Kale, Feta, and Craisin Pasta

Two Peas and Their Pod
Here's a blog link to one I stop in and visit every now and then.  It's just a good place to stop and get a few ideas....especially if I need a dessert recipe.  Don't get me wrong, there are some good dinner ideas as well, it's just that they bake a bit more than I do. 

This recipe just appealed to me as a great easy weeknight meal.  As anyone who knows us will attest, we're huge pasta fans.  And then add something like good-for-you kale, and salty feta, and sweetness of craisins, and all the pretty colors.  Yep, that one is sold on all of us.  I just may have found my go to recipe when the kale starts to get slightly out of control this summer.

It was looking so good that I forgot to take a picture of it.  but, it seems a shame to have you go on another day without trying this, so I'll post this now and refer you to the link above for the recipe and a picture.  When I make this again, and I will make this again, I hope to get pictures. 

Sweet Potato Kale Bites

Sweet Potato Kale Bites

Greens are growing well in our dry sunny summer.  That is, if the CSA box is any indication of growing conditions in the midwest this summer.  I do try to use what comes in the box during the week instead of trying to preserve it.  I'm guessing if greens are so good this week there will be more so I can stock the freezer a bit more later this summer.  I like having some of the things in the freezer for the winter; however, I like challenging myself to see if I can use them the week I receive them too.  Typically there are enough vegetables for both current menu and winter eating!

I made Sarah's quinoa salad with some of the kale.  I made Rick Bayless' chard potato tacos.  And then I tried this recipe.

One of our favorite summer places to eat is Northpoint Custard Stand on Lake Michigan.  It's got great burgers and is right on the lakefront.  Sometimes we ride our bicycles there to try to offset the burger and fries and custard calories....and we have gone to beachfront yoga before indulging.  We were trying to be extra healthy eaters before heading there for burgers the other week, so the greens came in handy.  And then we had this recipe the night following the burgers, so I think we're all good with food karma now.

I like the idea of making these little bites in a muffin pan.  The original recipe calls for a mini muffin pan while I used a regular muffin pan since I didn't want to do so many batches.  And, bonus...I didn't have to wash the muffin tin after making popovers....just made these the same day!

My sister cooks a number of things in mini-muffin pans to try to entice her daughter to eat bite size vegetable servings...mini quiches with spinach, for example.  She inexplicably ended up with an anti-veg daughter.  Funny how that works.  Guess those babies/toddlers/teenagers like to remind us who is really in charge.



Sweet Potato Kale Bites from www.thesweetslife.com
-4 whole medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
-2 tbsp milk
-1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
-1 clove garlic, minced
-1/4 whole red onion, chopped
-1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
-4 cups kale, chopped
-1 pinch salt & pepper, to taste
-1/2 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
-3 pinches ground flax seed, for topping

Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add potatoes and boil for 15 minutes, or until soft. Drain potatoes and mash them in a large bowl with the milk.
2. Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil, garlic, onion, and red pepper flakes. Saute for about 1 minute before adding kale and cooking until wilted.
3. Add kale mixture to the sweet potatoes and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Fold in black beans and mix to combine well.
4. Heat oven to 450F. Grease a muffin pan. Evenly spoon potato mixture into the muffin pan, filling each to the top . Sprinkle tops with ground flax seed. Bake for 20-25 minutes before broiling on high for a few minutes until the tops are golden and crunchy.
5. Allow tray to cool for 10 minutes before removing carefully with a spoon or fork.


A bit of salsa on each of these tasted great!
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Swiss Chard and Goat Cheese Pasta

The CSA box is back!  It's been dry here...and I think that greens have been growing well.  The box this week had lettuce, chard and kale (in addition to some other things), so we will be getting our nutrients from greens in the next few days.  That's good because we have been getting a lot of grilled meat in our bodies this summer (along with lots of fresh fruit...but still....quite a few burgers...).

I have seen similar recipes in the past, so this seemed like just the thing to make with the CSA ingredients.
1/2 lb pasta
1 T olive oil
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
large bunch of Swiss chard with large stems removed, cut into slivers
goat cheese
golden raisins
pumpkin seeds
salt and pepper
Cook pasta according to package directions saving 1/2 c or so of the cooking water.

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until softened.  Add the chard and cook until it reduces.
Stir chard mixture with pasta adding some of the drained pasta liquid to make it a smooth consistency.  I think I used 1/4 c or so.
Add crumbled goat cheese, raisins, pumpkin seeds and salt and pepper to taste.

