How to Clean Braising Greens

Using braising greens can be a bit daunting for a novice. But, once you get used to them, they are an invaluable way to add more vegetables to cooked dishes and they make a delicious side dish when braised. They can also be marinated in a vinaigrette for a couple hours until they break down a bit and are easier to chew and digest.

Braising greens is kind of an umbrella term that encompasses (but is not limited to) the following: kale, tuscan kale, beet tops, rainbow chard, turnip greens, and collard greens. This general term indicates the darkly pigmented leaves that are generally quite sturdy and hold up to cooking. Some are tougher than others. You can roughly gauge how long it will take to cook greens relative to each other simply by feeling how tough the leaves are between your fingers.

One thing to note with braising greens is that, by definition, they have a very strong taste. Each of the greens are chock-full of vitamins which can make them tend towards a bitter flavor. This is why it is a good idea to mix your greens. Since each plant has a distinct flavor, by mixing them, the flavors cancel each other out to a small degree. Beet greens and tuscan kale are more neutral flavored than many braising greens, so they are a good place to start.

To prepare greens, rinse all dirt from them, especially the bottom of the stems where dirt tends to cling. You want to separate the leafy green parts from the fibrous stems. Begin by holding the stem in your hand and pulling the leaves off trying to leave as much of the stem intact as possible. Then, tear the leaves into manageable sized pieces (approx 3 in by 3 inches or less). Remember that the greens will cook down a lot. A full 9 inch saute pan will cook down to about 1/2 cup of cooked greens.

Now, keep your braised greens in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator until you can use them. Leaving them in the open air in the refrigerator will cause them to wilt.

Carrot Top Vinaigrette

Using the produce from previous post, I was loathe to treat such delicious looking carrot tops in my usual manner (which is just to chuck them in the trash). So, a few quick google searches later, I find out that not only are they not poisonous, they are in fact a good source of vitamin K which is generally deficient in the carrots themselves.

Carrot tops, in case you are as ignorant to their flavor as I was, taste very green and are pretty bitter. They are similar to curly parsley in respect to flavor, texture and usefulness. Used in a vinaigrette, they are quite good and this made a delicious salad dressing as well as a fantastic sauce on salmon. The measurements are approximate as I had to adjust the flavoring and didn't write down my measurements.

I wouldn't suggest trying this recipe with limp or old carrot tops as they are not as likely to have the same great flavor.

1 cup loosely packed carrot top greens (very fresh)

1/4 cup green onions, chopped (white and green parts)

1 Tbsp cut chives

1 tsp mustard

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2/3 cup rice wine vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp sugar or natural sweetener

salt and black pepper to taste

Put all but the sugar/sweetener and salt and pepper in a blender or food processor and blend until uniform. Adjust the flavoring with the remaining ingredients.

I chose to use the rice wine vinegar because it would not compete with the green flavors of the vinaigrette. Red wine vinegar could be easily substituted. I also used olive oil to complement the green flavors. If you don't like olive oil, grapeseed oil or rice oil could be easily substituted.

Roast them beets!

Two days ago, my mom stopped to pay a house call on a friend in a somewhat doctorly capacity. In return, her friend let me have at her garden with scissors and only my conscience to check my zeal. It makes me wonder why they ever stopped paying house calls that paid in trade. Alaskan grown produce pulled straight from the dirt on the sunny side of the valley is about as fresh as you can get.

For the last two days, I have been cooking from what we got and here are a few recipes. It turns out, the fresher your produce is, the less you want to manipulate it. So, these are generally simple, healthy recipes.

I will post them separately for ease of later reference.

My meal last night consisted of roasted beets, carrot top vinaigrette, braised greens, garden salad, grilled salmon patties (frozen from costco, but delicious), and israeli couscous cooked with a small amount of salt.

