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Food on Fridays Participants
Food on Fridays with Ann
I met with an organic farmer and his sister. We chatted about a wide range of topics, including his CSA deliveries. I asked the farmer what would come in my box this week if I started ordering, and he listed, among other things, greens. I can’t remember if it was kale or collard greens, but I stopped him and said, “Greens? I’m just not used to eating greens.”
“What? You have got to get greens in your diet. Please, please start eating greens! There are things in greens you can’t find in anything else–things that our bodies need that help us process other food, even junkier food, so if you eat your greens, you can get by with eating Twinkies.”
I got a little defensive. “Well, we sure don’t eat Twinkies.”
“Regardless,” he urged me, “you’ve got to eat greens. Besides, they’re delicious!”
His impassioned plea inspired me to buy kale the next day:
Being a Northerner, I don’t regularly prepare greens, so I had to look online for ideas.
I found a discussion thread about cooking kale leaves and followed the instructions from the first post:
Take fresh kale and chop it up. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle black pepper into the hot oil, then add garlic (preferably fresh chopped). Let it brown but not burn. Toss your dark green yummies into the hot oil until they’re slightly soft (but not disintegrated) Add salt, pine nuts & Parmesan cheese while cooking but only until very slightly melted/browned.
Love it, even without the Parmesan cheese.
And it may just be psychological, but I think I do feel a little healthier.
So I join the organic farmer in his plea: Please eat greens!
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I’ve never tried Kale but I must say it sounds delicious, and looks the same. I have prepared spinach very similarly so we’ll be trying this!
Thank you for sharing your recipe!
My husband and I think Kale is more flavorful and almost, I don’t know, maybe “sweeter.” Even the texture is nicer than spinach (though I do like spinach).
I absolutely love kale. It is my favorite veggie by far. I’ve seen some neat recipes for kale chips that you might like to try. Just added to a stir fry or soup they’re awesome as well. Or replace spinach with kale and see that you think. Enjoy!
Your favorite veggie by far?? Wow…
Say, I did see a recipe for kale chips when I was doing my search and that intrigued me. Thanks for the suggestion–also the idea of tossing it into stir fry and soup sounds like an easy way to add health.
Several people were suggesting tossing it into smoothies, but the organic farmer said it could get stringy and the kids might balk at it.
And somewhere else someone suggested mashing it with pine nuts to make pesto. That sounded like a yummy idea.
I cooked kale for the first time several months ago. I liked it but my husband and son asked for seconds. They really liked it and I was shocked! I linked my post so go check it out!
What a lovely surprise–to have the family ask for seconds on something that’s one of the “world’s healthiest foods,” according to at least one website. I’ll check out your post today!
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten Kale or “Greens”. Perhaps they’re not something we had in England when I was growing up? I should try them, I wonder if they have them in Germany?
Surely there’s some kind of green you can eat in Germany?
I typed “kale” into Yahoo’s babelfish, and it translated to “kohl” in German. Collard greens were “Kohlgrüns.” Mustard greens: “Senfgrüns.” Maybe an open market would have some nice fresh stuff you could buy?
I’ll keep an eye out next time I head to the farmers market… I know for sure I haven’t seen them in our local grocery store!
I mean, we have salad stuff and spinach… but yeah just not sure about the ones you mentioned.
I love greens too! I never ate them growing up but when I started joining CSAs about five years ago I discovered them.
Well, I’m so impressed with all of you green-eaters!!
Annie, I am laughing because I adore greens now, but never did when younger! IN fact, my last weeks Tackling Bittman recipe was Kale with Tahini and it was so good my husband gobbled it up along with these Greek Meatballs which I am putting on the linky that I made healthier by using grass fed meat and eggs. Thanks for sharing the foodie love and your wonderful space with us on this friday! Hugs! Alex
I saw a recipe for Kale with Tahini in my search and paused, because I do have some tahini in the fridge for making hummus. Your report of your husband’s gobbling it up makes me want to revisit that!
I’m ashamed to say how many times I’ve left the Kale from my organic vegetable box until it was too wilty to cook so I could avoid eating it…but I won’t anymore. You’ve made it look delicious – and if it is that good for me I really can’t afford to avoid it!!