Hoping that this was a good pre-race meal for Eleanor...swimming...and more swimming on the schedule.  Along with some bicycle rides for Paul and a couple runs for me.  We're dividing ourselves and doing a tri, I guess!
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Kale and Bean Enchiladas with Pumpkin Sauce

Kale and Bean Enchiladas with Pumpkin Sauce 
adapted from Veggie by Season by the sweetslife and then by me:)

Ingredients:
for the enchiladas-
-2 cloves garlic
-1 small yellow onion, chopped
-1 tbsp olive oil
-1/2 jalapeno, finely diced
-1 tsp ground cumin
-1 red pepper, chopped
 pepper
-1 bunch spinach, roughly chopped
-1 can  red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
-2/3 cup fresh cilantro, minced

for the sauce-
-1 can pumpkin
-2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
-2 garlic cloves, peeled
-1 jalapeno pepper, diced
-1 tsp chili powder
-2 tbsp tomato paste or umm...frozen leftover pizza sauce

to assemble-
-corn tortillas (I made 14 enchiladas)
-approximately 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
1. In a skillet over medium high heat, add olive oil, garlic, onions, jalapeno, zucchini, cumin, salt, and pepper. Cook for approximately 5 minutes.
2. Add spinach and stir, cooking until soft (approximately 5 additional minutes).
3. To make the pumpkin sauce, add all sauce ingredients to a blender and puree until smooth.
4. Add a few tablespoons of the sauce to the skillet mixture along with a few shakes of black pepper, the beans, and the cilantro.
5. To assemble and cook:  Preheat oven to 400F. Pour 1-1 1/2 cup of the sauce in the bottom of a baking dish (I split mine up into two dishes--an 8x8 dish and another small casserole dish, with 1 cup of sauce on the bottom of each). Spoon bean mixture into tortillas. Roll tortillas and place, seam-side down, in the baking pan. Repeat until pan is full & the filling is gone.
6. Top tortillas with sauce and shredded cheese. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly.

This was a great alternative to the grilled meat we have been having the last few weeks.  I really needed a different type of dinner, and this fit the bill.  The pumpkin sauce...great idea, and it will be done again for other recipes since Eleanor is anti-tomato!

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Greek Pizza with Spinach, Olives, and Feta

 I had this recipe on a card but don't think I ever have made it.  It must have been from before I was deciding cardworthiness before using a card for the recipe.  Anyway, I have wanted to make it for a bit.  I think that the original came from the Sunday paper...maybe the glossy insert?

I had a large bag of spinach from Sendik's and had used some in Elizabeth's cavatappi recipe.She hasn't posted that one yet, so it's coming at some point, I hope.

1/2 c mayonnaise
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 c crumpled feta, divided
12" prebaked pizza crust
1/2 c dried tomatoes plus 1 T of the oil (I rehydrated some and used 1 T olive oil)
1/4 c pitted black olives
1 t oregano
2 c baby spinach leaves
1/2 small dried onion, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Mix mayonnaise with the garlic and 1/2 the feta.  Spread on partially/mostly baked crust and sprinkle with oregano.  Top with the olives and tomatoes and bake for 10 minutes or so.

Take it out of the oven and top with spinach mixed with olive oil.  Sprinkle the onions on top of this mixture (I used the Rick Bayless trick of running cold water over the onion slices to take the bite and aftertaste out of the onions).


I made my own pizza crust before swim practice, so it was ready to go after we got home.  I baked it for 10 minutes or so earlier in the day and left it out until we got home.  I used mayonnaise sandwich spread with garlic and herbs because we had two squeeze bottles of this in Paul's collection.

The spinach came from a large bag that Paul got at Sendik's.  I wish I would have taken a picture of it since it was HUGE and not any more expensive than a smaller amount.  I used some in a pasta recipe of Elizabeth's earlier in the week and steamed and froze some keeping out a couple cups for this recipe.  I had leftover olives too, so it seemed like a good time to make this.

I'm glad that I finally made this since we all like it and it will be made again at this house.  It comes together quickly and is good. 

 This has been one of the trickiest posts to publish.  I have typed it a few times, downloaded the pictures more than once and loaded it onto the blog a couple times.  I don't know what it is about this one...but it has been a bit of trouble!


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Reorganizing the Recipes

Recently, Karen shared her method of collecting and managing her recipes. I thought it was appropriate that I share my method.

