How do you prepare leafy greens- kale, collards, etc.

[battlemaiden]

I know spinach, but I need help with the others. I know people say, "just saute with olive oil and garlic," but my husband does not approve. :glare:

 

I'm thinking soups? Does that greatly decrease the nutritional value?

 

For the non-veg heads among you, how do get these leafy greens into your diet?

 

Thanks.

 

Jo

[Parrothead]

Raw baby spinach is substituted for lettuce in out house. It is also the base for our salads.

 

Collards, turnip, mustard greens can be cooked by boiling in water with a bit of pork fatback. If that sounds disgusting to you boil them in water with a little butter. A few drops of vinegar in any of them is tasty.

 

I do mix the turnips and mustards together. We like them best that way. Collards I leave as only collards. Collards are a bit bitter.

 

I've never cooked kale.

 

I don't like them cooked to mush like some people do. Dh's grandmother likes mushy greens. She cooks them for hours. I tend to give them 15-30 minutes depending on how many I've got in the pot.

[Brilliant]

We eat these mostly during the winter, and cook up with a bean/potato/sausage soup. Delicious!

 

But we just got some in a CSA box, and I wasn't sure how to serve them in the summer without putting into a heavy soup. In searching some recipe databases, I found a couple of good summer options: include in a stir-fry, or serve with pasta ( stirred into a sauce, usually with tomatoes, garlic, onion, and lots of parmesan or romano). We had chard with spaghetti last night. I will probably blanch and freeze the kale, and then include with a stir fry next week.

[Robyn]

We eat a lot of kale in soup and with rice and beans. Of course, I ruin the nutritional value because I always add linguica and/or chourico. :tongue_smilie:

Something similar to this was last night's dinner.

[Laurel]

I like kale sauteed with ginger. (Probably too similar to just olive oil and garlic?) You could also substitute chopped kale in recipes that call for chopped spinach.

 

We've had swiss chard a couple ways lately that we've liked. I've simply sauteed it with a touch of lemon juice and salt and pepper. And then I've sauteed it and added raisins and pine nuts. That especially was very good.

 

For collards, I've used this recipe:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/food_wine&id=6844361

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

I make a kale and rice dish. I put loads of chopped kale, onion, garlic, butter or olive oil, and salt into the water that I'm going to cook the rice in. Bring to a boil, add the rice, stir, then cook covered on low till water is absorbed 15-20 min. Fluff and serve.

 

My daughter says it is great with her husband's grandmother's picalilly on it. I'll take her word for it.

[K&Rs Mom]

My dh really likes this way from our CSA newsletter:

 

Cook 2 slices bacon, and take out the bacon to a paper towel, but leave the hot grease in the pan. Toss the (torn) greens in with the grease for about 2 minutes to wilt. Top with the crumbled bacon. Good as a side dish, though adding the bacon & grease makes it less nutritious; otoh, none of the nutrients have been thrown away with the boiling water.

[myfunnybunch]

Mmmm. When we got a CSA box, we went from thinking of leafy greens as a dietary challenge to loving them and eating them whenever we can. Our favorites are kale, chard, beet greens. (Our cookbook calls them "assertive greens." I love that.) I've never cooked collards, so I'm not sure how similar they are to other greens.

 

I chop them (approx. 2-3" sections) and put them in hot soup right before serving, just enough to wilt them.

 

I've made a kale pesto, similar to a traditional pesto recipe but with kale instead of basil and pecans or walnuts instead of pine nuts. Delicious on pasta or in soup.

 

You can chop the greens into small pieces, scramble several eggs, and add the greens and some diced or canned tomatoes when the eggs are nearly done. Cook until the eggs are finished and the greens have wilted.

 

Slice the leaves into slivers and put them in a stir fry.

 

Cat

[sparrow]

I just used sliced swiss chard in a stir fry and it was delicious :D.

[mom31257]

We had our first experiences with kale this week. We finally got to visit the Decatur World Market and went a little "produce crazy"!

 

The first thing we tried kale in was fruit smoothies. We used a combination of pineapple, banana, orange juice, kale, and vanilla ice cream. Take it easy on the orange juice because we put a little too much in. It does turn it green. Our blender is not a high grade one, but the kale was only in very tiny pieces and not that noticeable.

 

We also made this recipe, but it was more like a winter stew.

 

http://fortunavirilis.blogspot.com/2009/10/spaghetti-squash-with-black-beans-corn.html

[May]

I follow the recipe on the back of the bag:001_smile: I always use the healthy version, no bacon here. It's a side dish that I serve with chicken or pork. Will have to try it in soup, sounds yummy!

[Laurie4b]

I really like kale chips: tear small pieces of the leafy part (not stem), place on cookie sheet, spray with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, cook at 400 about 10 min, checking carefully that the pieces do not burn. They taste like potato chips at first and are crunchy at first, chewy later. You can google a more exact recipe.

[FairProspects]

Kale and Chard work really well in quiches or rice dishes. We also like them in stews/soups like:

 

Winter French Vegetable

Beef, Barley, Kale stew

Kale, Califlower, sausage, (any starch - potatoes, beans, pasta), other veggies

 

We also like them in stir-frys & sautes with coconut milk, pine nuts, ginger, olive oil, lemon juice, and/or garlic, just pick your favorite combo. You can also boil them down, adding some water as they reduce, and then add olive oil or vinagrettes when they are tender. We like to use bok choy in Yakisoba with chicken, noodles, tamari and ginger. We love the greens from our CSA (and we never used to healthy)!