Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot...

It's amazing the traditions surrounding food on New Years.  It seems that cultures across the globe unpack all of their superstitions and place them right on the table.  Here are some interesting ones I've read about lately.

In China (lunar new year, but lumping it in for simplicity's sake), the word for "orange" and "gold" are phonetically similar, so tangerines and oranges are both eaten and prominently displayed.  Long noodles signify long life, and (I love this one) lots of desserts bring a sweet year.

Persians eat pomegranates to signify fertility and abundance.  They're a "superfood," so pick one up on Friday at the store.  There's a great trick to separating the kernels from the pulp:  Break the kernels apart with your hands submerged in a bowl of water.  The kernels sink, the pulp floats.

In many places, from Russia to Ireland, it's simply about quantity.  Want to signify abundance?  Big platters, big portions.  Love it.

Photo via MyRecipes

How about here in the South?  Like in Germany, eat leafy greens, which are the same color as money.  In Germany, it's cabbage, specifically sauerkraut.  In the US, the tradition is collards (which will be in this week's box).  Add some Hoppin' John and cornbread -- symbolizing gold -- and that's the traditional meal.  Just don't make chicken, since that symbolizes your fortune flying away.

Happy New Year to you all, and don't forget to make a sweet cake to bring a sweet 2015.

Photo via I'm At Home Baking

Member Submissions

I'm always happy to have members send in their favorite recipes.  If you have any that you like, particularly ones involving the current week's crop share, please send them to me at burt@nallsproduce.com.  I'm also happy to get ideas for posts you'd like to see, and any other feedback you might have to make this blog more helpful.

If you're looking for something to do with your beet greens from this week, here's a suggestion from one member.  It's actually quite a hearty soup, and the weather lately definitely calls for soup.

Photo via Whole Foods Market

A member sent us this link on how to roast whole butternut squash.  I've found that if you've got a heavy-duty vegetable peeler, you can use it to peel the squash prior to baking and then follow that recipe.

The final recipe is cheesy, creamy grits with butternut squash.  This one comes courtesy of Paula Deen, so you can be really sure of the cheesy and creamy part.

Photo via Hoffman Media

Easy Cheesy Butternut Squash 'n' Grits
Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash (about 3 pounds)
• 3 cups half-and-half
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup quick-cooking grits
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 ½ cups shredded sharp white Cheddar cheese
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
• ¼ teaspoon seasoned pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Using the tip of a sharp knife, pierce squash several times on all sides. Place squash directly on middle oven rack, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or just until tender. Remove from oven, and let stand until cool enough to handle.
3. Cut squash in half lengthwise; remove and discard seeds and stringy fiber. Peel squash, and cut flesh into about 1-inch cubes.
4. In a large saucepan, bring half-and-half and 1 cup water to a boil over medium heat. Slowly stir in grits, salt, and garlic powder. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low; cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until grits are thickened. Stir in cheese and butter until melted.
5. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add squash cubes, sage, and seasoned pepper; cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until squash is lightly browned and tender. Serve over hot grits. Garnish with sage sprig, if desired.

There are plenty of mums here at Nalls, and they're beautiful!

The Battle of the Leafy Greens

The Battle of Leafy Greens

Spring and fall crop share boxes are a steady stream of leafy green stuff.  It comes in a variety of sizes, and often times with yummy things attached to the bottom of it.  Beets, for example.  Or the kohlrabi you made a couple of days ago.  This week, we saw Swiss or rainbow chard in our boxes.  Lettuce is another staple seen often this time of year.  Southern traditional cooking has myriad tasty ways to prepare leafy green stuff.  Many involve bacon, which in my book isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Okay, having it every day, or even alternating days between bacon and salt pork, probably isn’t what the local cardiologist wants to hear about. But geez, bacon makes lots of things tasty.

My wife is vegetable-phobic.  Don’t get me wrong, she loves broccoli.  Adores it.  Pretty much anything other than broccoli, however, I’d need a pile driver to get down her throat.  (Alright, alright, since she’s probably reading this, I’ll be nice from here on out.  Or do my best to anyway.)  She’ll enjoy a salad with most types of lettuce, and eat her broccoli, but anything else I have to get really creative to get her to eat it.  When I first started getting a crop share, one of the first boxes had beets, greens attached, and collards.  I started simple, and there on the table they sat.  Determined, I would make greens she’d eat.  Grrrr…  So I put on my war paint and my toque.

