I noticed that our co-op, the Common Ground co-op in Urbana, is selling a shredded raw kale salad. The listed ingredients are carrots, bell peppers, green onion, sliced almonds, sesame seeds, tahini, Vegenaise, tamari, apple cider vinegar, ginger, and toasted sesame oil. I think Alice's original recipe also had an Asian dressing on it. I might go for rice vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar if I were doing an Asian version. I would also add some of that decadent but oh-so-convenient ginger paste that I keep in the fridge into the dressing.
Even though the raw kale salad was good, I like cooked kale even better. A couple of great sources for ideas to use greens are Martha Rose Shulman's book, Mediterannean Harvest and Rachel Ray on the Food network. I start many of my recipes for kale or chard or spinach or beet greens the same way, by rinsing them, removing the tough stems, and blanching them in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes. Then I put them in a strainer to drain, dump them in cool water in the salad spinner bottom, and chop them into smaller pieces. (I often chop them some to get more to fit into the pot before blanching). You can make several bags of greens, which keep in the fridge a couple of days, or you can freeze them, to use in various recipes.
Some quick ideas: Quesadillas with cheese, greens, onions, mushrooms, red or green bell peppers (or any one or combo of these veggies). I use Canola pan spray on a smallish pan, put down a tortilla, sprinkle cheese, thinly sliced onions, chopped greens, sliced mushrooms, a little more cheese then put down another tortilla and spray the top.It seems to help it not to curl up while the bottom is cooking if I spray the top a bit right away. Then I flip it and cook the other side. I also do these in the oven on a greased cookie sheet, same deal with the spray on top, fliping over to kind of lightly brown the other side, and it works fine, especially if I want to make a lot. Much easier than frying every one. We serve them with warmed up (usually canned but sometimes I succeed in planning ahead and cooking them from scratch) pinto beans that I often mix with a few tablespoons of canned diced mild green chilis, although you could use hot ones if you like the spicier variety, or refried beans, and chopped tomato, cilantro, and lime juice. Or just use bottled salsa, that's good too.
You can take this idea to another level by layering all the ingredients into a greased casserole and baking it. Then you're getting close to the delicious version of chilaquiles in the Moosewood Low Fat Vegetarian cookbook in which they use black beans instead of pintos. They also cook up a nice tomato sauce (I used our home-canned stewed tomatoes and mixed them with tomato paste, onions, salt), since you need more sauce to moisten everything. The first time I made this layered version my daughter said it was the best thing she ever ate. The next time I made it she was not so excited about it. Neither was I and I think it was partly that the cheese wasn't as good. I used a different kind of salsa too.
Another quick idea is to fry some onions, and garlic if you like, in olive oil in a biggish pot. Add a big can of either garbanzo beans or white beans, and handfuls of your chopped greens, until you get the ratio you like. I often serve this on pasta (we use the Tinkyada brand of rice pasta because we're gluten-intolerant) with lots of grated Parmesan cheese. You could also layer it on rustic crusty bread and bake it with grated cheese, like Parmesan or Gruyere.
Tonight I'm making a greens and potato torta adapted from Martha Rose Shulman's book, on page 232. I boiled potatoes and blanched a bunch of kale. Now I'm going to saute the onion in olive oil, add the greens and sliced potatoes, and several tablespoons of chopped basil that I picked this afternoon. She calls for parsley but ours is a little small yet so I'm going to just use basil. Then salt and pepper. Then she has you process till smooth 1 cup of ricotta cheese but I'm going to use cottage cheese and mix that with 2 beaten eggs and 2 tablespoons milk. Add this to the bowl with the veggies and 1/2 cup Parmesan. She also calls for Gruyere and I think I'll use some aged white cheddar that I have in place of that.. Add some fresh grated nutmeg. I'm going to get all this together and then I'm going to take some bread dough that I made (crusty boule recipe for gluten free bread in the Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a day cookbook, keeps in the fridge for a week or more) and roll it out to fit a greased pie pan. I'll bake it all in the roaster oven I keep on the back porch for baking on hot summer days. I'll let you know how this turns out.
Even though the raw kale salad was good, I like cooked kale even better. A couple of great sources for ideas to use greens are Martha Rose Shulman's book, Mediterannean Harvest and Rachel Ray on the Food network. I start many of my recipes for kale or chard or spinach or beet greens the same way, by rinsing them, removing the tough stems, and blanching them in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes. Then I put them in a strainer to drain, dump them in cool water in the salad spinner bottom, and chop them into smaller pieces. (I often chop them some to get more to fit into the pot before blanching). You can make several bags of greens, which keep in the fridge a couple of days, or you can freeze them, to use in various recipes.
Some quick ideas: Quesadillas with cheese, greens, onions, mushrooms, red or green bell peppers (or any one or combo of these veggies). I use Canola pan spray on a smallish pan, put down a tortilla, sprinkle cheese, thinly sliced onions, chopped greens, sliced mushrooms, a little more cheese then put down another tortilla and spray the top.It seems to help it not to curl up while the bottom is cooking if I spray the top a bit right away. Then I flip it and cook the other side. I also do these in the oven on a greased cookie sheet, same deal with the spray on top, fliping over to kind of lightly brown the other side, and it works fine, especially if I want to make a lot. Much easier than frying every one. We serve them with warmed up (usually canned but sometimes I succeed in planning ahead and cooking them from scratch) pinto beans that I often mix with a few tablespoons of canned diced mild green chilis, although you could use hot ones if you like the spicier variety, or refried beans, and chopped tomato, cilantro, and lime juice. Or just use bottled salsa, that's good too.
You can take this idea to another level by layering all the ingredients into a greased casserole and baking it. Then you're getting close to the delicious version of chilaquiles in the Moosewood Low Fat Vegetarian cookbook in which they use black beans instead of pintos. They also cook up a nice tomato sauce (I used our home-canned stewed tomatoes and mixed them with tomato paste, onions, salt), since you need more sauce to moisten everything. The first time I made this layered version my daughter said it was the best thing she ever ate. The next time I made it she was not so excited about it. Neither was I and I think it was partly that the cheese wasn't as good. I used a different kind of salsa too.
Another quick idea is to fry some onions, and garlic if you like, in olive oil in a biggish pot. Add a big can of either garbanzo beans or white beans, and handfuls of your chopped greens, until you get the ratio you like. I often serve this on pasta (we use the Tinkyada brand of rice pasta because we're gluten-intolerant) with lots of grated Parmesan cheese. You could also layer it on rustic crusty bread and bake it with grated cheese, like Parmesan or Gruyere.
Tonight I'm making a greens and potato torta adapted from Martha Rose Shulman's book, on page 232. I boiled potatoes and blanched a bunch of kale. Now I'm going to saute the onion in olive oil, add the greens and sliced potatoes, and several tablespoons of chopped basil that I picked this afternoon. She calls for parsley but ours is a little small yet so I'm going to just use basil. Then salt and pepper. Then she has you process till smooth 1 cup of ricotta cheese but I'm going to use cottage cheese and mix that with 2 beaten eggs and 2 tablespoons milk. Add this to the bowl with the veggies and 1/2 cup Parmesan. She also calls for Gruyere and I think I'll use some aged white cheddar that I have in place of that.. Add some fresh grated nutmeg. I'm going to get all this together and then I'm going to take some bread dough that I made (crusty boule recipe for gluten free bread in the Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a day cookbook, keeps in the fridge for a week or more) and roll it out to fit a greased pie pan. I'll bake it all in the roaster oven I keep on the back porch for baking on hot summer days. I'll let you know how this turns out.
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