Good Greens Recipe?

We like kale like this: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/baked-kale-chips/detail.aspx

I like this collard recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cooking-for-real/veget...

I have put swiss chard and spinach in a quiche, omelet or fritata.

We usually just eat it sauteed with garlic, red pepper flake and sometimes pine nuts. For swiss chard and spinach you can just chop it and throw it in the pan, but I blanch kale, broccoli rabe, collards, etc first. The cooking time for those is too long for them to get done in the saute pan.

Leftover sauteed greens also make a great pizza topping.

Aretha Franklin made these on Martha Stewart. I haven't used anything but smoked turkey leg since. It gives the greens a wonderful depth of flavor, smokey flavor, and perfect salt, plus the turkey falls off the bone and makes its way all through the greens.

Ingredients:
 2 qts water
 1 ½ pounds smoked turkey leg
 4 pounds of greens (any mixture of collards, turnips and mustard) rinsed well and trimmed (or buy them already done in the grocery store)
 ½ tsp hot sauce
 1 Tbsp Best Friend’s Seasoning (substitute cajun spice)
 1 tsp sugar

Directions:
 Place water and meat in a large pot with a tight fitting lid.
 Bring to a boil; lower the heat and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes.
 Add the greens, hot sauce, sugar and seasoning (you may have to add the greens in stages to get them all in there).
 Return to boil; lower the heat and simmer, covered, for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally
 Serve steaming hot with cornbread and butter

Everything EXCEPT collard greens:

Ring a large pan a few times around with olive oil. Add 1-2 chopped or sliced garlic cloves. Turn heat on med (or medhigh if you've already got your leaves prepped).

Wash the leaves thoroughly. Flip leaf upside down and cut out the center stalk. Stack. Repeat until all stalks have been removed.

Bring the stack of destalked leaves over, and slice into finger thick slices (the short way).

Take giant pile and put into pan with olive oil and garlic and turn heat up to medHigh. (Don't worry if they mound up over your pan, they shrink. A lot).

Every few minutes as the pile "shrinks" give a "flip stir" to rotate the greens about a bit (trick with greens is not to stir them too much).

Your giant pile of greens will reduce and reduce and reduce to about 1/10th of it's former height. When reduced and "bright", plate, sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and pepper.

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A quirk w/ purple kale: If instead of medhigh, you cook them on LOW for awhile (like half an hour) you get "Kale Chips". The completely dehydrate but retain their wacking ripple shape and stay all super crispy. None of the others will do this. Olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper just like the rest... but eat with your fingers.
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Collard Greens

((If you DON'T cook WITH bacon, you need to let the leaves soak in salt water for some time. I don't cook them that way. Here's the way I DO cook them)).

- De stalk and cut (same as above) .
- Cut about 1/2 a pound of bacon per bunch of greens into smallish pieces. (No bigger than a quarter)
- Put bacon in large pan on high and just cook a LITTLE. Not enough to get crispy, just enough to get them going. Pour off the extra fat if you like)
- Add your collard greens
- COVER with water
- (toss in a smoked ham shank or two if you like)
- Bring to boil
- Turn heat down
- Simmer for 3 or 4 hours with a lid on.
- If the liquid gets too low, just add more.
TRICK: A lot of the lovely flavor gets stuck on the "side" of the pan. Scrape the sides down from time to time.

1 1/2 lbs to 2 lbs Baby Bok Choy

Separate leaves and rinse well.

In large skillet place 1 Tablspoon Peanut oil (olive oil can be used) ,

Once oil is heated add Bok choy to skillet, stir for about 1 minute.

Carefully add 1/4 cup water

Cover with tight fitting lid, turn heat to med low, cook covered for about 5 min.

Turn off heat lift lid add 2 tbls. Soy sauce.

Excellent with steamed rice..

Cook up an onion in a tablespoon or 2 of olive oil, throw in some garlic and get everything nice and soft. Cut the stems off a bunch of Swiss Chard and slice into 1 inch strips. Add to onions and garlic. Grate a large sweet potato and a chunk of Guyere cheese (it'll be by the Gouda cheese). Add them to the pan. Salt and pepper as needed. Cut 2 unbaked pie crusts into quarters. Add filling, fold over and crimp edges. Brush tops w/beaten egg. Bake @ 400 for 20-25 mins or until brown. Makes for a nice crispy side dish. Enjoy!

I've always eaten pretty healthy, but I recently became a raw foodie. Very little cooked foods, which means, mostly raw vegan. Reason: when you cook foods over 116 degrees, you deplete 50% or more of the live amino acids in them. I don't like putting dead stuff in my body which is exactly what we all do when we eat cooked food...and some people wonder why their sick? Your body is alive - it needs live fuel to replenish and restore.
And you feel great!

Here is my favorite fresh juice recipe featuring many of the fresh greens you asked about.

(serves 3)
3 leaves kale with stalk
1 large red collard leaf and stalk
2 blades celery
Handful of dandeloin greens
3 leaves romaine or any other green lettuce (not iceberg)
1/4 cup fennel, aka anise (white part of the veg)
large handful spinach
3/4 cup purple or green cabbage
3/4 cup green grapes
3 green apples

Juice in a juicer and ENJOY immediately!
The pulp is good in bran muffins, spaghetti sauce (just because I am raw does not mean my children are up to it yet), fed to chickens or rabbits, mixed with your dog's food, or to enrich your soil as compost.