Yes, I actually have a toque.  My godson gave it to me for Christmas one year.  No, I don’t ever wear it.  Ever.  But the white jacket is awesome and since I’m messy, it covers more than an apron.

I dug around looking for dishes using greens and having strong flavors.  Is there anything out there that uses half the spice drawer?  I stumbled across this.  I loved it.  My wife?  Not so much.  She has an aversion to anything with a strong vinegary taste.  So I dissected the recipe a bit.

It involves wilting the greens (chard, beet, almost anything will work), using a particular spice palette, and finishing with a dressing.  In the case of the above recipe, the spices are North African in origin:  cumin, paprika, harissa.  Let’s see how we can modify that.  She likes Greek cuisine.  A Greek palette would have some combination of oregano and dill, garlic, and lemon juice.  Modifying our basic recipe, a dash of dried oregano and dill, a little garlic sautéed in the oil before wilting the greens (briefly, garlic cooks quickly and remember light brown = good, black = bad).  Sprinkle some cardamom in too, and maybe nutmeg.  We’ll skip the hot sauce.  For the dressing, a Greek dish would commonly use lemon juice.  Sprinkle a touch of crumbled feta cheese on top and…

Holy cow, she ate it!

And that was fun!  Sprinkling something extra on top can definitely kick it up a notch.  The feta would give a wonderfully salty flavor to greens.  If you like the North African spices, try some raisins and toasted pine nuts.  (That’s essentially this recipe, which she also ate.)

Hmm… shall we try another?  Something a little farther afield?  French, perhaps?  Awesome!  First off, what are the three main secrets to French cooking?  Butter, butter, and… butter.  Seriously.  Instead of olive oil, we’ll wilt the greens in a bit of butter.  Herbs de Provençe usually contains marjoram, oregano, thyme, and rosemary.  We’ll use that.  Season with salt and pepper too.  Instead of strong white vinegar, try a bit of Balsamic.  Very nice!

What I’m trying to condense here is several years of my life spent screwing things up in the kitchen, and countless hours reading cookbooks of all sorts.  This is the approach I use to “branch out” recipes.  First, figure out what palette the seasonings come from.  Switch to a different palette, and use the same techniques in the recipe.  Give this a try with any recipe you’ve prepared often enough to be very familiar.  Pick a different region’s flavors, and you’ve just invented something new and fresh.  Trust me, there will be plenty of, “Uh, yeah, that particular combination doesn’t work and let’s not do that again.”  By and large, experience will be your teacher but only if you give her a chance.

If you modify one of your recipes, post a link to the original in the comments and tell me what you changed.  I can’t wait to see how creative you can be.  Happy cooking!

Curried Chickpeas, Potatoes & Collards

As local comedian Remy once rapped, "Hit me, hit me, with a little chickpea!"  While he was talking about hummus, I can pretty much agree, all chickpeas should come my way in any shape or form.  They do look like cute little elf butts, which actually is disturbing if I ponder it too long.  Anywho!  I found myself in yet another raid on my pantry to try and concoct something from the random ingredients I had on hand.  I refused to make a grocery run just so I could make lunch for myself, and there was that lonely can of chickpeas in the pantry that had been let down so many times lately when I didn't reach for it.  Not today, today chickpeas you will be chosen!  I grabbed some Dizzy Pig Curry-ish seasoning (snag some in the store at Nalls!), a small can of tomato paste, and wishes and hopes for a yummy dish.  Then it dawned on me...use...the...collards!  Collards are hands down my favorite greens.  That's right kale, you've been replaced!  Soon I had a simmering curry on my stove, chock full of chickpeas, collards and potatoes, and oh it did not disappoint.  Can of chickpeas, your sacrifice was acceptable!

