Meet what hopes to be the new, well, kale: Kalettes. A vegetable breeding company in the UK called Tozer Seeds has crossed Brussels sprouts with kale to make just about the cutest little vegetable we’ve ever seen. And since GM crops aren’t grown commercially in the UK, the new brassica baby was born of good old-fashioned hybridization. The tiny little cabbage heads are sold as Flower Sprouts overseas, but the name Kalettes won out here. “With the popularity of kale, we wanted to be sure that kale was in the name,” said Lisa Friedrich, director of Golden Sun Marketing, the firm that’s launching the veggie stateside this fall. “They’re not as strong as that Brussels sprout flavor, and the leaves are more tender than kale,” she says. “It’s actually a really great combination of both.” (Friedrich’s current favorite recipe: roasted balsamic blue cheese Kalettes with caramelized onions.) But are two superfoods better than one? Kalettes pack 120% of your daily vitamin K and 40% of vitamin C per 85 grams, about 1½ cups. Sounds like a lot, but plain, raw kale takes the nutritional cake: the same amount has 682% of your daily vitamin K and 140% of your vitamin C needs, according to the USDA’s nutrient database. Kalettes surely win in your daily allotment of adorable, though. “They might inspire somebody to eat more vegetables and get people excited about eating more produce in general,” Friedrich says. You can meet and eat the happy interveggie couple at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s this September. Just please, leave your kale bouquet at home. In the meantime, make the most of your old pal kale with this delicious recipe for kale chips.