Several years ago, I found myself with a Recipe Card Box, a Recipe Book that was a ring binder, a Recipe Journal that I was given by a friend in France, and an online account at MyRecipes.com.  Whenever I went to find a recipe, I couldn't.  I would have to think back on when I acquired the recipe and usually I would remember which recipe system I was using and I could find it, but I was always searching and was often forgetting great recipes.

To try to streamline the recipes, I entered frequently used favorite recipes into Myrecipes.com. The website has an option to add your own recipes. I also started two other online files, the first held recipes from the website we had tried and liked which I labeled Keepers! and the second was filled with recipes I wanted to try.

Over the years, Myrecipes.com updated their website, but in the process, many of my recipes were duplicated or moved.  I began to have as much trouble finding my recipes with this system as I had with the old system. On our first cold and snowy day last week, I set about to figure out a better system.

First I looked for a new online recipe file for my recipes from all the cards/books I  had with hard copy recipes.  I came upon RecipeThing.com.  I was able to cut and paste my recipes from Myrecipes.com fairly easily. Once I had done that, I emailed all the recipes to myself and created a backup file on my computer in the event the website ever closes.

The next challenge was how to create a database of all the online recipes I have collected over the years, from Myrecipes.com and other websites. Google Bookmarks was the solution.  I was able to make a List on Google Bookmarks and divide it into sections.  The sections were categories, ie Appetizers.

Now all the recipes I have deemed "worthy of a card", in Karen's lingo, are safely housed in one of two locations, RecipeThing.com or Google Bookmarks.  I know if I was given the recipe by someone else, it is probably on RecipeThing...otherwise it is probably on Google.

Now you may wonder what I will do with all the cards/books/journals...I still have them.  I still have recipes I haven't tried that I still want to try. Once I make the recipes, they will either become "worthy" and be entered online, or they won't and the card will be tossed.

While the day seemed to be "wasted" on this project, I am glad everything is more streamlined.  During the process I also came across recipes I haven't made in a while which will help with meal planning.  I also came across some recipes I thought sounded good that haven't been made, so I will have options when I get into a cooking slump.



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Kale Chips

Seriously? These are supposed to taste like potato chips? It wasn't that they were bad, but I do think it was a jump to say that they taste like potato chips. Have these people never eaten a potato chip?

Eleanor took some to a swim meet for her coach to try (remember...he's quite aware of the peanut butter sweet potato soup). He thought that the chips didn't look like a legal substance.

I like kale in other recipes, so next time I'll stick with something a bit more traditional.

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Goat Cheese, Greens, and Garlic

These aren't from the garden...although those tomatoes are on the way. We had some extras from the store, so some freshly ground salt and freshly ground pepper and we were good to go. That was the perfect thing to serve with this pizza.

I had some chard that I had blanched and frozen from the CSA box a couple weeks ago and decided to use it since it is likely that there will be more greens coming our way.

Paul did the lip curl/sneer when I mentioned this was the dinner plan, but he was won over after trying this recipe. The crust was really good but did require planning ahead. I really did let it rise as recommended in the recipe. It was OK since I made it in the early afternoon, ran some errands, punched down the dough, drove to the Y for swimming and body pump, and finished it when we came home.

I was thinking about making the pizza Elizabeth posted earlier this summer but felt I should try something else...just for the sake of the blog.

Greens+Garlic+Goat cheese=GOOD
I would make this recipe again...for sure.







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Tacos of Creamy Braised Chard, Potatoes, and Poblanos

Chard, kale, greens....used interchangeably in this house! The bag of kale was huge from the CSA box; however, I know that this reduces easily. The greens keep for awhile after picking, but I like to reduce them due to refrigerator space, so I made this recipe linked from the title. I did have plenty of chard to steam and freeze as well.

I have raved about Rick Bayless recipes in the past; this recipe coming from his cookbook, Capturing the Vibrant Flavors of World Class Cuisine. His counter service restaurant in Chicago, XOCO, is one of my favorite places to eat. When we were at XOCO a few weeks ago we even saw his daughter Lainie working at the restaurant, and I felt like we were seeing a star and had to quickly text my friend Nora, since she is an avid watcher of his PBS show as are we. My parents were there earlier this week and saw Rick in the kitchen!! I'll have to post a picture after I get it from them.

I like his cookbooks even though some of the recipes are better suited to a day of cooking rather than a working swim/violin mom. However, when looking at the recipes closer and reading the hints on the bottom, many of the recipes adapt easily to every day life. I do recognize that many of the flavors in his cooking are good due to flavor blending time, but some shortcuts work well without sacrificing too much flavor.

