Greens

 

This is so delicious and simple, you would not believe.  My husband used to wolf down his veggie sides first as I would whinge at him to eat his greens and he never particularly liked them. Now he wolfs them down first and asks for more.  The key to good greens is choosing flavouring and a griddle pan or frying pan. I prefer a griddle pan.

I use the term of greens loosely from cabbages of all kinds spring greens, kale and spinach.  Use your head but the thicker stemmed leaves in first i.e cabbages and the more delicate leaves in last.

Last night I made a mixture of spring greens and cabbage.

Firstly preheat your griddle pan (if using), spray with a little low fat cooking spray and heat for about 10 mins whilst preparing the greens.

Shred your cabbage and spring greens into similar sized ribbons ( I don’t like mine too thin I like the ribbons to be quite wide). Rinse them in a colander (this bit is important as it adds a little moisture if you are not using wine or stock

Now choose your flavouring my bog standard is 1 clove garlic thinly sliced although last night I  just used a little white wine.  You can use garlic, garlic and ginger, chilli, chilli and lemon, lemon garlic, white wine garlic, white wine chilli, ¼ cup stock etc  the list goes on.

Spray your griddle pan with more low fat cooking spray if using garlic, chilli, or ginger add this to the pan and sizzle for 30 seconds (the pan should be nice and hot now) add the greens they will sizzle good! Turn them occasionally.  Cook for about 5-7 minutes and allow them to get brown in places.  (this adds to the flavour).  If using wine or stock 2 minutes before the end throw in.  This will cause the pan to sizzle and steam and most of the liquid will evaporate.  Cook for 2 more minutes it is now ready.

You can eat straight away or dress up the greens using olive oil, parmesan, balsamic vinegar or plan sea salt.  A favourite of mine but not had often due to limited supplies of this flavoured oil is orange infused olive oil, sounds horrible is amazing.  I believe my mum bought me some back from Croatia.

Now if using white wine in a cast iron griddle pan make sure once the pan is cooled you clean it well as the acid of the wine may corrode your griddle pan.  You may wish to do your greens in a normal frying pan if using wine to protect the holy griddle pan.