Leafy Green

Recent Recipes

• 1

  Instant Grains & Greens With Tahini

  From cookbook author Lara Lee, I learned that, with a dynamo of a sauce, you can cook your dinner in nothing more than boiling water. And—if you choose ultra-quick-cooking noodles or grains—that dinner can happen very quickly. Lara’s Genius Vermicelli Tofu Salad with Peanut Sauce uses thin rice noodles, tofu, bean sprouts, and edamame that only need a hot soak; here, I chose grains and greens that do the same. Fonio is a tiny ancient whole grain cultivated in West Africa, available online and at well-stocked grocery stores. Couscous, the North African rolled semolina pasta, makes a good substitute. The sauce that carries it all is a lemony, garlicky tahini, inspired by taratoor, a staple used widely in Arab cuisines. The proportions here are riffed from Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi’s Roasted Butternut Squash & Red Onion with Tahini & Za’atar in Simply Genius, but by borrowing boiling water from the grain pot instead of using room temperature water, the garlic flavor shifts: less punchy, more soft and savory. A few more tips: If you want to boost the protein, you can top with 8-minute boiled eggs or flaked oil-packed tuna (or other tinned fish), or stir a drained can of chickpeas into the pot along with the greens. Feel free to swap the greens for any other quick-cooking vegetable, and the toppings for other juicy and crunchy ones. If you want to swap the grains, be sure to follow the cooking instructions and water ratios on the package.

• 2

  Sarsoon ka Saag (Fragrant Butter-Laced Pureed Mustard Greens) From Julie Sahni

  Anytime you're craving deep nourishment or need inspiration for an overload of spinach or mustard greens from your CSA, turn to the legendary Julie Sahni's Sarsoon ka Saag and dinner can be little more than ultra-comforting greens, and lots of them. As Julie wrote of this dish in Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking, “Every community in the world has a basic food that it refers to as soul food. For the Punjabi Sikhs of Amritsar, the home of the Golden Temple, it is mustard greens cooked to a velvety puree and laced with ginger shreds, garlic slivers, and sweet creamy butter. This heavenly dish is eaten with a corn bread. If children were introduced to such tastefully prepared greens as these, we probably would never need Popeye! The classic recipe for this dish calls for a mixture of mustard greens and a green called bathua, which acts as a binder for the sauce in addition to lending a marvelous flavor. Bathua is slightly hard to find; therefore you may substitute spinach in its place.” A few more tips: The amount of water you’ll need will vary depending on the greens you use, and which ones are fresh, frozen, or dried. So that you don’t end up trying to reduce a soupy puree in the end, Julie suggests holding back some of the water and adding it only as needed to keep the greens covered. Traditionally, this puree is made with a wooden tool called a mathani that gently crushes and blends the greens but leaves them with some texture, which makes it easy to scoop up with makkai ki roti, a cornmeal-based flatbread, as you see here. When Julie wrote this recipe in 1985, she called for modern conveniences like a food processor or blender, and cautions only that the puree not be blended so much that it becomes airy and foamy, which will lead to it separating. Recipe adapted very slightly from Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking (William Morrow and Company, December 1985). This post contains products independently chosen (and loved) by our editors and writers. As an Amazon Associate, Food52 earns an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases of the products we link to.Hear more about this recipe from Julie herself on our podcast The Genius Recipe Tapes.

• 3

  Collard Greens With Smoked Turkey Leg

  Collards are a very healthy green, but a bit on the bitter side. They are a great addition to fried chicken or any other protein for that matter. You can leave out the meat and make these vegan, but I would suggest you add a bit of liquid smoke and use a good-quality veggie stock. I am lucky enough to live within walking distance from Cason’s fine meats. Rain or shine, they are smoking all kinds of critters! Walking down Denver, you can smell it in the air, and their smoked turkey products could rival some smoked pork products I have had.