Cooking Greens
Now that I've seen all these greens at the farmers' market, I realized that I still hew to the same few. So help me put together a list of great cooking greens that can sauté up with some garlic and olive oil and chile flakes.
Basically, I work with kale, swiss chard, spinach, and broccoli raab mostly. What else works?
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11 Comments:
I think you pretty much covered it all.
Wait, how about beet greens? Or dandelion greens?
orchidgirl at 12:55PM on 06/04/09
My current fave is mustard greens. There's some variety at our local farmers market that has a wasabi flavor to it, which I love, but I can't remember what they're called.
sobriquet at 12:56PM on 06/04/09
Collard greens, turnip greens and mustard greens are awesome. Make sure you slice the collard greens into thin ribbons so they will cook quickly.
Alm25 at 1:11PM on 06/04/09
Yep, turnip and mustard greens are fantastic. But my favorite greens of all time (and they're at the markets now in WI, where I am) is pea greens. They are absolutely delicious and take very well to garlic. Damn, I gotta go buy some more.
BangieB at 1:48PM on 06/04/09
Tatsoi and escarole are good in a quick saute. Since they're also great in salads, I keep them on hand as dinner pinch-hitters. For escarole, skip the chile flakes and add some lemon zest and juice, and a crushed anchovy if you like.
butterface at 1:55PM on 06/04/09
Collards and mustards require more than simple sauteing, but they are quite good - on the bitter/sour side of the flavor spectrum. Both are best with a bit of pork fat, and need to be steamed down with some water - slowly, in addition to sauteing.
Arugula and radicchio are nice, although radicchio is purple, rather than green.
Paula Maack at 2:25PM on 06/04/09
Beet green, radish tops (delicious!), kalorahbi leaves, turnip leaves, mustard greens, and collards, of course.
Cabbage, bok choy, lettuces, pea shoots, tatsoi.
Gage cooking times by the age and the fiberousness of the leaves. Young ones are good with a quick saute. Mid-aged are good with a saute and braise (add a little liquid, cover and steam to finish cooking. Older, bigger or tougher leaves require longer cooking times and more liquid.
CJ McD at 2:52PM on 06/04/09
There are so many kales! Tuscan (lacinato/dinosaur) kale, Siberian (Russian) kale in red and green, as well as standard curly kale and several other specialty varieties that crop up at my market now and again. Early in the season the greens are generally tender enough just to saute, but later on as they get tougher, I tend to blanch them briefly in salter water first, to cut down on the chewiness. But right now, they're all so tender and quick-cooking - I love greens.
producestories at 4:15PM on 06/04/09
Love collards. Got on a kick a few months ago where I was determined to figure out how to make them perfectly. I cooked them for 4 weekends straight, and finally settled on garlic, salt, red pepper flake, olive oil, and 2 smoked ham hocks with a little water to steam them in the bottom of the pot. 3-4 hours of that, then serve with a little balsamic vinegar and your in business!
southeasterneater at 4:29PM on 06/04/09
I've microwaved each of those greens with excellent results - wash sliced greens and shake or spin dry. Then place in a plastic ziploc bag or bowl with a lid, then nuke for 45-90 SECONDS. Time depends on how much you have, and whether or not there are denser stems (ie. broccoli rabe).
Add desired seasonings and the tiniest amount of olive oil (or not).
finewinendine at 7:29PM on 06/04/09
i've seen fava greens at the market for a short time as well. delicious, without the tedious bean peeling!
saltcrystal at 1:23PM on 06/05/09