The Postening II: Wrath of Collard

[cyrano]

We have farmshare. As part of that farmshare, currently we have a metric assload (dunno what that measures out to in your funky American ways) of leafy greens. Lettuces are easy, even if it seems impossible to get *all* the sandy dirt off the leaves.
We also have: chard, collard greens, turnip greens, beet greens....
I think that's everything. Perhaps foodies can advize me on whether greens such as the above can, more or less, be swapped in and out of recipes that we find.

Comments

[9thmoon.livejournal.com]

Chard is WONDERFUL rough-chopped and wilted with a tiny tiny bit of olive oil and garlic and sprinkled with some nice pungent cheese. Nom nom nom.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

mmmmm pungent cheese.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I've more or less swapped chard for spinach and spinach for chard, but I don't know about the other greens. I believe it would work for any recipe in which the green was the main ingredient, but the more complicated the flavor gets with the addition of other ingredients, the less sure I am about how it would go.

[jendaviswilson.livejournal.com]

I agree, chard=spinach except more sour.

I also find that like spinach, many greens can be wilted, drained, chopped, and then inserted into practically any recipe. Particularly good for hiding in tomato sauce in a big plate of spaghetti. I've even put it on pizza.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Seconded what 9thmoon said--my favorite way to cook chard.

Beet greens I think could be treated similarly. I also found a beet green gratin recipe that I made a few years ago (that you partook of) that I can dig out of the cookbook if you want.

Collards and turnip greens, I'd probably cook the same way: boil the crap out of them with a ham bone (or smoked turkey leg) for flavoring. Collards really want a long, slow, wet cooking method, IIRC.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I've discovered the joys of chard. It mixes well with green beans, and I put it into a potato and leek pie, which was yummy.