A Whole Mess-a Greens

[Low-N-Slow]

Cooked up some collard greens Sunday, basically first softening up some chopped onion and mashed garlic in a little oil, then wilting the greens down some before adding a big can of crushed whole tomatoes and a smoked pork hock. Braised for several hours, replenishing braising liquid a few times in the interrim, then added some black-eyed peas at the end. Anticipated they would reduce down a lot farther than they did-- a pre-washed and chopped 2 lb. bag plus the other ingredients still yielded nearly a gallon of finished product. Guess I need to buy less greens and clean and de-stem myself. Is there anything else you can do with collards besides cook the crap out of them and season them up?

[crrush]

If you have a mess of cooked greens leftover, use them in a dish the way you would sauteed spinach -- in a lasagna, quiche, omelet, on pizza, make white bean and collard soup, mix into lentils, blend 'em up and make creamed collards or "Collard Madelaine". Lots of possibilities.

[Schuarta]

Latest green craze at our house is for the tops of red or gold beets. Beets are prepared usually way (boiled), with the tops chopped and sauted in garlic and olive oil, with a touch of balsamic near the end. Really good except the greens cook down so that there's not as much as we really would like (for 2).