Curried Chickpeas, Potatoes & Collards

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 baking potato, cubed
1 bundle collards, removed from stem and torn
15 oz can chickpeas
3 Tbsp Dizzy Pig's Curry-ish seasoning or other curry blend
6 oz can tomato paste
3 cups water

In a large saute pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add in potatoes and cook for about 4 minutes until you start to get just a little golden brown on some of the potatoes.  Toss in collards in batches and allow to wilt down, and be careful as they love to snap, crackle and pop in the oil, so you may want to grab a lid for the skillet just for safety (SHIELD WALL!!!).

Once collards are fully wilted, stir in chickpeas and cook for about 2 minutes.  Then add in your curry powder and tomato paste, stirring to fully coat everything and allow it to brown just slightly on the bottom of the pan.

Stir in water, making sure to scrape any browned bits off of the bottom of the pan.  Bring to a slight boil, cover,  lower heat and allow to continue simmering for at least 30 minutes.  Add more water if sauce seems to thick or allow to simmer longer if sauce seems to watery.  Remove from heat and serve as is or serve over top of quinoa, with naan, or over rice.

My Crop Share Challenge: Stewed Collards with Apples

So a little late on last week's Crop Share Challenge, but ah well.  The two random items from last week's share I chose to pair together were collard greens and fuji apples.  In theory, this should work, but will the bitterness of the greens over power the apples?  Will it turn out too sweet for a side dish?  Will my insistence on adding garlic to every blessed dish be a very bad idea here?  Let's find out!

Stewed Collards with Apples

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small bundle collards, removed from stem and shredded into more manageable bits
2 Fuji apples, peeled, cored and diced into 1/2" cubes
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
Pinch of Kosher salt
2 cups water

In a medium sized skillet heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add in garlic and apples and saute until the apples just barely start to golden, about 2-3 minutes.  Add in collards and wilt completely down.  Season with red pepper flakes and salt, and cook for an additional minute.  Add in water and allow to come up to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 30 minutes.

After about 25 minutes, all of the liquid should be gone.  I thought about pulling it from the heat, but apparently the food sadist in me felt that 5 more minutes was what this dish needed.  So I let it brown up for the additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to brown everything evenly and prevent burning.  Once you hit minute 30, pull from heat and serve.

Results...

Oh goodness me the results have rendered my newest collards obsession.  Yes, even better than the Collard Greens Pesto from the other night.  I ate the entire thing myself, which if I'm going to spoil my dinner, might as well be with something like this.  But it would make a fantastic side to a roast pork tenderloin, or oooo roasted duck breast.  Or snag some chicken sausage and sear those up to serve with this for that whole apples & sausage thing.  Am I the only one that thinks any form of sausage should be served with apples or some sort of fruity sweet thing?  This is what happens when your parents let you dip your sausage links into grape jelly as a kid.  Mama & Da, you rock!  So yes, for those of you that are like ewww I hate collards, they're so bitter.  Chuck some apples at those greens and trust me you will fall in love.

Move over kale...collard greens are the new green kid in town!

Stay tuned for this week's Crop Share Challenge because I've decided to pair the beets with the blood oranges!  Both look like a homicide on your cutting board, so why not?!

Presto Pesto: Collard Greens In My Pesto!

Are you tired of me making pesto out of every green thing yet?  Hope not, because this past week, as I was wading through the sea of collards we got in the Crop Share, (Early Spring registration just opened so swing by Nalls on a weekend to snag a new registration form!) I decided to give a go at that Collard Greens Pesto recipe from Southern Living that I'd previously posted.  But I didn't want to have to run back to the store to get pecans and I really didn't even want to blanch those collards because I don't cook the basil before it goes in my pesto, and then it's just another pot to clean.  So I just did my usual base recipe for pesto but threw in a whole bundle of collards in place of the basil, and crossed my fingers for luck.  Oh...my...gosh!  Soooo good!  It may actually be my favorite pesto and the Mister even thought it was incredible.  So if you're still trying to use up all the collards from last week, MAKE THIS PESTO!  I also did not have pasta, so I mixed ours in with a 1 lb of mushrooms that were sauteed in white wine, butter & olive oil, some shredded thigh and leg meat from a rotisserie chicken, and 2 cups of cooked white rice, added another splash or two of white wine and a pad of butter and just let it all simmer down till nearly all the liquid was absorbed.  You can see the final product below, but I'm not including a recipe for the full dish as it was one of those throw in a bit of this bit of that and nothing got timed or measured.

