Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Quick-Cooked Greens with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes


For our quick cooked greens recipe, we wanted to rid these greens of some of their bitterness, but not all of it. A shallow blanching removed enough bitterness to make these assertive greens palatable but not so much as to rob them of their character. Once assertive greens had been shallow-blanched, they could be cooked in five minutes with garlic and red pepper flakes for a quick side dish.
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Serves 4

Ingredients
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
2 pounds kale, collard, mustard, or turnip greens; stemmed, washed in 2 or 3 changes of clean water, and coarsely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
Table salt
Lemon wedges 

Instructions
1. Bring 2 quarts water to boil in dutch oven or large, deep sauté pan. Add salt and greens; stir until wilted. Cover and cook until greens are just tender, about 7 minutes; drain in colander. Rinse pan with cold water to cool, then refill with cold water. Pour greens into cold water to stop the cooking process. Gather handful of greens, lift out of water and squeeze until only droplets fall from them. Repeat with remaining greens. Roughly cut each bunch of greens. Set aside.


2. In a large sauté pan, heat garlic and pepper flakes with oil over medium heat until garlic starts to sizzle. Add greens; sauté to coat with oil. Add 1/3 cup of broth, cover and cook over medium-high heat, adding more stock during cooking if necessary, until greens are tender and juicy and most of stock has been absorbed, about 5 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

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