Superfood Chicken Soup

This recipe crams as many superfoods into one bowl as possible. It requires no knife skills and creates complex flavors without any complex steps. Chicken soup is known to boost the immune system, have anti-inflammatory properties, improve skin, hair, and nail health, and improve digestion. Everyone loves chicken soup: it is great for a cold, for a detox plan, or to feed your family on a weeknight.

Ingredients: 1 chicken, 1 sliced onion, quarter cup apple cider vinegar, quarter cup sea salt, 1 bunch carrots, 2 peeled sweet potatoes, 2 peeled parsnips, 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes

Superfood add ins (add one, add some, or add all): 5 peeled garlic cloves, 1 bunch thyme, 1 bunch oregano, 1 bunch sage, 1 bunch rosemary, 5 slices of peeled ginger, 1 small piece kombu, 1 peeled and sliced turmeric root, 2 tablespoons coconut oil, 8 ounces destemmed and quartered shitake mushrooms, 2 bay leaves

1.     Combine whole chicken, onion, apple cider vinegar, salt, ginger, garlic, turmeric, bay leaves, sage, oregano, rosemary, thyme, kombu, coconut oil in a pot. Cover with water by two or three inches. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for one hour.

2.     Add sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms to pot. Bring to a boil. Simmer for one more hour. In the last 15 mintues of cooking, add kale.

3.     Taste for salt. Remove chicken bones, herb stems, turmeric, ginger, and kombu. Serve. Enjoy.

Vegan Orange Harvest Soup, and Few More Reasons to Love Orange

According to legend, the first redhead ever was Prince Idon of Mu, who discovered Atlantis. He was permanently tattooed with the orange of the island’s sunset in the form of freckles and orange hair, to remind all Atlantians and all humankinds of the rapture that he experienced, as he stared into the first Atlantis sunset ever to be experienced by the human eye. So affective was orange in the creative imagination of the legend-makers, that they felt that Idon of Mu was meant to carry the beauty of an orange sky on himself, as a grown man covered in orange.

Here is a whole list of other reasons to love orange:

Orange is the color of fire, Garfield, Mario Batali’s crocs, traffic cones, orange juice, life vests, Goldfish, pennies, the Home Depot logo, Hermes boxes, monarch butterflies, the Golden Gate bridge, Nemo in Finding Nemo, Princeton tigers, Epoisses de Bourgogne, Chimay Vieux, Gjetost, the orange part of rainbow grilled cheese sandwiches, really good mangoes, and passionfruit ,when it is really ripe.

Orange is also the color of autumn harvest. This time of year, you can bury yourself in sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, apples, winter greens, mushrooms, and broccoli, but perhaps none of these are as affective as the sight of a field of pumpkins. They are so magical, that Cinderella’s fairy godmother plants Cinderella in one to go meet her prince and her destiny.

In yoga speak, orange is the color of the sacral chakra, located in the center of the abdomen and associated with the parts of consciousness that care about food and sex. From a yogic systems point of view, the more you care about food, the more you care about sex. If you care about food and sex, you should also care about beta-carotenes, which give orange vegetables their orange color.

Beta-carotene is a precursor of Vitamin A, which serves as an antioxidant that protects cells from harmful free radicals. Necessary levels of dietary beta-carotene have been shown to lower risk of a sluggish immune system, macular degeneration, coronary artery disease, stroke, and many age-related diseases.  Health and beauty benefits of beta-carotenes include a natural glow to your skin, because beta-carotenes reduce oxygen damage to the skin caused by UV light and pollutants, treat superficial skin conditions, and speed up the healing of skin lesions.

Orange vegetables tend to also be super sweet, making them more palatable to picky eaters than bitter dark leafy greens. To benefit from the sweetness of the orange harvest, head to your nearest farmers market (or grocery store) right now and collect roughly four pounds of orange produce.

Vegan Orange Harvest Soup with Carrot Top and Jalapeño Sauce and Coconut Cream

Orange Vegetables- I used a kabocha squash, a sweet potato, a potato, ginger, turmeric, a shallot, an apple, a few garlic cloves, a bunch of yellow beets, and a bunch of carrots.

