Kale Recipe; Advice Sought For Peas

Member Heather McBride writes and provides a recipe for kale as follows: "I chop the kale into strips and place in a big pot with a kielbasa link and 2 cups or so of water. Then, simmer until the kale is as tender as you like to eat it. This also works with chopped bacon, instead of sausage, for a great side dish." Thanks, Heather! This recipe is meaty and employs what Sesame Street's Elmo might note is a "sometimes food" to add richness, but is after all life is more than just roughage. We'd love a good new vegetarian recipe for greens, which are tapering off now but will be back in earnest again in the fall. What recipes do we need right now? How about edible-podded peas such as the ones we're picking this week? Your Farmer just eats them like Nature put them on the stem. Your Editor just snaps off the stem end and pulls the string down toward the blossom end like a zipper, then steams the sugar snap peapods (peas still in them) and serves them naked. What else might we do?

Ideas from Organic Style magazine include some simple approaches. Ohio State University has more advice, not just on cooking but also preservation -- if any are left after you try the steaming and the snarfing.

Comments

[gwen]

I was just about to give up on our collards and kale until I used my pressure cooker. Awesome!
Just clean, de-stem and chop the greens and throw them into the pressure cooker with about a cup of water or any kind of broth. Bring to pressure by following the directions of your cooker and cook at pressure for 3-5 minutes. So fast! And you can reduce the amount of fat and salt because the greens break down and release their flavor so fast.

[Mykal]

Also good for the peas is stir fried for 3-5 minutes with 2-3 cloves of chopped garlic and some olive oil. Just did this last night and it's very tasty.

[Janet]

For Kale and Collards, I chop then parboil them for a few minutes, then toss them in a wok with olive oil, garlic, onions (and maybe a bit of bacon, sausage, or leftover chicken.) Yummy!

I'd never eaten that variety of Turnips. They're sweet and a very tasty addition to salads. Same for the Kohlrabi - I'd never tried it before and its delicate flavor is another great salad addition.