Here's my failsafe method for roasting beets. It's a well established method and I don't dare take credit for it lest someone's great-great-grandmother haunts me for my impudence.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. If you are cooking other things in the oven, you can turn the heat down, just be aware that they will take much longer to roast at lower temperatures. Even at 425, beets will take a minimum of 45 minutes to roast.

So, scrub the beets clean of dirt, cut the greens off the top one inch up the stalks (save the greens for braised greens) and cut the root off leaving about a half inch of the root. The reasons for leaving the extra inch of stem and root are to keep the beet as sealed in its skin as possible. If you cut the tops off or cut the beets in half, they will lose a lot of their moisture and the delicious beet juice that keeps them sweet.

So, take your beets and put them in the smallest covered dish you have that they still fit in while in one layer. If you need to roast a large amount, you can put the beets in a roasting pan and cover with foil. Add 1/4 inch of water in the bottom and put in the oven on the middle rack. The cooking time depends on the oven temperature and the size of the beets. Unless the beets are the size of ping pong balls, they will cook for at least 45 minutes.

Check for doneness by poking with a fork. The fork will easily pierce through the flesh of the beet through the middle. If they are still resistant, put them back in the over for a minimum of 8 minute intervals. Remember, each time you poke them with a fork or open the roasting dish, you are losing moisture in your final beets.

When they are finished, let them cool until you can handle them. Peel by pushing on the skin fairly lightly. The skin will be loose and you can peel it just using your fingers. If you have a dark red variety of beet, the juice will stain your fingers quickly. If you have a problem with that, you might want to obtain some plastic cooking gloves or buy the golden or chioggia varieties of beets that have very little pigment comparatively. Cut them in the shape desired and serve.

Beets cooked in this manner can be stored and reheated by roasting in an oven until they start to brown or cooked quickly in a saute pan. They can be used cold on salads or as their own salad with a little vinaigrette.

If you attached to the beautiful colors of the rainbow or golden beets (some of them are even candy cane colored) I suggest storing them away from the deep red beets. Almost immediately on contact, the red pigment will dye the other beets.

Adding Flavors:

Straight out of the oven, fresh beets barely need any flavoring added. Generally, I just add a tsp of olive oil, 1/4 tsp red wine, and a dash of salt and pepper to approx. 3 cups cut beets.

Alternatively, you can drizzle a vinaigrette that matches the rest of the meal you are serving.

If you wish to add flavors while roasting, feel free to add garlic and strong herbs such as rosemary or thyme. You can also add whole spices to add to the flavors. Many people like to add sweet spices such as cinnamon sticks and allspice, but I find that they bring out bitter notes in the beets that I don't particularly like.

Drunken Corn and Lentil Soup

At first, I wasn't so excited about this soup. But, like many healthy recipes, each bowlful tastes better and better. Prepare for this phenoma when determining serving size....

Last night I fell asleep thinking about how to make a corn puree soup with the meager ingredients in my kitchen. It turned out pretty well considering what I had stashed in my cupboards and freezer. I wanted to post this so you could see the thought process that goes into making a puree soup with ingredients that don't quite break down when blended.

Both corn and lentils have insoluble fiber that don't break down with cooking or digestion. You can either have a chunky-style puree which you have to chew your way through, or, you can strain the entire thing through a fine sieve which gives you a very thin, broth-like soup. The problem with the broth is you lose all that insoluble fiber that gives bulk to the soup and keeps your digestive track running smoothly. I chose to strain 2/3 of the soup through the sieve and add the rest of the puree without straining. This gave it a nice pureed soup consistency.

I was going to make a strictly vegetable puree soup, but I have been trying to get multiple food groups into my dishes, so I opted for lentils which are a grain. I also used beer for flavor which can be substituted for vegetable stock. The alcohol cooks out of this within the first couple minutes of boiling, so, there is no worry about serving this to minors.

