I've been enjoying Mark Bittman's book Leafy Greens: An A-to-Z guide to 30 types of greens plus more than 120 delicious recipes.
Unfortunately he prefers to blanch greens rather than sauté them because he finds they burn too easily in the pan. I find the occasional slight charring gives them a caramelized flavor that I enjoy, so I will stick to sautéing. Plus, I feel that blanching (boiling the greens in salted water until tender) releases too many nutrients. Unless I'm going to use the blanching water in soups, it feels like a waste.
He also mentioned steaming, however, and I had not tried that. I had a bunch of tender beet greens from Shear Rock Farms so I gave it a try.
I have a collapsible steamer that fits in a pot. I washed the greens, put an inch of water in the pot, added the steamer, and piled the greens on top. As you can see in the picture above, they did not fit very well. I managed to get the lid on, steamed for 5 minutes, and then looked in the pot. The greens had shrunk considerably, as you can see in the photo on the left. I tipped them onto a chopping board, chopped them coarsely, and tossed them with a dressing of a tablespoon olive oil and a tablespoon lemon juice.
They tasted good, cooked quickly, and left very few nutrients behind in the steaming water (I hope). The olive oil in the dressing allowed my body to absorb the nutrients in the greens. Altogether very satisfactory.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
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