I’ve loved and eaten greens, including kale, since before it was A Thing.
Ways I typically cook a mess of greens (I usually use onion also.):
Stir-fried in olive oil with garlic and lemon juice or red wine vinegar.
Stir-fried with bacon or lardon or sausage.
Stir-fried with anchovies. (Yes, anchovies.)
In a casserole with sweet potatoes and sausage.
With eggs, as in breakfast.
Ways I have tried and disliked:
Roasted/kale chips/trendy.
I have a bunch of rainbow chard growing in my garden, and a friend just gave me a big bag of mixed mustard and collard greens.
Am I missing any culinary greens adventures? I’m single and frying up some bacon and adding greens is very tasty, but I think I need more variety. Creamed greens? Greens with cheese? Salads? Any other ideas?
Well, you sound to me like you have a lot more experience than I do. But I will tell you my experiences in the hope something there may help you.
The worst way I have found to cook greens is to boil them in water.
One of the best ways is to use a steamer and steam them to a desired level of firmness and then to cook them in some sauce or oil to finish them off.
The only other thing I can contribute is to Google for various cooking techniques, like maybe:
“list the most delicious ways to cook green beans”
“list the best recepies that include green beans”
Oh wait! Have you ever done any cooking with Miso? Miso is a Japanese seasoning made from fermented paste. It tastes a whole lot better than it sounds when used by an experienced cook.
There are some recipes for green beans using Miso that sound quite good. Here are some links:
Green Beans and Onions in Spicy Miso Sauce
The way I prefer to cook most veggies is minimally, if at all. Salads are good. And if you’re tired of salad, just give them a quick stir-fry or steaming. Microwaving can also work, but it takes some trial and error to get it just right.
OK, well, yes I have googled but you’ve given me some ideas: using different oils, such as sesame, or miso sauce. I adore miso soup so that is an interesting direction.
This is how I make chard (got the recipe from my farm share)
strip the leaves off the stems
blanch the leaves - immerse in boiling water for 1.5 minutes
Drain leaves and squeeze all excess water from leaves (leaves will now be compressed into a damp wad)
Roughly slice the wad into 1" slices.
Put slices into pan with a pat of butter and a handful of parmesan cheese. Stir to break up the slices and distribute buttery cheesy goodness throughout. Salt/pepper to taste (careful - parmesan cheese is fairly salty)
I’ve found kale to work in place of spinach in pretty much any Indian recipe if you like curries. Most recently I made a yellow curry with chickpeas and a pound of kale (thickest parts of stems removed or it’s too “woody”), and a pound of baby spinach. Would probably work just fine with all kale. Yum.
An Italian soup!
This is my recipe, loosely adapted from Olive Garden’s Tuscan soup, but you’ll also see that it’s very similar to many traditional American recipes for greens, since I’m adding potatoes and chicken broth to the greens.
Ingredients (Sorry, I don’t need no stinkin’ measurements.)
Greens of your choice. Olive Garden used kale. I usually use collards, but anything works, including mustard and beet greens.
2 medium potatoes per person, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Italian sausage per person
Chicken stock, enough to cover everything
Misc seasonings: garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper, chile flakes (optional), bay leaf
In a pan on relatively high heat, I start by browning the sausage and remove it.
Use the sausage pan to wilt the greens (thereby picking up all the brown bits from pan)
While wilting the greens, get the sausage cut up into bite-sized pieces.
Peel and cube your potatoes.
Throw the wilted greens, half of your potatoes and the chicken broth into your soup pot. Let this cook about 30 minutes.
If the potatoes have not fallen apart by themselves, smash them up a little. (Remember, we’re only using half of the potatoes in this step, and the idea is that they thicken this soup without any need for cream or fat. Don’t worry about whizzing them up or getting it perfectly smooth. It’s meant to be rustic.)
Now add the rest of the potatoes, the cut sausage and the rest of your seasonings to taste.
When the second batch of potatoes are fork-tender (about 20-25 more minutes), serve.
Boil your washed chard leaves in a small amount of water and puree the mixture in a blender or food processor. Freeze it in an ice cube tray and put the frozen cubes in a bag in the freezer.
Toss in a frozen chard cube or two every time you’re cooking—
soup
stew
sauce
curry
mashed potatoes
rice
eggs
whatever
modulo, of course, the suitability of a little greens flavor in whatever the dish is.
I also like “chardcannon”, a modified version of colcannon or Irish mashed potatoes with kale.
I mostly just toss in everything I have that’s vaguely salady, but I find that strong greens go well with nuts or sesame seeds and a dairy dressing. Maybe carrots, too, and of course you can’t go wrong with bacon.
In the South, greens are often eaten with cornbread in the same meal.
The Japanese have a dish called goma-ae (various spellings) which is basically vegetables with a sesame dressing. I ordered it a few times at a place that I used to frequent, and what I was served looked like cooked fresh spinach bundled into little packets that had been drained of most of the cooking liquid. I got a Japanese friend to go with me and he said it was like something his mom would have made for lunch.
Chard goes very well with garbanzo beans (and potato, of course). Tasty, inexpensive, nutritious and easy to digest.
Like in the last recipe, if you want to use tougher greens for raw/salad preparations, slice it VERY thin and marinate it thoroughly in an acidic dressing.
I gave up my farm share box last winter because of the kale. Endless kale. Two or three varieties, every week, enormous bunches! TOO MUCH!
Cut a pound of linguica into rounds. Chop of a bunch of kale, a large onion and a couple of potatoes. Combine and toss with olive oil and salt. Put into a large pot, cover and bake at 350 F for an hour or two (depending on how done you like your vegetables).