Puree:
1 Tb Olive Oil
1/2 Onion Diced
2 carrots peeled and diced
3 large cloves garlic
1 12oz light-colored beer
1 dried guajillo chile, top cut off and seeds taken out (you can find dried chiles in the mexican section of grocery stores)
2 bay leaves
1/2 32oz bag frozen corn (make sure you have more to add after pureeing)
32oz water
2 cups lentils, mostly cooked

Garnish:
2 cups frozen/fresh corn
1 cup Lentils, mostly cooked
1 fresh serrano chile, seeded and minced
1 Tb curry powder
1/2 tsp hungarian paprika
2 tsp sugar
2tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt

Cook the lentils in a few cups of water until they are almost cooked through. Stain and set aside. You will want 3 cups of lentils cooked. This takes maybe 15-20 minutes.

Heat a stock pot (at least a gallon size). Add the olive oil, onions, carrot and garlic. Sautee until the onions start to get transluscent. Add the beer and boil until you don't smell the alcohol anymore. Add the bay leaves, chile (leave it whole so you can pull it out before pureeing), frozen corn and lentils. Heat until boiling. Add the water. Bring up to a simmer. Let this cook (without a lid, you want some of the water to boil off) until all of the ingredients are tender, bordering on mushy. This takes approx. 45 min to 1 hr.

Remove the chili. If you want to, scrape the inside of the chili and add this back to the soup. In batches, puree the soup with a blender, immersion blender or food processor. This is a good time to send the first half of the soup through the sieve into another container. When the stock pot is empty, rinse it out and put the puree back into the pot. Add the garnish ingredients and bring back up to a simmer and cook the lentils the rest of the way though. The last things you want to add are the sugar, salt and vinegar. Add these things slowly to the soup to make sure you don't add too much.

Servings: 6 - 8oz bowls.

Notes: This soup is not spicy at all. If you want to kick up the spice, add more guajillo chilis or add some of the serrano seeds. Feel free to substitute any grains for the lentils and any fresh/frozen vegetables for the corn. Also, if you have fresh herbs, chop them up and add them to your bowl. I really wanted cilantro and more serranos in my soup.

Peanut Butter and Banana Oatmeal

I know. I know. You are dying to know if I came up with a new oatmeal for today. The answer is: Yes! Of course! I am willing to bet I could come up with a new oatmeal every day for the rest of the summer. In fact, I just might do it for fun. It's not important that I can make a different oatmeal every day. What is important is that I can show you how to make something healthy and cost effective into dozens of different dishes that will keep you coming back to the same healthy ingredients. For example, I used basically the same ingredients for 3 days adding one or two and subtracting them as needed. What I came up with was three distinct recipes and it kept my interest in oatmeal from waning. Plus, these are the healthiest breakfasts I have had in a long time.

Here's today's variation:
2 tsp Peanut Butter
1/2 banana, chopped
1 cup water
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 tsp flax seeds
1/4 tsp molasses
Dash of salt
1/2 banana sliced on top

Add peanut butter, and 1/2 banana to water and bring to a boil. Add the oatmeal and cook to desired consistency. Stir until the banana and peanut butter are full mixed into the oatmeal. Add just enough molasses to lightly color it and season with a very small amount of salt. Add slice bananas on top.

The verdict: Delicious. Very creamy. It would be better with some crushed peanuts on the top.

Side note: The addition of flax seeds to the oatmeal is highly recommended. They add a little texture and are visually stimulating.

Oatmeal with Bananas and Nutmeg

The post where I put all my theories to test from yesterday and continued the oatmeal experiment...

The recipe was the same as yesterday except, rather than eat the banana while cooking the oatmeal, I added the banana to the oatmeal. I added some nutmeg which goes great with bananas (think of banana bread) and changed the maple syrup to honey. I can tell you that I definitely tasted the lack of salt in this recipe more than I did yesterday. I think part of that might have been that I didn't add the trail mix to the oatmeal while cooking. Also, I found out yesterday while researching the nutrition content of the trail mix that the almonds in it are tamari roasted. Not the best flavor profile for oatmeal, but such are the hazards of bulk shopping in a hurry.