3 Tablespoons of coconut oil, olive oil, sesame oil, ghee, any other fat, or a combination

3 Tablespoons of Curry Powder

1 Can of Full Fat Coconut Milk

3 cups of liquid (water, vegetable stock, bone broth, or a combination)

Optional Seasonings: lemon juice, ginger juice, apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar

1.     Peel one pumpkin or squash, one sweet potato, one potato, 1 shallot-sized knob of ginger, 1 knob of turmeric, 1 apple, a few garlic cloves, 1 bunch of yellow beets, and 1 bunch of carrots.  My favorite pumpkin is the kabocha squash, but any small-sized pumpkin will do.

2.     Chop your vegetables into unsightly pieces that are all roughly the same size. As part of the genius of this soup in the blender or the Vitamix, no one will know how these chopped vegetables looked.

3.     Add 3 tablespoons of coconut oil, olive oil, sesame oil, ghee, or any fat to a pot. Add your vegetables, salt, and curry powder. Lower the heat to low medium, and let them sweat, mixing the pot every five minutes in order to allow the vegetable to sweat evenly.

4.     Open your can of coconut milk and reserve the super thick coconut fat on top. Add the coconut liquid from the can and your 3 cups of  water or stock or a combination,

5.     Bring the soup to a boil, and then allow it to simmer for 10 minutes, until all the vegetables are cooked.

6.     Puree your soup in a blender, Vitamix, or with a stick blender. Add salt and pepper to taste, along with optional seasonings.

Carrot Top- Jalapeño Sauce 

1 bunch of carrot tops

1 bunch of basil

1 jalapeno

1 shallot sized knob of ginger

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ cup of olive oil

Clean your greens well and combine all ingredients in a Vitamix or blender. Blend until chunky.

Serve your soup topped with your carrot top sauce and the cream from the top of the coconut can. This cream can be “refreshed” by adding a few drops of warm water and stirring with a fork, until the texture resembles sour cream. The body in the presence of fat, so get excited thinking about food and orange and beta carotenes, putting a dollop or design of coconut cream into every bowl, best absorbs beta-carotenes. 

Health Supportive Lemonade for Everyone

When life gives you lemons, you are supposed to drink lemonade. Beyonce knows it. Norman Rockwell knows it. Aruvedics know it. Christopher Columbus knew it. Anyone with glowing skin  knows it. Lemonade stand entrepreneurs always knew and still know it. Basically everyone knows it.

Lemons are thought to have originated in Indus Valley. They make an appearance in the frescoes of Villa Livia in the 1nd century AD. Because lemons are super-adaptable to hybridization, this fresco could technically be of a citron, but this fresco stills speaks to the universality of lemons and of lemonade. The earliest written evidence of lemonade comes from Medieval Egypt, where Persian poet and traveler Nasir-i-Khusraw (1003-1061) wrote about the “qatarzimat:” a mixture of lemon juice and date palm sugar sold at Cairo markets and a valued trade item.

 In 1493, Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds with him to the New World. Lemons were super important to sea travel, because it was found that adding one ounce of lemon juice to the diets of seamen prevented scurvy. Although vitamin C was not yet “discovered,” it was found that symptoms that started at malaise and fatigue and deteriorated into poor wound healing, personality changes, gum disease, bleeding, and ultimately death could be prevented by fresh produce. Other fruits and vegetables high in vitamin C would not last the long sea voyages, whereas lemons could be stored and consumed over a period of time. Post factum, scurvy was traditionally treated with two ounces of fresh lemon juice diluted with water, taken every two to four hours. Lemonade was found to literally raise the almost dead seamen. 

My point is this: you think that lemonade is an all American summer drink which speaks to the all American entrepreneurial spirit, and it is, but lemonade is actually from all over, at its adaptability to tastes, goals, and situations make it a powerhouse inside a small package. 

Lemons are picked when they are green, and they ripen inside their packing containers. The freshest lemons are the ones that retain some of their green color, and haven’t completely turned yellow. These are also more acidic than their fully ripened and fully yellow counterparts, which are sweeter. One lemon tree can produce between 500 and 600 pounds of lemons annually.

