Simply: Home Cooking

Greens with Olives

We've been luxuriating in greens from Capella Farm, one of the beneficiaries of SELMA Cafe's hoop house fund. Thanks to a hoop house built with the aid of SELMA funds and volunteers, Capella Farm has been able to extend their growing season to 10 months or more - yes, in Michigan! - allowing them to offer a spring CSA. Most of our box has been filled with a wide variety of greens: kale, collard, mustard, chard, choi of several colors, radish,.... Besides enjoying the mixed Asian veggies in stirfries, we've been cooking greens in a number of ways.

This recipe is a favorite (okay, I'll admit it, not particularly with the kids), is super quick and simple, and gets a LOT of those healthy, leafy greens into your diet (to replace all that added sugar and fat that is, once again, in the news).

You can use just about any variety of greens (kale, collard, mustard, chard, turnip, radish, carrot, spinach…) for this recipe. If you’re going to use the more pungent types (mustard, radish), better to mix with a less pungent variety and/or reduce the amount of olives.

Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:

• 2 bunches greens, rinsed until no grit is left: stems cut into 1/4” pieces, leaves cut into 1/4-1/2” ribbons
• 1-2 T olive oil
• 1/2 c pitted kalamata olives, chopped
• 1 pinch of red pepper flakes, or to taste (optional)
• zest of 1 lemon, chopped (optional)
• salt, to taste

Method:

1. Blanch the greens and stems just until tender, then strain thoroughly—you can gently push down on them with the back of a spoon to release even more water, or wait until they are cool enough to handle and squeeze gently with your hands.
2. Toss the greens with the remaining ingredients, gently separating them with tongs or your hands—they will be clumped together from squeezing.

Variations:

• This dish is best served immediately, but you can also serve it at room temperature.
• For a super-quick, well-rounded meal, serve under poached or baked eggs—hollandaise optional!—on toast or an English Muffin.

Download Greens with Olives

 

Blanch & Shock

This a method used to precook items (usually vegetables, with the exception of starchy ones, like potatoes) that would not cook through in the context of a recipe, or for when you want to prepare something ahead and quickly finish the cooking later. It’s also a great way to set that bright green color for vegetables you want to serve not-quite-raw (broccoli, asparagus, green beans…).

Blanch – cook slightly (NOT until cooked through) in boiling water.

Shock – immediately plunge just-blanched vegetables into ice water: this halts the cooking process and sets the color. As soon as the vegetable is cold, drain and/or pat dry.

These two techniques are often used together, but occasionally, blanching is enough to cook a vegetable you want to serve warm, in which case the shocking is eliminated.