In my quest to eat more greens and also to find recipes that don't heat the house in the summer, I'm experimenting with crockpot collard greens. I took two bunches of collards, cut off the think stems, and chopped the leaves. In the crock pot I threw some coconut milk along with 1 tbsp of hot curry powder. I used a wire whisk to mix the coconut milk and curry powder evenly. Then I threw in the collards. Then I set the crockpot outside on the porch, plugged it in, and set it to low. The amount of liquid in the pot is minimal, which concerns me, but I really don't want a mess of pot liquor. I added 4 oz of water just in case. I'm hoping that four hours will do it. The calorie significant parts are:

Divided up into four servings, that should be about 111 calories per serving.

I ended up letting it cook 4 hours on low. Added a bit of salt. Then I stirred it. Then let it cook another hour. The amount of time was enough to cook the collards without turning them into a stringy mess. The taste was mediocre. It probably is a mistake to make collards without adding some decently sauteed onions and garlic. Or maybe just a tablespoon of sugar.

Tonight I decided to make "flash-cooked hominy with kale or collards" from page 193 "How to cook everything." I used the red pepper option. I didn't have limes handy, so I used one lemon and one small orange. Tasted good. I'll do variations on this again. Next time around I'll just use my standard collard recipe and throw some hominy in for the last five minutes.

Tonight I once again use the braised winter greens recipe in the Jan/Feb 2009 edition of Cook's Illustrated. That recipe rocks! I used a bit of green curry paste in today's version, and the taste was wonderful. I'm making this a regular part of my cooking henceforth.

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.