Lemons have a pH of around 2.2, which is extremely acidic, but lemons actually have an alkalizing effect on the body. 100 grams of lemon juice provides 128% of your recommended daily requirement of vitamin C. Lemons are a super popular addition in cold remedies, because they have natural antibacterial, antiviral, and immune boosting properties. The scent of lemons is found to have de-stressing, mood enhancing, and energizing properties. Lemons are also super anticarcinogenic and help to neutralize free radicals linked to aging and disease. Lemonade aficionados know that fresh lemon water will help heal stomach ulcers, promote weight loss and maintenance, provide an energy and mood boost, and help cure you of the common cold. 

Ayurvedic doctors recommend that everyone drink warm lemon water upon waking. This lemon water is supposed to stimulate the digestional tract and help flush out any blockages and toxins. Ayurvedic doctors call these blockages ama, and recommend the ongoing practice of drinking warm lemon water as a daily ritual to remove them.  Lemons promote gastric fire, which is essentially the proper assimilation of other nutrients inside the body. Modern medicine suggests that this warm lemon water is also a great liver detoxifier.

Unfortunately today, many conventional, bottled lemonades include artificial flavors, real sugars, fake sugars, preservatives, coloring agents, and more. These are ingredients best to stay away from, as they do not offer the health benefits that real lemons do. 

Here are six types of refined sugar free, health supportive lemonades to start your day, maintain your day, or end your day with. Enjoy when you're in bed with a cold, out and about, spending time with friends and family, or pursuing your health and fitness goals, it is always time for a lemoande. Remember to drink these through a straw or to rinse your mouth out well after consumption, as lemon juice can wreck havoc on tooth enamel. 

Ayurvedic Morning Lemon Tonic 

Mix the juice of one fresh lemon with at least eight ounces of room temperature water every morning. Drink immediately. 

Master Cleanse Tonic

Mix 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 2 tablespoons grade B maple syrup, 1/10 teaspoons cayenne pepper, and 10 ounces of purified water. For a Master Cleanse protocol, drink 6-12 glasses of this tonic per day, in combination with peppermint tea for at least ten days. The lemons are the super food, the maple syrup provides some minerals and carbohydrates, and the cayenne pepper stimulates circulation and elimination of toxins and bacteria. Enjoy a Master Cleanse tonic as a health-supportive lemonade, whenever you feel like it, if you are not on the lemonade diet. 

Lemon Tea

This one is best in the colder months, when you want something to warm up with. Juice one lemon. Cut the core into smaller pieces, bring the pieces to a boil with at least eight ounces of water, simmer for 10 minutes, and strain. Mix the fresh lemon juice and lemon core infusion for the benefits of lemon juice and lemon peel. Drink immediately. Make sure to wash well and use an organic lemon to avoid ingesting extra processing materials on the outside of the conventionally-grown lemon.

Hippie Gatorade

Mix the juice of one fresh lemon with 8 ounces of raw coconut water and a pinch of unrefined sea salt or Himalayan salt. Drink after exercising, or just when you need a high-potassium pick me up. 

Raw Lemonade

Mix 1 cup of raw honey, 1 cup of raw lemon juice, and 6 cups of water for a lemonade to share with your friends and family. The raw honey offers a sweetness that turns a health tonic into a drink fit for social occasions. For additional benefits and flavor varieties, add raw ginger juice, mint or lavender, fresh squeezed cucumber juice, fresh-squeezed juice of other citrus, and/or or bee pollen directly into your pitcher. 

Whole Lemon Tonic

Watch out- this one tastes super bitter and sour at the same time, but for the maximum benefit of raw lemon peel and raw lemon juice, cut one lemon into small pieces and liquify it in a Vitamix with two cups of water. This tonic is super medicinal, and may be too severe for every day drinking, but it is a fantastic way to kickstart your health and fitness goals. For different flavors, substitute the water for cooled green or herbal tea. 

Norman Rockwell's Lemonade Stand, 1955

Patriotic Pie

In 1894 Congress legalized Labor Day as a national holiday to celebrate the achievements and contributions of the American worker. Coming out of the often unsafe and unsanitary conditions that many American workers faced under the Industrial Revolution, Labor Day was a major historical achievement for labor unions and for the cultural history of the United States. 

Over the years, Labor Day has become a celebration focused on the end of summer, the last weekend before the children return to school and before autumnal responsibilities take over for the grown ups. The best thing about Labor Day, as celebration of the end of summer, is that it is, like Memorial Day or like Independence Day, another opportunity to celebrate all things American, which means that it is definitely a great opportunity to eat pie.