I did roast the poblano peppers (see picture on left). I did this on the same day sliced the onions and put both in a bowl for a bit quicker cooking and assembly. I measured the chard and chopped it and put it in a ziploc bag. I made the creme fraiche with 1 cup half and half and2 t non fat yogurt that's what the recipe in the book uses instead of the heavy cream. I mixed those ingredients together and let the mixture sit in a measuring cup on the counter for 4 hours or so before refrigerating it overnight.

This recipe comes together quickly, so it's perfect on evenings where we get home late. All three of us like it...we get some greens in our bodies and enjoy a quick tasty dinner.

Rick (Bayless) suggests serving this over grilled chicken or adding some chopped ham and tossing it with egg noodles after sprinkling with lots of cilantro.

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Spinach and Bacon Pasta Toss

This recipe was on a calendar posted at a colleague's desk. Every time during the featured month I would visit that clinic in the course of my job I would salivate over the picture of the pasta. After Day 3 or so of this I asked for a copy. What I really wanted was a serving of this delicious looking pasta...but settling for the recipe seemed OK too.

I have had it in my pile of recipes for quite awhile....just not getting to this one. I decided that it would be a good time to try it and to substitute arugula for spinach to use some of the garden abundance. I whipped up a home made dressing...balsamic vinegar and olive oil and a bit of Penzey's Greek Seasoning.

Eleanor is calling this one meat lover's pasta since it has both chicken and bacon.

It came together quickly which is a good thing since summer evenings often a quick dinner is needed. It's nice not to have the homework piece of the evening for a bit but many nights dinner needs to come together quickly after violin and swimming and drivers ed and my work! I'm still waiting for some lazier summer evenings...maybe tomorrow?

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Flatbread with Arugula, Asparagus, and Fried Eggs

This recipe was in my pile of things to try...so, now that I have arugula and more arugula it seemed like a good time to check out the cardworthiness of this recipe.

I am the queen of substitutions to match what I have on hand. I didn't have spinach but did have some CSA basil , so I used that for the "greens" portion of this recipe along with arugula in making the pesto. No peas. Fresh mozzarella instead of ricotta. Yukon golds instead of fingerlings. But, other than that, I made it just like the recipe!

All three of us liked it...hooray!

(picture at left before the fried egg was placed on top)
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Arugula Pasta

Arugula grows well here. At least it did this spring....I"m finding myself with an abundance of this leafy green. But that's OK because we really like it. This week I made arugula pizza (see post from 9/23/10).

But wait, there's more!

I used some penne pasta, chicken apple sausage from Trader Joe's, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. The sweetness of the sausage and the bite from the arugula...yum. The hot pasta wilted the freshly chopped arugula a bit. That is pictured below.

There's still more growing in my tiny garden, so we'll see what else I can come up with in the next couple weeks. It's a lot of arugula for the price of the seed package. The arugula pesto in the link above sounds good...and I have another pizza recipe calling for arugula. Really, just the leafy green with freshly squeezed lemon juice and salt and pepper is a favorite. I love it when simple food tastes so good.

It's that creative cooking time of year with garden produce and the CSA box, so stay tuned:)


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Cafe Latte Lemon Asparagus Salad

I get so tired of the same ol' vegetables in the winter...potatoes and carrots and rutabagas. It's so much fun to see asparagus!

This salad tastes like spring to me. I usually make half the recipe linked to the title...and that is plenty for us even with it being a dinner salad.

The sunshine and warm temperatures help to make it feel like spring too. Yay...maybe it really is here?!!

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Green Enchiladas

This recipe has been around my house for quite awhile but somehow got put in the back of the poultry section file of my recipe box. I was looking through some recipes and rediscovered it, a definite winner at our house.

I have adapted it a bit...my notecard has many scratches and revisions, so it does work well to substitute with this recipe. Here's what I did to make the dinner pictured:

I used a rotisserie chicken and pulled off the meat and cut it into bite size pieces.

Saute in 1 T olive oil:

1 chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

Add 1 t ground cumin and set this mixture aside.

Steam 1 lb fresh spinach and drain throughly squeezing out extra water; chop

Boil 2 yukon gold potatoes and cut into small cubes

Mix together:

2 c sour cream

1 c plain yogurt

8 oz canned chopped green chiles

steamed spinach

onion/garlic mixture

In a separate bowl:

chicken

potatoes

1/2 the sour cream mixture

Soften tortillas in oven until warm and wrap chicken mixture into each one placing the filled tortillas seam side down in a 9" by 13" pan.