Collard Greens Pesto

Ingredients:
1 cup roasted, unsalted almonds
2-3 cups collard greens, removed from stem and ripped into smaller pieces
1/2 cup basil leaves, removed from stems
1 cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp lemon juice
Kosher salt to taste


In a blender or food processor add all ingredients and blend until fully combined and smooth.  If serving over pasta, you'll want to have a little extra olive oil on hand to toss with the pasta.  Or serve this as I did mixed with sauteed mushrooms, shredded chicken and rice in a white wine sauce.  Would also be great over seafood, chicken, or as a sandwich or appetizer spread.

A Fusion Twist On Shrimp & Grits: Cilantro Lime Shrimp with Collards over Cheesy Arepas

I'm still musing over what to do for My Crop Share Challenge this week, and since the brussels sprouts did not want to come out into the blizzard, I'm going to have to re-think my two items.  I got A LOT of collards, so I'm thinking those will certainly be 1 of the 2 items and...wait a tick, hold the phone, some stewed collards with apples.  Yes, yes that's what it's going to be.  I've got a ton of Fuji apples and a ton of collards, why not see if they can play nice together!

But, before we get to those, let me show you what was served up for dinner last night.  I'd seen this recipe for Cilantro Lime Shrimp from Never Enough Thyme and figured I'd wait till we got some of the items needed in an upcoming Crop Share.  But there was that beast amount of collards to contend with, so I figured aww heck just make it and toss in a bundle of collards.  Hmm, shrimp and collards, feels very Low Country.  Hmm, shrimp & grits with collards.  Grits are a cornmeal porridge.  So is polenta, but no, doesn't feel right.  Ugali (see recipe at bottom of this page)?  No.  Oooo, cheesy arepas, it's like cheesy grits pancakes!  And thus Low Country met South-of-the-Border in my kitchen and the results were deeeeeee-licious!

Cilantro Lime Shrimp with Collards over Cheesy Arepas

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp butter

1 sweet onion, minced

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

1 tsp garlic, minced

1 small bundle collard greens, removed from stem and rough chopped

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (omit if jalapeno is enough heat for you, or just do 1/8 tsp)

1/2 tsp oregano

1 tomato, diced

2 limes, zest and juice

1/4 tsp Kosher salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 lb frozen pre-cooked shrimp, thawed in water and detailed

1/2 cup fresh cilantro,  chopped

For arepas -- see recipe for them in Vietnamese Style Tacos and just add a handful or two of your favorite shredded cheese (for dairy free I used Daiya cheddar shreds)

Make arepas first so they have time to set up and cool a bit while you're whipping up the shrimp portion.

Then in a large skillet, heat oil and butter over medium high heat.  Add in onion, jalapeno and garlic and cook for about 3-4 minutes or until onion is translucent.  Add in collards and cook until wilted.  Season with red pepper flakes and oregano and cook for an additional minute.  Add in tomato, lime zest, lime juice, salt and pepper and cook until tomatoes are nice and soft and soupy.  Toss in thawed shrimp and cook for only a few minutes until they are heated thru and have curled up.  Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

Place 1 arepa on each plate and top with a scoop or two of the shrimp & veggies.

Collard Greens Pesto via Southern Living

In case you hadn't heard, I'm currently obsessed with pesto (exhibit A, B & C).  So when I ran across this recipe on Pinterest, I knew it had to happen...Collard Greens Pesto!  The Mister and I will be spending the weekend at funeral events, so the Crop Share cooking, especially my new weekly challenge, will have to wait till next week.  But you can bet I'll be whipping up my own version of this Southern Living recipe for Collard Greens Pesto.  And right now for my Crop Share challenge, I'm thinking I'm going to pair the brussels sprouts with the minneola oranges, and possibly throw some celery in there just as an extra curve ball (I'm feeling sportsy after a morning of snowball baseball in our parking lot this morning).  Want to join me in your own Crop Share challenge?  Then either pair together the same seemingly random items I do each week and come up with your own creation, or come up with your own pairing.  Then e-mail your results and photos to me at tara@nallsproduce.com.  For more info on my personal challenge see this past week's post and recipe: My Crop Share Challenge: Swiss Chard Wrapped Salmon With Grapefruit

But for now...MOAR PESTO!