Here are some reasons to love all things Americana:

1.     Americana is a general category of artifacts that celebrate the history and cultural heritage of the Untied States. Relying heavily on the nostalgia of the American imagination, Americana collections usually include needlepoint pillows, daguerreotypes, silver sets, Civil War mementos, and all things with eagles, and red, white, and blue. This is super cool, because the artifacts themselves are usually well-preserved and lend themselves easily to nostalgic and captivating stories to Americans and to exotic stories about American forefathers to non-Americans: these include the midnight ride of Paul Revere, the plight of Alexander Hamilton, or the design achievement of Betsy Ross, as she sewed the American flag. Evidence of this craving for Americana is in the runaway success of Hamilton, and in the runaway success of all things that suddenly became super-marketable after the runaway success of Hamilton. 

2.     Americana elucidates simpler times, when women made quilts, children made maple snow, men made cabinets and motorcycles and boats and shoes, and everyone ate cherry pie, or molasses pie, or whatever pie they could get their hands on. Even if this time exists only in our imaginations and may not be as revelent to the ever-changing cultural landscape of the United States as it exists today, the pie part is still pretty great.

3.     Walt Whitman explains why to celebrate Americana, in his poem “America." Basically, America is full of equal daughters and equal sons of all ages, full of moral and physical fortitude, united by nature, freedom, law and love. Even better, when Walt Whitman hears American singing in "I Sing of America," what he hears is the singing of the laborers, and finally the singing of the wives and mothers, each singing their own, but profoundly, American tune. Whitman himself called American "the greatest poem." When the grandfather of American poetry finds America that poetic, and equates the poetry of America with the poetry of its laborers, it is a sign that it is time to eat pie (on Labor Day, and after Labor Day too). 

4.     Pie is great. Pie reminds of a mythical or very real time when people at pie and their lives were simple and happy. The simple pleasure of eating pie is evocative of the maternal, paternal, patriotic warmth that we aspire to recreate every time we eat pie.

Now that we have established that pies have something profound to do with Americana and the innocence of the American consciousness, let’s talk about blueberry cream pie. When I was a child, my mother would buy me blueberry cream pie from Brieremere Farms in Riverhead every weekend. This pie was sold only at the height of blueberry season, which was roughly mid-June to mid-August. This pie became a key fixture of my childhood.  Summer weekends were great, because, apart from the swimming and sunning and sports and family time, we also had pie, and this pie was the best pie ever, and not only because my mother bought it every weekend. This pie was perfect: flakey crust with just the right amount of crunch, an overflow of super fluffy and smooth whipped cream, and just perfectly ripe blueberries, which were just the right amount of chewy, and just the right amount of hardness. 

Blueberry cream pie is amazing. Blueberries are on every super food list: they are one of the highest antioxidant foods, they provide anti-inflamation and anti-aging benefits, they are a natural source of antifungal and antiviral gallic acid, which also boosts focus and memory. Blueberries are also low in calories, low on the glycemic index, and high in fiber. Go eat some blueberries now. 

Now let’s talk about my personal favorite part of blueberry cream pie, which is the cream. Cow’s milk cream is pure fat, much of which is saturated fat. At the end of the day, fat is fat and too much of a good thing is still too much of anything, but not enough cream on a blueberry cream pie is a real tragedy. 

Sally Fallon Morell, author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and Diet Dictocrats, first published in 1995, has argued that the best part of cooked fruit or cooked vegetables is the cream or butter that we put on top. Her book is the ever-relevant and ever-ever-influencial bible of the traditional nutrition movement. Her research and her writing suggest that many of our ancestors would have prized raw grass-fed dairy from well-loved and traditionally raised animals for its nutritional value. Most prized would have been the fat of the dairy produced while the livestock eats the rapidly growing grass after the snow melts.

Sally Fallon has even argued that buying organic butter, cream, whole milk, whole yogurt, and pasture raised eggs is a move of American patriotism, which she defines as upholding the “Jeffersonian tradition,” a throwback to the time when strong and sturdy children raised on high-quality milk fat built the foundation of a strong and sturdy nation.Cream and butter are the Standard American Diet’s most available source of Vitamin A and D. In fact, saturated fat is necessary to help your body absorb fat-soluable vitamins, such as A, D, E, and K. 