Kale chips are very popular right now. De-stem the kale and separate the leaves into large pieces. Brush them with olive oil and sea salt Spread on a cookie sheet and bake them on a low heat in the oven, or dehydrate them at 110 degrees till crispy.

Smoothies are also great for greens like kale, cabbage and collard.

1 cup coconut or almond milk
6 ice cubes
3/4 cup frozen berries
1 frozen banana, chopped up
4-6 dates or 1 tblsp raw agave
Desired amounts of greens
(You can also put a portion of the pulp from juicing into the smoothie, as much as you can handle texture-wise!)
Some flax seed or oil
Add a little Spirulina if you really want it green! But only a little, it's potent tasting.

Next on your list should be:
Chia seeds
Cacoa
Nut cheeses
Sprouting
Dehydrated crackers (flax and corn)
Making your own fruit leather

This was more than you asked for...but hey, can't complain about useful info right?

Cheers!

Here's how I like my swiss chard - grew them in my garden in CA when I found out swiss chard was great for helping with water retention (and I had a lot in my legs while pregnant!) Learned to love it then.

I have a steamer that I use with most everything. Or you can sautee it in your pan, either way. Depends on how much flavor you want or how non-fat you want it to be....

Wash well, trim stalk ends and whatever needs to be trimmed off (brown edges if any, for example). I cut up the (celery-like) stalks first and put those in the bottom of the steamer basket or pan, whichever I'm using. Then continue cutting up (in apx 1" maybe 3/4") strips across the width of the leaves and pile it in. (you do want a pile, it shrinks a lot!)
We liked to add in an onion, preferably sweet red, or/and an apple, diced, and layer it in the greens. Cook it all together. In the steamer, that's all that there was. In the fry pan, bacon for the grease as well as flavor is great. Or just a bit of oil on the pan to keep the greens moving and cooking. I now use coconut oil, didn't before, but that would be a good oil to use to cook all this with?

I like it as is, sprinkled with salt. My husband douses his with butter and vinegar (he's not a big fan of this!)

My sister LOVES her superduper blender and whirling kale & apples and/or bananas into a green smoothie and drinking (or eating from a bowl if thick, like yogurt consistency). Any greens can be done this way - certain greens (ie, kale) are better with sweeter fruits (banana, apples) while others are yummier with pears, she says. She's in Colo so I've only seen/sampled it once or twice. I tried adding spinach to my strawberry smoothie once. Never again, LOL! Maybe I just added too much but I'm not wasting my yummy strawberries again LOL.

Do you make stir frys??? I got some Bok Choy the other day and intend to use this in stir fry. Basically cut your meat of choice into thin strips, cook (wok or large skillet). Cut up all your veggies in bite size pieces. Put thicker/harder ones in first to cook (ie carrots & stalks) then as it cooks, continue adding in the thinner, lighter pieces. Green leaves (cut into strips, and maybe across the width once or twice) go in last, and once it wilts, it's ready. Spinach, bok choy, chard, are what I've used, but I imagine anything can be used. I think kale has a stronger flavor, I just don't like it but maybe that's just me. (my mom likes kale better than spinach, yeech!)

We've gotten lots of greens from our CSA, and we have several ways we use them. We make green smoothies with them (just fruit and greens - use only a little greens if they are the stronger types like you're mentioning & cut out the ribs unless you have a really nice blender). We have done sauteeing & ate it with rice. I like making soups (broth-based with veggies, beans), and a little bit of greens go well with soups. My favorite recipe for swiss chard is dolmas. Instead of using a grape leaf, use the swiss chard leaves. We have the recipe in our cookbook, but basically you make your rice filling, blanch the swiss chard leaves to make them roll better, and roll the filling in. Cut up the stems (before you roll) and make a layer on the bottom of the pan and then cook the dolmas for 20-30 mins with a cover on top.

Wash the greens and let them soak in salt water while you fry several strips of bacon and chop an onion and mince some garlic.
Drain the bacon and saute the greens, onions, and garlic in the bacon grease. When they are wilted, add enough water to cover, bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. When you turn them down to simmer, crumble the bacon and add to the pot, and season to taste with cayenne or Tabasco.

Saute chard, kale or mustard greens with chopped garlic in olive oil. Add chicken or vegetable broth (a little). Cover and let steam 5-10 minutes (depending upon the greens, I don't like them overdone). Mix in a can of navy bean, cook until warmed through. Grate lots of parmesan over the top and serve. YUM.

I love this recipe from the Food Network from the show Down Home with the Neelys... http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/neelys/greens-and-bean...

It's surprisingly low on fat, but great tasting. It's fast and easy. (Not the traditional southern way of cooking greens.)

Growing up my aunt made the best swiss chard. I dont know her exact recipe for it but it wasnt complicated. You break apart the leaves and wash well. Then saute in a pan with a little butter and brown sugar to your liking.