Collard Greens Pesto via Southern Living

Cabbage & Collard Greens Slaw via Crop Share Member Bethany Duffy

You know how we're always saying, "Hey, tag your Crop Share cooking Instagrams with #onlyatnalls so we can see what's cookin' in your kitchen"?  Well one member, Bethany Duffy, has not only heard the call, she is a cooking and tagging wild woman!  I'm not entirely convinced she ever sleeps, or does anything but cook and take the most drool-worthy photos of her food.  So when I saw she posted this Cabbage & Collard Greens Slaw the other day, I knew I had to get my hands on the recipe so we could all share the love.  Behold, the magic that emerges from the Duffy kitchen...

Cabbage and Collard Greens Slaw

serves 4

For the slaw:

!/2 head cabbage (about 8 ounces)

1/2 bunch collard greens, rinsed well (about 8 ounces)

2 carrots

1 small red bell pepper

For the dressing:

1/4 cup mayonnaise, or 2 tablespoons mayonnaise plus 2 tablespoons greek yogurt or sour cream

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

zest and juice of one lemon

pinch of sugar

Whisk all of the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

Remove the core from the cabbage and the ribs from the collard greens.  Thinly slice both into ribbons and place in a large bowl.  (You can also shred the cabbage in a food processor, but I find that often makes it too watery.)

Shred or julienne the carrot and slice the pepper thinly and add to the greens. Pour the dressing over the slaw and mix well, until evenly coated.

Refrigerate 4-6 hours before serving, to soften the greens and blend the flavors.

Oh and Bethany is also a fellow Crop Share cocktail queen!  Check out what she did with the Shenandoah Smoke tea from Runningbyrd Tea Company (now available in store) after she got home on Friday!  Bourbon, lemon and some smokey sweet tea?  Bartender, hit me again!

Cheers!

Cooking With Collards: Stewed Collards with Sausage & Quinoa

If you're at a loss with what to do with the collard greens coming your way this week, take heart because if you love kale, you'll love collards.  They're really interchangeable and I've used them to make delicious Collard Chips and Sweet Potato & Collard Soup.  But my all time favorite preparation is Sukuma Wiki, a Kenyan recipe for stewed collards.  You get all the goodness of traditional stewed collards, minus the pork fat of most US recipes.  Penny will thank you and so will your waistline.  So a few weeks ago I took home some collards in order to make another batch of Sukuma Wiki, but I also had some quinoa in my pantry that was looking so lonely and unloved.  Thus a go-to side dish of ours transformed itself into an entree with the addition of quinoa and turkey sausage.  The results were delicious, and while not traditionally Kenyan, it definitely had my tastebuds shouting, "Jambo!" (hello in Swahili).

Stewed Collards with Sausage & Quinoa

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa, cooked to package directions
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1.25 lbs hot Italian turkey sausage, casings removed and crumbled
2 cups diced tomatoes
1 bundle of collards, removed from stems and rough chopped
6 cups reduced sodium chicken stock
Salt to taste


Prepare quinoa according to package directions.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Add in onion and garlic and sweat until translucent for about 2-3 minutes.  Add in crumbled sausage and cook until it begins to brown.  Stir in tomatoes and cook for an additional 4 minutes.  Now begin to add your collards, and you'll have to add them in stages to allow them to cook down and make more room for the rest.  Once all collards are in the pan and have started to wilt, begin adding chicken stock.  Bring to a simmer and reduce heat.

Now at this point you could simmer everything for about 10 minutes, season to taste with salt and serve this as a soup (though if you've made the quinoa, now you have lonely quinoa or you could stir some in to function like a pasta or rice), which I'm sure would be delicious.  But to really get all the loveliness and to stew the collards into submission you want to simmer this for a good 50 minutes.

After 50 minutes, stir in your quinoa and allow to cook on low for an additional 10 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed.  Remove from heat and serve.