Grass-fed cream and butter are also good sources of energy-boosting and appetite suppressing Medium Chain Fatty Acids (one of coconut oil’s claims to fame) and CLAs, a compound that has been shown to encourage the body to store muscle instead of fat and to protect against different types of cancer. Because grass is a good source of omega-3s, and cows spend all day eating grass, grass-fed cream and butter are a pretty decent and absorbable source of omega 3s. 

Anyway, let's just celebrate America, its laborers, and Walt Whitman by eating some pie. 

Patriot Blueberry Cream Pie

1 storebought pie crust prebaked, or make your own

2 cups of heavy cream, my favorite is Trickling Springs

2 tbsp sugar

3 cups mostly blueberries, and some raspberries or strawberries

Prebake your crust. Whip your heavy cream and sugar together in a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer. Start off at a low speed and increase the speed of the whipping. Whip for about 5 minutes, or until the cream has reached a sufficiently thick texture. Wait for all ingredients to come to room temperature. Fill your crust with whipped cream, and then the berries. In fact, overfill your crust with whipping cream and then overtop the whipped cream with blueberries. For best texture, refridgerate the pie, or just eat it immediately. 

Naked (And Not So Naked) Clams

In 1486 Sandro Botticelli paints The Birth of Venus as the goddess emerges from the sea fully formed and feminized, blown to shore by personified wind and her attendants in a giant scallop shell. Venus’ flowing blonde hair allows her to retain some modesty, but she doesn’t really need to: as the perpetually dissatisfied in marriage goddess of sexual excess, her sex appeal is at the foreground of both the painting and of the viewer’s mind. Throughout classical mythology, Venus makes a career out of her own sexual desire and in increasing and fulfilling the sexual desires of gods and humans. Botticelli’s Venus is a woman confident in her sex appeal, looking away from the viewer, but shifting her body into a come hither stance. Venus invites you to her world of sexual excess, but she also wants to make the consequences of your patronage all your own fault.

Botticelli’s depiction of the miraculous creation of the goddess, who was formed from the castrated genitals of supreme sky god Caelus, as sea water intermingled with blood, flesh, and semen in the Aegean Sea, has her emerge from her birthplace nude and suggests that her unabashed nudity, unapologetic glace, and seductive tenderness are evocative of the nudity, ataraxia, and tenderness of a giant scallop. The point is this: at least since the time of Botticelli, bivalves have been super sexy, because bivalves is as natural, naked, bewitching, and supple as a Venus herself.

Modern research has suggested that the lore behind bivlalves may have a measurable basis: apparently oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops are rich in rare amino acids that trigger sex hormone production. Casanova wrote that he seduced a virgin by slipping a raw oyster from between her lips to his, and he feasted on 50 of them every morning in order to upkeep his legendary stamina. Amino acids and Casanova aside, raw oysters are the best food source for zinc, an important mineral for immune system function and cell repair, but also for raising testosterone levels. All bivalves are super sources of all buzz-worthy nutrients, like vitamin B12, omega-3 fats, and vitamin D. Also worth noting are their status as sources of highly digestible complete protein, iron, copper, calcium, sodium, phosphorus, and selenium. 

But wait, this is my favorite part:  foraging clams is actually super fun and strangely life-affirming. No special equipment is required to collect enough clams for a meal for 2-4 people. A good clam flat and some diligent footwork should give you a fine mess of clams. While you walk in your clam flat, you can experience the soothing effect of water, nature, and your surroundings, taking a break from your real life in order to experience the nature of your dinner. In fact, mindfulness of the origin of your dinner should make your dinner all that much more enjoyable.

Clams are quiet: they grow under the dirt, diligently and silently until along you come and take it home with you. Especially in a society where we are mostly loud and mostly disconnected from our food sources, the magic of clamming is even more apparent. Clams seem to arise magically and spontaneously from natural forces, almost like Venus herself. Perhaps this providence of the sea was Botticelli's inspiration. Go alone or bring your friends, kids, and loved ones to get aquatinted with the idyllicism of clamming. 

You could also just skip all of this, buy your clams, and meet me back at the recipe below.  

