Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Eat Your Greens

Our lettuce box
  
Spinach? Kale? Chard? Collards?
Do you eat any of these greens? Does the thought make you cringe?
I can honestly say that once I started eating them, I started to crave them!
Collards and Kale are my favorites over Spinach due to that funny after taste.

Ever wonder why you get that taste in your mouth? Here's an explanation...
"Oxalic acid in the spinach, which is released when spinach is cooked, is the culprit. Oxalates form insoluble salts that cannot be washed away by saliva; only other foods can work them off; this is the reason that the distinctive cooked-spinach aftertaste sometimes stays on your tongue so long.

This phenomenon does not, however, occur from raw spinach, and since the intensity of oxalic acid varies from crop to crop, you won’t always experience a gritty or chalky sensation. To neutralize the effect of cooked spinach on the teeth, try using spinach in recipes that also include high-protein foods, such as milk, eggs, and cheese. Or, when plain spinach has finished cooking, drizzle it lightly with freshly squeezed lemon juice."

Our chard & kale planter

Here's an excellent chart for why you should eat your greens!

Looking for some good recipes for greens? Here's my favorite...

Skillet Full o' Greens
chunk of pancetta, chopped
2 medium zucchini, quartered and chopped
1 large leek, halved, sliced and cleaned thoroughly
big ol' bunch of collard greens, stemmed and chopped
Wildtree's Garlic Grapeseed Oil
Wildtree's CA Garlic Pepper
Bragg's Liquid Aminos (optional)

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, add a little Garlic Grapeseed Oil and pancetta and cook until all fat is rendered and it starts to crisp up. Remove pancetta from pan and set aside. Add zucchini and leeks to pan and cook until tender and zucchini starts to brown. Add collards to pan, turn heat down and cook until collards are tender. Add pancetta back in along with a sprinkling of CA Garlic Pepper and a dash of Bragg's to taste.

Collards on our deck

To order any Wildtree groceries please go to www.jenwarr.mywildtree.com.

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