Stir a bit of milk into the sauce mixture and pour over the enchiladas.

Top with some grated cheese. Cover pan with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or so. Take foil off and continue to bake until bubbly and hot.

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Spinach Pie

What to do with all the cooked and frozen greens in the freezer? There were a lot of greens in the CSA box earlier in the year that needed to be used before the growing season begins. I thought I had used all I had but found a few more hiding near the bottom of the freezer. After receiving the box they are usually the first thing I start cooking just to reduce the volume of items for refrigerator storage. Although the recipe says spinach pie, this is a green medley pie for my version!

I do like to serve this with the Greek Chicken Pitas (see 8/9/10 blog). I wouldn't mind just having the spinach pie by itself for dinner but I think that others in my household prefer to have it as a side dish.

Combine:
2-3T. melted butter
1 c bread crumbs
2T Parmesan
Put mixture in a pie pan and pat to the bottom of the pan.

Mix together:
10 oz package of frozen spinach (thawed, drained...and by drained I mean squeezed dry) or whatever greens are in the freezer that make a couple handfuls of this wet mixture
2 green onions, chopped or a handful of chives from the pot on the patio (OK without as well)
2 c cottage cheese (non fat is fine)
1/4 c feta
2 T flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 t dillweed
Pour on the crust and top with remaining crumbs.
Bake 40 minute at 350 degrees.

For us it's hard to have the 40 minute baking time since we are hungry when we all arrive home from the Y. I will often bake it ahead and either eat it at room temperature or heat it in the microwave.

I do think that there are better versions of spinach pie/spanikopita out there..but this one seems to be tasty for the minimal amount of time it takes to prepare. This version came from a cookbook owned by a friend of mine...coincidentally it is a US Swimming cookbook. I did look for the book online to link to this post but wasn't able to quickly locate it. I remember her saying that it was a fundraiser (selling these books) for a swimming neighbor. It was a fun coincidence that she has this cookbook, and lucky for us with this recipe.

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Englishman's Curry Chicken and Spinach

When I worked at American Red Cross in St. Paul I worked with some of the best home cooks. Every day was a fun experience to take a break and eat lunch together and share cooking ideas and recipes. I can't imagine that I will ever work with so many good cooks again....and not just good cooks for special meals...but people cooking good food nearly every night of the week. Since it was a group of fellow nurses the focus was on relatively healthy recipes yet very fast since we often worked late hours. I have special memories of everyone heating their lunches and the room being filled with good smells and...the best part....sharing recipes. Since I was newly married at the time and no longer traveling with my job, I was anxious to start a recipe collection (which has grown over the years, as you can tell). This one is from Joyce....a great cook and a great mentor!

I think that is one of my favorite things about cooking (besides the good result). I love the memories of getting the recipe from a friend and thinking about that person on some random day while cooking their food. The blog has been a fun way to dig out some recipes I have put in the back of the recipe box for some unknown reason and re-try them. I hadn't made this in years, but I remembered liking it, so here it is. It's a bit like finding that sweater in the back of the closet and realizing that you still like it!

2 chicken breasts, cut bite size

2 t vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 t garlic

1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes

1/4 c mango chutney

2 t curry powder
4 c spinach, cut into 1/2" strips

1/2 c sour cream

Heat oil and saute onion. Add chicken. When chicken is no longer pink decrease heat and add garlic, tomatoes, chutney, and curry powder. Stir. Sprinkle spinach ans steam for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in sour cream.

Serve over rice.

For the spinach I used 4 cups of mixed baby greens since I had a huge container of baby greens for salads, and it worked just fine.

I'm not sure why it took me until recently to figure out that it's a good idea to chop the chicken breasts and THEN freeze them. It makes the prep go so much faster and less counter to be decontaminated on the day of using the chicken.

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Spaetzle and Spinach

I have made this with greens other than spinach, so go ahead and experiment. Be forewarned, this recipe makes a big mess! In fact, the friend who gave it to us has 3 cold beers listed on the ingredients. One beer for drinking before cooking. One with dinner...and one to help you tackle all the dishes! Dan's recommendation is that you make a large batch since the spaetzle does freeze well. And, a small ziploc bag of it is the perfect serving size for picky lunch eaters.