100 grams of cooked clams contain 1648% of your recommended daily required of vitamin B12 and 155% of your recommended daily requirement of iron, in addition to the nutritional benefits already listed above and many more. Omega 3s are supposed to make you skinny, smart, and happy, so eat up (even though oysters are a better source than clams, still eat up!). Bivalves are delicious and eating them can be a sensual experience: they taste like the sea, and their slippery, slimy texture can lend itself to the imagination. My point culminates in this list of  people who can benefit from eating clams: Boticelli, Casanova, anemic people, pregnant people, children, grown ups, young people, old people, people who want to improve their cholesterol profiles, people who want to increase their sexual performance, people who are already happy with their sexual performance, people who want to lose weight, people who are happy, people who are sad, people who like people, people who like dogs, me, and you.

So let’s go clamming:

In order to locate a clam flat, contact your local clam conservation commission or the appropriate local authories. They will have information about any necessary permiting requirements and information about clam flats closed due to pollution. Clams are bottom feeders and can act as filters in polluted water. The good news is that the Environmental Protection Agency lists clams and all bivalves as low in contaminants when compared to other edible sea-dwelling creatures. The bad news in the when foraging your own clam flat, it is important to check with local authorities about pollution (if any) in order to ensure maximum taste and health benefits, with as few as possible environmental pollutants.

Either side of low tide will give you the best clamming experience. As you walk into the water, check for holes in the sand. Clams make their homes by digging into the sand with their foot. As they need access to clean water to breathe and nourish themselves, they create a hole above their burrow with their siphon. Once you have located one of these holes, dig underneath it with your hands, feet, or hoe. Larger clams have a tougher bite to them and a greater salt brine taste, and smaller clams are more tender. All clams are good for steaming and a variety of clams is fun to sample. If visibility is low in the water, simply walk gently allowing your feet to sink into the sand, and dig up any hard item that your foot touches. Sometimes you will get a stone and sometimes you will get a clam. With this method, you should be able to easily harvest a few pounds worth of the bivalve. Avoid all broken clams, clams that smell “off,” and clams that are not tightly closed. When you finish clamming, take a bucket of sea water with you.

Once you have brought your mess home, wash off the superficial dirt. Find a large, clean container, and place your sea water and clams inside. Water from the sink will kill your clams. Many chefs and home cooks like adding corn meal to the clam soaking water, but in my experience, I have found that this is just another clam legend. Allow your clams to soak in their sea water for between 1 and 24 hours inside the fridge. Clams swallow sand and dirt as they burrow. By allowing them to soak, the clams will spit up any sand and dirt that they have inside: a mouthful of sand either at the beach or at the dinner table is no fun for anyone.  It is necessary to refrigerate your clams at around 35 degrees Fahrenheit, because, if the clams get too warm, they will die and they will be unfit for consumption. If you have purchased your clams, they are likely to be farmed and already clean on the inside. You can skip soaking them and go straight to cooking and eating them when you get home.

Naked Steamed Clams

Olive oil or butter

Stock, Wine, Beer, or a Combination 

Clams

The basic art of cooking clams is this: add a few tablespoons of fat and of your flavorful watery liquid to two inches from the bottom of a pot big enough to hold your clams. Heat the liquid to boiling, and then reduce the flame to medium heat. Add your clams. If your clams are of varying sizes, shake the pot every four minutes and take out cooked clams, while allowing uncooking clams to steam open. Smaller clams with cook faster than larger clams. If your clams are all the same size,  shake the pot every four minutes in order to move them around and heat them evenly, until all the clams are cooked and open. After all clams are cooked, return them all to the pot and serve immediately. 

Garlic, Kale, and White Wine Steamed Clams

(Serves 4)

4 tbsp butter

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 shallots, sliced

2 cups dry white wine

1 bunch kale, torn into tiny bite size pieces

½ cup chopped basil, parsley, and oregano

Optional: hot red pepper flakes for lovers of spicy foods

In a pot big enough to hold all of your clams and to allow them all to open, heat your butter, garlic, and shallots over a medium flame, until the garlic and shallots are soft and fragrant. Add your wine and bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the flame and add your kale and clams. Cook according to the method mentioned above: smaller clams will cook faster than larger clams. Remove them and allow larger clams to cook longer, until all clams are ready. Add your herbs, red pepper flakes, and some extra olive oil or butter (this will give your home-cooked clams a better sheen on the plate, but it is not necessary for taste). Serve immediately with pasta, toasted bread, or any grain side dish that will help you soak up the clam broth.