What's so great about spinach, anyway?

I tried cooking a new vegetable! Collard greens! 


(I realize I just lost half of the people who visited my blog. But hang with me.  At least look at the pictures.)


Spinach is my go-to green. It's quick to cook, light in flavor, and many brands come triple-washed in bags. Sounds like a health-conscious cook's BFF... but what about all of the other greens? After all, I haven't given many of them a fair chance: mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion greens, arugula, Swiss chard, kale, escarole. Enter, collard greens. I found a bag of triple-washed and pre-chopped collard greens at Hannaford (my grocery store in NH) for a tad cheaper per pound than spinach. So I gave it a shot... and you know what? I liked it!


Now, this was a trial-by-error cooking experience for me, a collard greens newbie. The typical preparation involves tons of butter, something called a ham hock, and half a day. Going for something simple, I tossed in a few handfuls of greens to some already-cooked brown rice, black beans and onion, wishing for it to nicely wilt like my trusty ol' spinach. Well... it just doesn't cook like that. These greens are tougher, and require more time on the heat than spinach. My first attempt was pretty crunchy.


On day 2, I decided to give my greens a little more TLC. I heated about 1 tsp of garlic basting oil (from Wegmans) on medium-heat, and sauteed chopped onion and more garlic for about 5 minutes, until brown. I added 2 big handfuls of greens, seasoned with salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. I covered the greens (as recommended on the bag... I'm not above following instructions) and let them cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. The result was quite lovely; texture- al dente, taste- mellow.

They don't look too scary, right?

Now, I'm not about to call myself the collard greens cooking expert. In fact, I'll even point you toward Paula Deen's recipe if you want to see a more traditional preparation. But because I'm not sure when I might have "neck bone" on hand, my lighter saute was just what I needed on a cool fall day. I ate them in peace, along with a bowl of spaghetti squash marinara!

Pasta Imposta. (Say it like you're from New England.)

Looks like pasta, doesn't it? Well it isn't! It's squash! I put the entire squash in the oven (got the idea from The Pioneer Woman) @ 375 for about 50 minutes, scraped out the flesh with a few forks, and topped with my favorite jarred chunky basil marinara sauce. Woulda been better with cheese... didn't have any in the fridge this time. You can use some freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano when you make this yourself.


I hope my first attempt at collard greens will inspire you to try something new... especially if it's dark, leafy, and green!


Until next time!