2 c flour
salt and pepper
a few grinds of nutmeg using a cool grater, if you have one.
2T dried herbs..any mix (parsley and thyme are good..usually I'm heavier on the parsley than anything else)
2/3 c milk
5 large eggs
olive oil
bunch of spinach or other greens cleaned thoroughly


Whisk together flour, 1 t salt and nutmeg. In another bowl, beat eggs and milk and 1/4 c olive oil and add dried herbs to this to soak and soften them. Whisk into the flour mixture until smooth.

In a large pot bring 6 quarts or so of water to a boil. Using a spaetzle maker, pour batter into it so it drips into the boiling water. I used a colander the first few times I made this until I was given a spaetzle maker. If anyone wants to borrow the spaetzle maker, let me know and we'll see if we can arrange a trial. When spaetzle floats to the top, remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon and saute for a minute or two with the greens (see below)

Heat 1 T. olive oil in a pan and saute the greens.
Saute the drained noodles briefly and serve together with the spinach.

Good for the carb loader in my family. And good when greens and eggs come in a CSA box!

Gorgonzola Spinach Pasta

This is one of those "made up" recipes that we have at our house on occasion. Long ago, it used to be my standard thing to throw together if I didn't get a chance to plan a meal. Being a mom has made planning a bit more of a priority, so I don't need to resort to this recipe too often, but, it still is good...even if I plan it into our menu.

Eleanor could eat carbs every day for every meal, but Paul and I like a bit more variety. If I make this, she can have plain noodles and we're all happy with our own bowl of carbs.

Start boiling water for pasta...because this recipe comes together quickly!

In a saucepan melt some gorgonzola cheese along with a bit of milk (skim is fine) to thin the sauce. These should be in approximately equal measures. If you have thought ahead and defrosted some of the greens from the CSA box (or a frozen box of spinach), that's great! If not, put the greens in a colander and run some hot water over them until they are defrosted. Squeeze the water out and throw the greens into the saucepan. Depending on the consistency, it may be necessary to add a bit more cheese or a bit more milk. When it is all smooth and creamy add a dash or two of nutmeg. I had a mixture of kale and chard that I had steamed and frozen last summer, so that is what I used.

That's it. Really. Unless you want to top it with some sun dried tomatoes or chopped roasted red peppers or a couple grinds of pepper.
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Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup

We were sitting at a violin recital...and our friends mentioned that they were going home to have this soup between violin and basketball...or their version of it anyway. I asked for the recipe and got the ingredients since they make a slightly different version every time.

I didn't use evaporated milk..instead using 1 1/2 c skim milk. I wish I still had kale in my freezer, but I have used all of it. I used sweet Italian sausage...and this got three tumbs up (one from each of us).

Yum...why is it that I have been thinking about this soup often since it was mentioned?

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Greens, Greens, Greens!

It is that time of the summer when the early crops in the midwest consist of mainly greens! I received a large quantity of greens in my weekly CSA box including lettuce, arugula, waido(a variety of Mizuna), Chard, Bok Choy and Curly Kale. We have made a few salads with the lettuce, arugula and some of the waido, but last night it was time to saute up the remaining greens. My family doesn’t mind their greens, they just complain that they can be bitter, so I try to add other veggies and flavors to my sauté pan to offset the bitterness. So, here was my creation for the evening.

Ingredients

Olive Oil
1/2 head Bok Choy
1/2 head Waido
4 large leaves Swiss Chard
6-8 leaves Curly Kale
6-8 Green Onions
4-5 Crimini Mushrooms
2 Garlic Cloves
1 T Malt Vinegar
2 t real maple syrup

I started by trimming the bok choy, waido and chard leaves from the stems.  I then chopped the stems along with some green onions. I removed the stems from the curly Kale as well, but these were too tough for the pan, so I discarded them. I then tore the greens into smaller, bite-sized pieces.

I  sautéed the stems and green onions in about 1 T olive oil.  After about 5 minutes I added the sliced mushrooms and cooked an additional 3-4 minutes.  Then I added the minced garlic and cooked 1 minute. I added the greens and continued to stir until they were wilted.

The final touch was to whisk together the vinegar and maple syrup and drizzle it over the greens and serve.  This dressing came from a recipe I found on The Bitten Word Blog. They published a recipe for Quick Sautéed Collard Ribbons from Fine Cooking(June/July2010) which includes this dressing.

The dish turned out great, with very little bitterness. Adding onions and mushrooms provided texture and the dressing at the end mellowed the greens.


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