Italian Greens & Beans

Spending a week back in Youngstown and being in the off-season at Nalls means I've gotten to spend a lot of time back in the kitchen, and what is cooking in my kitchen has been LOTS of Italian food.  As I've said before, neither of us have a lick of Italian in us, but growing up where we did, you essentially become Mediterranean by association.  So one of my hometown favorites I got to eat over the holidays was Italian Greens & Beans.  And while I was eating it, an epiphany, a delicious epiphany...there's no reason I can't make this on my own, AND this would make a perfect Crop Share recipe for all the greens we get.  BINGO!  So over this dreary weekend, I whipped up a batch of this loveliness, and this will definitely be going into heavy rotation any time we get greens in the Crop Share.  Traditionally this is made with escarole, but any greens will do.  So if you're burnt out on Kale Chips or flummoxed by collards, this is an easy, quick, versatile, and nutrient packed dish that's sure to please!

Italian Greens & Beans

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 sweet onion, diced
7 cups greens (I used a mix of spinach, baby chard and baby bok choy, but you can also use escarole, kale, collards, or Swiss chard, just remove larger leaves from the stems)
1/2 cup red wine (I used a pinot noir.  Avoid any sweet reds)
19 oz cannellini beans, rinsed well and drained
3/4 cup marinara sauce
Kosher salt & ground black pepper to taste
Dash or two of red pepper flakes, optional

In a large skillet, heat oil over high medium high heat.  Add in garlic and onion and saute until translucent.  Add in greens, and you may have to add them in batches to allow them to wilt down to make room for the rest.  Cook until greens are fully wilted.  Add in wine, and simmer for an additional minute or two.  Stir in beans and marinara, and then add your salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.  Stir to fully combine, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 3-4 minutes.  Taste sauce and adjust seasoning if necessary.

This is great as a side dish, or toss it with some pasta for a vegetarian main dish.  Or throw in some chicken or shrimp for added protein.  We ate ours as a side, and then the leftovers got re-heated in a skillet with some leftover shrimp from shrimp cocktail, and then we tossed it with some gluten-free pasta.

Penne With Spicy Greens & Sausage

Do you see a theme this week?  Sausage & greens!  Ha!  I don't know what it is, but hot Italian turkey sausage and some form of greens are a magical combination in my book.  So last night when I got home from a chilly day at work (and learned that yes, I have holes in both of my boots, ergh!) all I wanted was a big plate of carbs and heat.  So out came the rest of last week's kale, the McCauley's Pepper Relish (original, mild and hot available in store), and some turkey sausage and dinner was born.  Is this pretty much like the Spaghetti with Broccoli, Sausage & Hot Peppers?  Yes.  But why stop a good thing?  And, in fact, the Mister and I like this even better than the version with broccoli, so much so that he's requested it again once we get this week's collard greens.  So whether you're using up the kale from last week, plowing through the collards from this week, or you've got spinach or swiss chard on hand, this dish works fantastic with any leafy green.  And the more greens the better!  You want the dish to be mostly greens, with the crumbled turkey sausage in second, and then with the penne coming in third.  Or forget the pasta and stuff this filling into two halves of some acorn squash, for even more veggie madness!

Penne With Spicy Greens & Sausage

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
5 hot Italian turkey sausage links, casings removed and crumbled
Half a bundle of collards, kale or swiss chard, or a full bundle of spinach, rinsed and rough chopped
1/4 reduced sodium chicken stock or dry white wine
1 Tbsp (heaping - or less for not as much heat) McCauley's Roasted Pepper Relish (in store!)
12 oz penne pasta, cooked to package directions (I use Bio-Nature brand for gluten free and it's not gummy at all!  LOVE!)

Cook pasta per package directions and meanwhile...

In a medium sized skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add garlic and saute for 1 minute.  Add in turkey sausage, casing removed and crumble as much as possible.  You'll need to break the bits up with your saute spoon as it cooks.  Cook until meat is browned and cooked through.  Stir in pepper relish (can use less to reduce the heat), and cook to heat through, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Deglaze pan with chicken stock or white wine and stir to scrape any browned bit off of the bottom of the pan.  Stir in chopped greens -- you may have to add them in batches and let them simmer down before adding more so you have enough room for everyone.  Cook for an additional 3-5 minutes, or until greens are fully wilted.  Remove from heat, add in pasta and toss to evenly coat.  Finish with an extra glug of olive oil to keep the pasta from sticking, and toss again before serving.