April, be sure to read the suggestions in some of the comments above–the kale chips sound like a fun way to try them the first time. And I have to say, my simple instructions were so fast and easy and tasty, I really do recommend it. I happened to have pine nuts on hand, but I think you could use almonds or other nuts for a slightly different effect.
Miss Ann,
May I introduce you to my dark side? My dark green kale, collard, spinach, lambs-quarters (it’s an edible weed)-lovin’ side that is!
Here is a link to my food (actually it is my healthy-eating, healthy-living blog …the one I have neglected ever since we moved last autumn).
Please take a gander at what I do with kale (and all of his cousins) each and every single day:
http://simplerawhealth.blogspot.com/search/label/green%20smoothies
And here are some recipes too:http://simplerawhealth.blogspot.com/search/label/green%20smoothie%20recipe
Blessings.
A Simple Country Girl
aka A Simple Raw Food Mamma
Tempting me to the dark side, eh? You may change the way we eat up north!
Just where do you think I live? 😉
hint, hint…right near where those lovely Walla Walla Sweet onions are grown
Really? I think of greens as such a southern thing….I guess interest in them and their health benefits is spreading in all directions!
recipes too: (put in the space right here so the link works right!) http://simplerawhealth.blogspot.com/search/label/green%20smoothie%20recipe
You’ve inspired me to try kale! Thanks for the coking tips on it.
I just got a big bunch of kale in my weekly CSA box. Now I know how i will use it. Thanks for sharing!
I just picked up my weekly CSA box which contained no less than five different greens: chard, kale, escarole, endive, and sorrel. Plus some cabbage! It’s going to be nothing but green for the next week on my dinner table! Good thing I am *starting* to like greens!
I’ve never prepared greens. I’ve never eaten them either. I’ll have to try kale sometime soon.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I’d get defensive too if someone implied that I ate Twinkies! 😉 I’m a junk food junkie, but I draw the line at Twinkies! (Not really, but they’re not high on my list of favorites!)
As a fellow Northerner, I’ve never tried either. But upon your recommendation I shall. I was thinking the lettuce would be awfully lonely in the cold frames this fall anyway!
I love me a good mess of greens. These look yummy, Ann.
I love kale. I could eat it by the plateful.
My recipe? Braised in a small amount of water with garlic and sunflower seeds. Touch of salt on top. I just keep turning the kale. I don’t mind if the edges burn slightly at the end.
Does anyone remember that early spring dandelion green are tasty? Of course, you have to be careful where you pick them…
And as for Twinkies. Hostess has messed around with the recipe. When I was little–we are talking more than 60 years ago–I loved Twinkies, would practically inhale them. They were soft and squishy. Nothing like those mini-baseball bats they sell as Twinkies today. I can’t stand those…which is probably a good thing!!
Spring dandelion greens–those are probably fattening up the goats! My friend LL has a whole thing about dandelion greens in her archives. I need to look up her ideas, instructions and recipes. Thanks for the reminder! As for Twinkies…bleh. Too bad we never had the originals, like you gobbled up.
A bunch of great ideas here, green-lovin’ friends and family! Thanks for your comments!
I just came back from the farmer’s market with some chard. Also some “live lettuce” that had been grown using hydroponic techniques. So the head of lettuce is actually still alive and growing while sitting in my fridge or on the counter, as long as the roots are kept moist. It can stay in my fridge three or four weeks! I think I’ll write about it for my next Food on Fridays. I was fascinated.
Sometimes I’ll add chopped kale to a lentil dish, simmered in broth, or maybe I’ll add it to a soup in the autumn, but that’s about all. We do need to eat more greens! :o)
Hey Ann,
I married a collard lover years ago, and for 24 years the poor man has had to go visit his mama to get his collard fix. (Except for the years I let him cook his own in the garage. (You think I’m joking? Have you ever smelled collards cooking?)
But now that recipe sounds and looks so good, that I’m going to try it for myself!
Thank you for freeing me from my prejudice against greens!
And thanks too for your thoughtful comment at my blog. I’m excited about getting to know you, my friend!