greens

[asakiyume]

A guy I follow on Twitter is doing a couple of polls about greens (the things you eat, not the members of the political party... I mean if you're a cannibal that distinction might not be valid but I suspect for most of you it is, plus--no capitalization!)

Here is a link.

For those of you as click-averse as I am, there are two groups of greens:

First group:

chard
collards
kale
spinach

Second group:

beet greens
cress
mustard greens
turnip greens

You have to choose your favorite for cooking in each group. (You can go vote if you want--it will add a new dimension to his polling base.)

So .... do you all have favorites? Opinions? Beloved recipes? I cook spinach, kale, and beet greens; I have cooked mustard greens now and then, and sometimes chard. I did not know you could *eat* turnip greens--it's an exciting new piece of information.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

Oh, this discussion makes me hungry. Maybe I can convince He Who Shops to buy me some kale (and not the chopped prepackaged kind -- they chop up the stems too, it's a mess, and he always tries to get that unless I insist).

In Jamaica we have "callaloo" (amaranth greens) which are sturdier than spinach but juicier than kale or collards. During the summer TL sometimes buys them for me from farmer's markets.

[cgbookcat1]

The top five I make and eat regularly. The bottom three are difficult to find in my area.

My favorite kales are the dinosaur or red Russian types, sautéed with olive oil, wine vinegar, and onion and served with a poached egg on top and toast on the side.

[amaebi]

Heartbreak unless you develop a cheery and accustomed relationship with death.

[amaebi]

I had forgot the soup called callaloo! Where on earth did I use to have that? It was when I was living in St. Catharines, but that's all I can remember.

I would think toward making some, but Colorado is not truly a good enough place to buy crab for it to make sense.

[amaebi]

Group 1: All but collards, though I should confess that I don't wet-cook kale. Second group: All of them, but I don't apply heat to cress.

There is at least one turnip-- Tokyo Cross-- which is intended primarily as a source of turnip greens. But since I love its dear little pearly turnip part I grow them for that as well.

[asakiyume]

I can source amaranth greens from empty lots around here; I remember learning they were edible and good. I'm sure actual cultivated amaranth produces bigger leaves (like cultivated dandelions produce bigger leaves--it always cracks me up, though, to see dandelion greens for sale).

[asakiyume]

Mmm, I think the next time I cook kale, I'll try this. Sounds delicious.

[asakiyume]

When you say you don't wet-cook kale, what does that mean? Does frying count as wet cooking?

Re turnips: gotta love a plant you can eat all of!

Tangentially related: and then there are the plants where you can eat them in one form or another, but not both. When I grew more things, I liked growing snow peas--for the pea pods. But my Cambodian neighbor likes eating the tendrils and blossoms ... I mean I suppose if you didn't eat **all** the tendrils and blossoms, you could then eat some snow pea pods later. Kind of like waiting to eat the leaves of your turnips until you're ready also to harvest the root.

[asakiyume]

It's also not an activity that puts up with procrastination: you need to do a thing in its season or you're going to miss your chance.

[cgbookcat1]

Kalettes sound delicious! Do you think they'd grow well in a 2ft x 2 ft x 2ft container? My only gardening space right now is a porch and I love the idea of harvesting into December and January.

[larryhammer]

I just cooked chard last night, and it was the clear obvious one to pull out and use, so that's an easy ticky. The second, I usually prefer beet greens over the others, but it's been a while since I've done any of them -- not since we left the CSA.

The chard, I did the usual stir-frying with onions and olive oil, plus some protein (in this case, peanuts), for serving on top of the evening's carb base (spaghetti this time). Time was, I'd've mixed it in with the noodles, but TBD, being 4, has Strong Feelings about having the sauce of whatever variety on the side.

[larryhammer]

Yum.

[amaebi]

I feared beets and thought I disliked them, but I planted some and had them at Chun Woo's request and realized it was just those odious tinned or pickled ones that were brandished at me at terrifying church potlucks when I was a child.

I also thought I disliked spinach as a child-- all I encountered was served at school lunches, from tins. I first liked it when I encountered it raw in salads. (Revealingly, to my mind, my mother viewed spinach salad as a Great Test of a restaurant, because it was so prone to sand. Washing always dominated taste, for my mother.)

I love parsnips, but pretty much as an alongside to flesh.

[amaebi]

Some things are more copacetic than others, but yeah. And greens are copacetic! (Tropical fruiting things like tomatoes and peppers are not.)

[amaebi]

Well, I really meant that I have not liked kale stewed with pork and/or pork fat. Myself, I make kale chips and use young kale in salads.

I love both snow peas and pea shoots. *swoon*

[ivy]

I will joyfully order them in restaurants, but unfortunately I no longer have anyone who cooks for me.

They are delicious!

[sovay]

So .... do you all have favorites?

Collards forever! After that, I am surprisingly fond of chard and spinach, so long as all of these are cooked past the point where they taste bitter enough to die from. I don't think I have ever eaten beet or turnip greens, although I know you can.

[ivy]

Have you tried lasagna mulching for a couple years on top of the problem area? That worked wonders for me on uncertain soil.

[asakiyume]

Got it! Makes sense :-)

[asakiyume]

I always have great **intentions** to try things like this, but I've rarely carried them out in practice. For instance, I have a couple of compost bins in the backyard, but I've rarely brought the compost up and, y'know, actually put it on the garden, and when I have, I haven't done so very thickly. A couple of times when I was gardening more earnestly, I went to horse farms and filled bags with old manure to bring back. I'm kind of at peace with it though: I know I'm getting out of it what I put in, and that if I put in more--well, I could still have a bad outcome because: agriculture, but--I'd get more out.

[asakiyume]

I like kale chips! A friend showed me how to make them--easy and tasty.

[asakiyume]

Yum! Plain old stir fry is delicious. And I'm smiling about TBD and remembering the classic Roz Chast cartoon about the childhood house of horrors: one of the things it contains is the plate of food where the items are touching each other.

[asakiyume]

You've never eaten beet greens, and I've never eaten collard greens! We need to cook for each other.

[larryhammer]

TBD is disappointed that it is impossible both a) have the components of a soup served separately and b) still have a soup.

[asakiyume]

Poor TBD. It's like wanting it to be soup, only dry--although actually, that would be easier: she could munch on unreconstituted ramen.