My diet guru Dr. Fuhrman sings the praises of leafy greens of all types. Ideally, he says, you should have leafy greens at every meal. (For breakfast, he recommends a small amount of spinach in a fruit smoothie, in case you were wondering.)
Eating greens is a sizable hurdle for me. Most of the problem has to do with going grocery shopping once a week, cooking for one most of the time, and my utter revulsion for limp, floppy greens. In other words, when I make salads for a week's lunch, the lettuce/spinach/etc. is looking pretty limp by the end of the week, and (shudder) a salad of greens past their prime pretty much turns me off greens for a good while.
I can live with chard at the end of the week, though. I put chard in the veggie chili that I made this week. Because it is such a substantial green, it likes being cooked and retains a good tough chewiness when being microwaved several days later.
I've also had luck putting bok choy or napa cabbage in stir-fries.
Does anyone have green recipes or suggestions for me?
4 comments:
No suggestions, sorry! We have the same problem, buying greens on Sunday means they are pretty ordinary come Thursday or Friday. We just go heavy at the start of the week when they're fresh. I'm guessing it's probably better to eat greens heavily when they are fresh, than moderately when they are going limp. I think they have more nutrients fresh, too.
Maybe you could grow a pot of spinach or something that you can pick off of when your purchased greens lose their liveliness!
Sapote: http://travelingvegan.blogspot.com/2007/10/black-sapote-post.html
Personally, I'm quite fond of kale! I make this wonderful little salad with it... just take a bunch of rinsed and dried kale and tear into bite-sized pieces. I add a couple of tablespoons (as many as you'd like) of toasted sesame seed oil, and a about 1/4 cup of freshly toasted sesame seeds (i pop 'em in the toaster oven for a bit until they brown and add them to the salad while they're still hot). Add some ground pepper and sea salt to taste. toss well and let sit for a few minutes before serving! I really enjoy this, though I am trying to figure out how to give it a little more bite... i sometimes add a bit of vinegar but it doesn't quite have the desired effect...
Nutritional info about kale here (the charts are mostly gibberish to me, but perhaps you can decipher them?): http://www.all-creatures.org/recipes/i-kale.html
Another green recipe I recently "created" was based on a Sausage-Leek Soup recipe I found online. I picked up some Tofurkey sausage and revolutionized the recipe by adding a cup of shiitake mushrooms and nearly a full bunch of collard greens :)
1/2 pound un-sausage
1/4 cup olive oil or Earth Balance
3 cups cleaned, coarsely chopped leeks
1 cup halved or quartered shiitake mushrooms
4 cups coarsely chopped collard greens (variable)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup almond milk (or soy, rice, etc)
S & P to taste
Slice or cut the sausage into thin slices. Heat oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add the sausage, heat and stir for 3-4 minutes add the chopped leeks, heat and stir for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, collard greens, and parsley, stir, add the veggie broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat and puree with a hand blender or in a food processor. Return to the pot and place over a low flame; stir in "milk". Season to taste with S & P and serve hot.
What a coincidence; I'm *just* about to at some chard as part of my lunch. I am really weird-- I like it with peach salsa!
P.S. chutney as a garnish for curry is a great idea! Why didn't I think of that?!
This will mean going to the grocery store more often, but I like to hit the salad bar and get baby spinach there — you control the amount, and the spinach holds up better in the plastic container than it does in a bag. And I love swiss chard or bok choy in stir fries too. Delicious.
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