2. This is so cool! So do you teach workshops on Buddhism?? This story sounds quite exciting….severed finger necklaces? Brutal!!

    I loooove kale chips! My favourite recipe is a ‘seaweed’ kale chip using tamari, dulse, sesame oil, sesame seeds and a couple other things. It’s amazing how satisfying kale chips can be when you want a salty snack. I make them in the dehydrator when I’m at home and they stay crispy for WEEKS! Not that they last that long….but once I forced myself to leave a few behind just to see how long they would stay delicious.

    I’m off to check out your recipe now!

    1. I’ve been teaching kids’ Buddhist workshops on a voluntary basis for 4 years now, and I absolutely love it! We always start off with a meditation, then we do stories, art, drama, film clips. I feel absolutely privileged to be able to spend an afternoon with these kids. They always blow my mind! They’re unbelievably good at meditating… far better than most adults I know lol!

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