Go Green

Cultivated greens are available in a variety of types, with flavors from mild to pungent. Greens are chock-full of the nutrients for which dark green vegetables are celebrated—vitamins A and C, minerals such as iron, and numerous phytochemicals. Chard, or Swiss chard, is in peak season during the summer and can be found with leaf veins and midrib in a rainbow of colors: crimson, orange, yellow. Chard is versatile and has a mild yet slightly bitter flavor (similar to beets). Chard ribs can be cooked like asparagus and are excellent with any cream sauce or in a gratin. Beet greens are milder in flavor. They are typically sold attached to a beet. Turnip greens are slightly sweet and tender when young but grow to be tough and strong-tasting as they age. Their peak season is in the fall and winter. Kale is a close relative of collards. Kale grows well in colder temperatures and can withstand frost—which helps it produce even sweeter leaves. It is available year-round, but it is most flavorful and abundant during the winter. Select deep-colored bunches with small leaves. The tough center stalk should be removed before cooking. Collard greens are at their peak in the winter, and the best collards are found in crisp bunches with roots still intact. Like kale, collard greens are sweetest after the first frost. Mustard greens, also at their peak in the winter, usually have a hot and pungent “mustardy” flavor, and are generally cooked in combination with other greens.

Store greens, unwashed, in a plastic bag in the refrigerator crisper. Use within a few days, as the leaves are prone to wilting. Before cooking, all greens need to be washed thoroughly in several changes of cold water to remove grit and dirt. Fill a sink with water. Put the greens in a colander or sieve and submerge. Swish the leaves around for 30 seconds or so, then lift the colander gently out of the water. Drain the sink, refill, and repeat the cleaning process as necessary to remove all dirt.

The old-fashioned custom is to cook greens for an hour or more, with bacon, salt pork, or ham hocks and serve them with vinegar. We prefer to retain color and nutrients by using the following methods. Leaves can be cooked whole, or to reduce the cooking time—when the greens are unusually large and mature—derib or strip the leafage from the midribs. The leafy parts can be torn into 2- to 3-inch pieces, or stacked and rolled, and then sliced crosswise into 1-inch ribbons.

Steaming and greens don’t mix. An acid in the greens is activated by heat. The reason for cooking in a large quantity of water rather than steaming is to wash away the acid, which would otherwise destroy the chlorophyll and turn the greens from a deep green to a dingy gray.

Greens have affinities with garlic, bacon, red pepper flakes or sauce, vinegar, salt pork, soy sauce, and mustard.