Greens are good for you and they are inexpensive, two reasons to incorporate them into your cooking
We even grow Kale and Swiss Chard in our garden, to harvest each morning immediately before blending that Green Smoothie
At one time, removed the stems and blanched the tops, but that took lots of time and we were concerned that all the vitamins and minerals went down the drain with the boiling water. So now we freeze the tops and add them to a stew early.
Mustard Greens
Collard Greens
Turnip Greens
Kale
You’ve seen them in the produce section, bunches with twist ties. At $1.49 per pound, you can incorporate into a meal at a fair price.
First: Clean (Submerge)
Greens require cleaning and the best way to do this is to submerge them in a pot of water, so the soil and grit settles to the bottom of the pot.
To spray them or hold under the faucet may not remove all of the grit.
Next: Blanch
Add the chopped greens to boiling, salted water
Reserve the stems
When the water returns to a boil, remove the greens with a strainer
Use this same water to blanch other items, boil pasta, etc
This partially cooks the greens; they are more palatable, tender, mild and can be added late to a any dish
I have some concern that this “blanch” rinses the water soluble vitamins away and leaves me only with the fiber, even though I reserve pasta water to add to the dish
(we no longer pre-blanch greens, instead we add them early to a stew)
And: Use the stems
My saving grace is that I add the (chopped) stems to the primary sauté of aromatics, peppers, onions, carrots, celery, garlic etc. And add the peeled stems of broccoli and the core of cauliflower
This is my way to include greens as a major element of a meal
Chez Bob Traiteur 