I can't pass by a farmers' market these days without stopping and looking around. Sunday I was driving through Old Town Scottsdale and spotted one. I've been wanting to add leafy greens to my diet. It was time to try mustard greens, so I picked up a bunch.

Cook's Illustrated suggested cooking them like collard greens. They were really tender mustard greens, though, so I decided to eat them raw, about 2 ounces' worth at each meal. They are spicy and bitter. I kind of like them. I'll continue eating them this way, but I can see that people with Midwest taste buds wouldn't like them uncooked.

Today I tried the recipe for "Braised Winter Greens" in the Jan/Feb 2009 edition of Cook's Illustrated. It promised to be not the soupy "pot likker" mess that has never appealed to me. I started off with 24 oz of collard greens. Once I removed the ribs, we were down to about 14 oz. So here's my calorie count:

If I divide that up into four servings, that comes to 108 calories per serving.

I have to say that this is the best recipe for greens I've ever had. The texture was fine. The original recipe called for some red pepper. I actually used tepines, which was wonderful.

2020-03-17: I decided to try some kale tonight using that old recipe.

Ingredients

I started off with the onions in olive oil till they softened. Added the garlic till fragrant. Added 1/4 cup of brocolli stock (which I had left over from a previous meal), as much of the kale as the pan could hold and covered it with a lid till it wilted. Mixed it up. Added the rest of the cale, plus red pepper, black pepper and salt. Twice more I added 1/4 cup of brocolli stock when I thought it was getting too dry. Braised with the lid on till it seemed done.

The result? Very tasty.

I've been wanting to add dark greens to my diet since they are so healthy. I tried to use some recipes from "The Garden of Eating…" but I didn't much care for them. The book suggested that they were almost indigestible without cooking. Last night I decided to try them just raw. I liked 'em. They had a slightly bitter taste, which is something I rather like these days. Chopped up in a bowl with some flax seed oil and some balsamic vinegar, it was pretty good. Now I'll have to try kale the same way.