So many people think leafy greens and immediately think “yuk”. It’s so annoyingly cultural. Italian kids will go for seconds of the wilted spinach or sautéed rapini, and North Americans of all ages will subtly push their serving to the side. I have huge respect for Josée di Stasio for devoting 2 entire pages in her cookbook A la di Stasio to 5 ways to serve “Greens”. This includes stir-frying, steaming, blanching, boiling, and combinations of these. My personal favourite right now is to blanch and then sauté. This is so easy and takes all of 10 minutes to prepare, if you get the water boiling while you remove the leaves from the greens
1 bunch of kale (or rapini, or swiss chard, or spinach, etc.)
1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
salt
lemon juice, optional
1. Separate the leaves from the stems of your leafy green of choice
2. Plunge the stems into a large pot of boiling water for 30 seconds, then add the leaves for another 15 seconds. Drain the pot. Seems like a huge waste of water, but you can save it, if you wish, for future boiling, blanching or steaming. Or use it as a base for vegetable broth. Swiss chard is actually very sweet and works well for soup stock, while rapini is more bitter.
3. Heat the oil in a skillet or large pot over medium-high heat and when hot, add the garlic. Cook 2 minutes, stirring, until just starting to brown.
4. Add the leaves and stems of the greens and a sprinkle of salt
5. Cover, reduce the heat to medium, and cook until “tender-crisp” (whatever level of crispness you prefer, but the shorter cooking time the better, since the greens lose their nutrients quickly. It’s a fine line, because their nutrients are more easily absorbed if they’re cooked, rather than raw, but if they’re over-cooked you can’t absorb any nutrients at all since they’ve been destroyed).
6. Serve with a sprinkle of lemon juice if desired. Di Stasio also recommends grated nutmeg. I have yet to try it, but I’m a little excited.
(I skipped writing a post on the recipe for Sea Trout in a Spice Rub that I made for the Masters Potluck because it’s the same recipe I made the week before).
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