And one more recipe for greens, this one for a variation on lasagna. It’s from a recipe writer named Amy Wisniewski. If you haven’t used your greens in lasagna, give this a try. With the heavy cream and crème fraîche it’s pretty rich. You could substitute a white sauce made with skim milk instead.
I am sorry to say that I have no idea where I got this recipe. The combination of white beans with greens is a classic though, and the addition of Parmesan adds a jolt of umami that makes the combination so satisfying. You could use every green in the box in this stew – mustard, kohlrabi, collard and turnip. And substitute that jar of canned tomato sauce if you don’t have fresh tomatoes left from previous weeks.
This next recipe amuses me. It’s from Lynne Sawicki of Sawicki’s Meat Seafood & More in Decatur and it calls for 1 part bacon to 3 parts raw collard greens. Now we all know that both bacon and collards cook down – but the proportion seems to favor the bacon, and I guess that’s appropriate for the owner of a meat shop.
Last January, Bon Appetit featured a recipe for Potato and Kale Cakes. I’ve adapted this to use collard greens (and/or the tops of your kohlrabi and your turnip greens). It makes a beautiful entrée and all the parts can be made ahead of time, leaving just the cakes to be sautéed when you’re ready for dinner. Try sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. Ought to be just as good.
An adaptation of a recipe from the Los Angeles Times, this dinner goes together quickly.
One of the ways many of us preserve a bounty of basil is by making pesto. How about adapting that idea for the collard greens in this week’s box so you can enjoy them for another few weeks? Stir it into pasta, add some to a batch of field peas, serve it as bruschetta at your next party.
It seems this is an idea that’s been around for a while. Here’s one version I found adapted from a recipe originally in Gourmet magazine in 2004. Now you can adapt it to suit your taste.
One more idea from Jason Paolini. You see raw kale salad recipes by the dozens. Why not something similar with collards? You could make this with ham, speck or prosciutto, or just serve the salad without any pork at all.
And here’s one more recipe for greens – a frittata. Bake it in a pie plate and cut into wedges for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. Bake it in a square pan and cut into bite size pieces for a pre-dinner nibble. It’s good at room temperature, hot or cold, and accommodates whatever greens you want to put into it. The recipe will also accommodate whatever cheese you have on hand. It’s hard to go wrong here. I’ve included a method for steaming greens in the microwave. I prefer to do that instead of heating up the kitchen with lots of boiling water. But you should use whatever method you prefer.
This recipe should appeal to those who love their collards cooked until very, very tender.