Sweet Potato & Greens Soup with Turkey Sausage

That Sausage, Potato & Kale Soup is hands-down my go-to soup.  But a few weeks ago, I decided to mix it up a bit and try it with sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes.  The result was a delicious and comforting taste of Fall that I swear kept getting better as we ate our way through the leftovers.  So this is the perfect make ahead soup as it really does get better the longer everything has to marinate in its own loveliness.  And since kale and collards are pretty interchangeable, you'll be able to use up this week's sweet potatoes, collards and yellow onion in one dish!  Just what all of this cold weather calls for...HOT SOUP!

Sweet Potato & Greens Soup with Turkey Sausage

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp garlic, minced

1 medium-sized yellow onion, chopped

6 links turkey sausage (hot or sweet depending on your heat preference), casings removed and meat crumbled

2 - 32 oz containers of reduced sodium chicken stock

1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled & diced

1 bundle collard greens or kale, leaves stripped from stalks and roughly chopped

Salt & pepper to taste

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Saute garlic and onions for 3-4 minutes or until translucent.  Add in turkey sausage and stir to continue to crumble.  Increase heat and cook until sausage is cooked through and browned.  Deglaze pan with a bit of the chicken stock and stir to get any browned bits off of the bottom of the pan.  Add in the rest of your stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat but still keep liquid at a vigorous simmer and add in your sweet potatoes.  Cook for an additional 5-7 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.  Reduce heat to a simmer and add in chopped greens.  Season with salt & pepper to taste.  Simmer for an additional 2-3 minutes and then remove pot from heat to allow soup to finish setting up and cool slightly.  Taste broth and season with additional salt & pepper, if needed.

Move over kale...Collard Chips are here!

So when customers ask us what to do with collards, we love to tell them it's easily interchangeable with kale in recipes.  Being higher in calcium and lower in calories (okay it's a veg, let's not get too concerned over the caloric intake), collards make a great swap for kale.  Plus, collards aren't vogue right now, so that means they're much more affordable.  And then as I was telling all of this to a group for a Juicing With Greens workshop, it came to me...Collard Chips.  In theory, I figured it should work, but I was totally not prepared for how delicious the results would turn out to be.  Not only do they taste just like kale chips, but they are sturdier so they can actually be dipped in things...albeit delicately dipped.  Which was perfect because I had a ton of Radish Dip left over.  Veggies, on veggies, on veggies!  So if you're still staring down that massive bundle of collards from the last week of the Fall round, turn them into a crunchy evening stack!

Collard Chips

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive or coconut oil
1 bundle collards, rough chopped and stems removed
Kosher or sea salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

On a baking sheet, toss collards in oil and sprinkle with salt.  Bake in the oven at 300 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Mine baked up really quick, so start checking them at 10 minutes and add cook time if they're not crisped up yet.

Serve with Radish Dip for a veggietacular snack!

Stewed Collard Greens, Kenyan Style: Sukuma Wiki

A few weeks ago I mentioned in the Crop Share spoiler e-mail that I'd be posting my results of a big Kenyan feast I was cooking up, as that was how I planned to use up the last of that delicious sweet corn.  I did make the feast, but I'm just now getting around to the blogging part.  Ah well, I run on Irish time!

Wait, so what's this Youngstown born, Irish American gal doing making a Kenyan feast and getting all misty eyed over the dishes?  Isn't Kenyan cuisine thin on the ground in NE Ohio and in Ireland?  It is, but I was blessed to be able to fall in love with these flavors in Nairobi, Kenya.  To make a very long, and very awesome story short...there was a man from Nairobi named Mo Amin, who was one of the most influential photojournalists of the 70s, 80s and early 90s (remember the NBC Nightly News segment in 1984 on the Ethiopian famine that spawned USA For Africa, We Are The World, Live Aid and Band Aid -- that was Mo's footage).  There was another man named John from Youngstown, OH, who was one of the pioneers in upper limb prosthetic technology.  John also had a curious, adventurous, ginger-haired little girl named Tara.  The three of them met due to an ammunitions depot explosion and a stray missile in Ethiopia.  Thanks to John's expertise, Mo was able to go back to work doing what he did best, and thanks to Mo, John and his family had their lives changed forever, especially little Tara.  Finally in 1995, they got to visit Mo in Nairobi and thus 13 year old Tara's love affair with the flavors of Kenya was born.

