For kale sambol, my recipe says to use a food processor, but you can, of course, chop it by hand. I do sometimes, when I’m not in a mood to haul out the food processor, though I rarely chop it as finely as the machine does. You do need to pulse it in a couple of phases, rather than trying to cram it all in at once — that’d just result in goo.
I *can* chop it quite finely; I’m just not motivated to work that hard! Not unless I’m going to have guests and I want the dish to show off its best self… 
