This dark greens recipe truly highlights what you can do with dark greens and how they can be steamed in conjunction with so many things including ham, drumsticks, bacon, pork chops, and oftentimes just some other produce. I enjoy dark greens with fresh homegrown tomatoes or chow chow (green relish). You will notice that dark greens have leaves relatively thicker than lettuce which means these are fantastic for cooking and serving hot.
Typically, dark greens tend to be eaten on New Year’s Day, with black-eyed peas and cornbread. This old-fashioned dinner is reported to guarantee prosperity in the coming year, since some people believe that dark leaves can resemble rolled up money. Cornbread is great to use to absorb the scrumptious broth made by this dark greens dish. The broth was once referred to as “pot liquor.”
dark Greens Recipe:
1 pound dark greens, washed, lightly dried in towels and chopped to the length your liking. I prefer to leave my dark leaves in huge pieces given that the leaves will wilt anyway as soon as cooked. However, other people, like my brother, prefer their leaves cut up much like lettuce leaves.
One 1/2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil or Canola oil (don’t use peanut oil, due to its particularly strong flavor)
A single tablespoon butter 1/2 of a large white-colored or yellow onion finely diced
A single teaspoon of dried-out red pepper flakes or 1/2 tsp of hot sauce like Tabasco
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
3 cups of vegetable (vegetarian) or chicken stock
2 ripe tomatoes, sliced
Salt/pepper to taste
Directions for making dark greens:
Heat up the oil and the butter in a very big pan on top of medium heat so that the two are dissolved together, swirl the skillet occasionally to make sure that the butter doesn’t burn. Saute the white and yellow onions then mix in the red pepper flakes and then the garlic. If you are using Tobasco sauce instead of red pepper flakes, do not add the hot sauce in the pan at this step. It is best to, wait until the vegetable stock is added to the fry pan and then it’s always best to add the hot Tobasco sauce.
Stir the diced onions and garlic often and keep a close eye on them as they saute so as to ensure that the minced garlic will not burn and also to ensure that the olive oil doesn’t get too hot and start to smoke. Ideally, the diced garlic should begin to turn a deep golden brown after just a couple minutes of cooking as well as the onions will turn clear. Add in the dark greens and saute for an additional minute. Add in the chicken stock and hot sauce (optional), cover and simmer. Cook a few minutes until the dark greens are droopy and wilted, about 40 minutes. Lastly, pour in the tomatoes and then season with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Serve warm.