Today I started by chopping half the banana and adding it to the water as I was bringing it up to a boil. I was hoping it would break down and make the oatmeal creamy without having to add dairy or dairy substitutes. It did just as I had planned. This should work as long as you have a banana ripe enough to be fragrant or bananas that are too ripe to eat normally. While cooking, there's a fantastic banana aroma every time you lift the lid to check your oatmeal. I saved the other half of the banana to add at the end to get that fresh banana flavor.

I also added nutmeg to the boiling water and sprinkled some on top at the end. You can substitute any sweet spice for the nutmeg (i.e. cinnamon, allspice, clove) or if you want to get creative, try fennel seed, coriander or cardamom seed.

I cooked the oatmeal with the lid on which sped up cooking and kept in much more liquid. I liked the texture of the oatmeal better. The oatmeal was creamy and the indiviudal oats stayed intact. I would recommend this method if you have a sauce pan with a lid.

As for the nuts, I sprinkled them on top at the end. I could have easily used half the amount of nuts from yesterday as the 1/8th of a cup looked like a lot (even after I ate the tamari almonds before putting them on my oatmeal). If you are counting calories, this might be a good visual trick to lower your intake of high fat nuts.

How good did it taste? Well, I wasn't a fan of this nut mix in this oatmeal. It was too strong. I would have preferred pecans or brazil nuts. But, while I was writing this post, I kept looking over to the bowl just to make sure more oatmeal hadn't magically appeared. I'm pretty sure that's a good sign.

Oatmeal On the Cheap!

So this post will be a little different. I am about to go back to school and become very poor. I am also going back to school for nutrition, so, I am going to try and make meals this summer that are nutritious, cheap and also (hopefully) delicious.

This morning I went out and bought bulk oats (Bob Red Mill, thick cut), bulk flax seed (for omega 3's and fiber) and bulk trail mix to add to my oatmeal. I like thick rolled oats since they are a little more chewy and they are less (for lack of a better word) gooey. I also ended up sneaking in about a half tsp of maple syrup that I have had forever and no longer remember the price for. As it is about 1/80th of the bottle, I am think it's about 10 cents.

On a side note, I looked up the instructions on how to cook the oatmeal on the Bob's Red Mill website. They suggested cooking you oatmeal with 1/4 tsp of salt for each 1/2 cup serving. I thought it sounded reasonable until I looked on the salt container and realized that was 24% of the daily recommendation. I guess I am in for an eye-opening experience if I want to keep on the healthy side of my sodium intake. In the restaurant I work in, we use salt in everything and we use a lot of it.

Here's how I made my oatmeal this morning (serves one adult).

1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup water
1/8 cup trail mix (mixed nuts and raisins)
1 tsp brown, whole flax seeds
Tiny dash of salt
1/2 tsp maple syrup

First I brought the water and salt to a boil. Then I added everything and let it cook for about 10-15 minutes until the oats were cooked through. Depending on how you like it, they recommend cooking between 10-20 minutes. I didn't put the lid on during cooking, but I think I will next time. I ended up adding extra water since the oats absorbed everything and I wanted it to have oatmeal texture. I also stirred it quite a bit at the end to break up the oats and make it a little more glutinous.

This was delicious and very healthy tasting. So, if you aren't used to eating healthy things you might find it to be not sweet enough or salty enough. Feel free to add more sugar and salt when you first make it, then try to wean yourself down as far as possible. By the end of it, you won't miss the sugar that much.

And now for the money reveal:
Oatmeal: $.19
Flax seed: $.01
Trail Mix: $.54
Maple Syrup: $.10
Total: $.84

Oh, and I had a banana that was on sale for $.20

All this for a meal that was whole grain and under 400 calories. It also had about 1 1/2 servings of fruit, 2 servings of grains and plenty of fiber, protein and almost all the sugars came from a banana.