There is way more awesomeness to the story, and even more tears because in '96 I lost my friend and mentor when the Ethiopian Airways flight he was on was hijacked and crashed off the Seychelles.  Maybe it's solely due to Mo, but despite only spending about a month in Kenya, it has remained a place I will get legitimately homesick for.  But there is something magical about that country, and while Mo was hands down the most incredible person I've ever met, I know he's not the sole reason why there are times my heart just aches to be back there.  And until I finally sat down to do some serious research on some of my most beloved dishes from my time there, my stomach has been aching for nearly 20 years for those foods!  But oh thanks to the magic of some collards, white corn meal, corn, beans, and then a delicious curried beef stew, I got to transport myself and the Mister to Kenya for an evening.  And yes, I cried with the very first bite.  I'm a total foodie sap.

So since collards have made their way into this week's Crop Share, I give you two of my favorite dishes...sukuma wiki and ugali.  There's a reason why "sukuma wiki" is Swahili for "stretch the week" because you will have a mountain of greens...dare I say a Mount Kilimanjaro of greens!

Stewed Collard Greens, Kenyan Style: Sukuma Wiki

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 bundle collard greens, rough chopped
2 cups diced tomatoes
1-2 cups water, chicken or vegetable stock
Salt & pepper to taste


Heat oil over medium high heat in a large saute pan.  Add in onions and saute until translucent.  Toss in greens, and you'll likely  have to do this in stages to allow them to wilt down and make room for the rest.  Once greens have wilted down to make enough room, stir in tomatoes and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.  Add in water or stock, and simmer on low for about an hour.  Season with salt & pepper to taste before serving.

To really keep it traditional, serve with ugali (big ball of awesome in the center of the photo below).

The ugali, which is just cooked white corn meal, is the vehicle you use to sop up and scoop up all the loveliness on your plate.  Just bring 4 cups of water and 2 teaspoons of salt to a boil, then stir in 2 cups of finely ground white corn meal (if you have trouble finding it, check the Hispanic food section of your grocery or head to a Hispanic market, as white while corn meal/masa for arepas is exactly what you'll need).  Reduce heat right away lest you want to be pelted with bubbling corn meal.  Then stir off and on for about 10 minutes until the ugali pulls from the sides of the pan and begins to form a ball in the pan.  You'll think its done much earlier, but trust me, you need 10 minutes, as you want to get a bit of a crisp on the outside. Not a burn, just a light crisp.  Remove from heat and allow to slightly cool.  Then wet your hands with water, pull out a hunk of the ugali and roll into a ball the size of your palm to place on each dish.  It actually does reheat well, so if you're only cooking for 1 or 2, you'll be able to stash the rest away and eat it as you go through the week.

Drinking collards

Here is a great article that compares collards to kale.
http://juicingformen.com/collard-greens-the-red-headed-stepchild-of-superfoods/

 Kale is so "in" right now, collards have just been left in their dust. Collard green have a higher yield than kale when juicing and a similar flavor.

A smoothie recipe for you:

Apple Collard Orangeade:
  Makes about 6 cups

1 cup water
1/2–1 cup Orange Juice, fresh of course :)
 3 apples 
 6-8 Leaves Collard Greens.
 2-3 tbs Honey, local raw & unfiltered if this is part of your allergy therapy routine
 6-8 ice cubes

 Pour water & orange juice into blender. Slice apples to remove the core. Add them to the blender Peel the leaves of the stems of the collard greens and add them to the blender as well.Blend

Spiced Chicken With Collard Green Sauté

Collard greens are not just for us Southern folk to enjoy! This simple recipe incorporates the greens in a healthy and easy way.

Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 20m | Total Time: 25m

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
kosher salt and black pepper
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 large bunch collard greens, thick stems removed





To view the rest of this recipe, please visit: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/spiced-chicken-sauted-collards-peppers-00000000007507/index.html