How to cook greens

Learn how to cook greens using my quick and tasty methods, and you'll never be at a loss for a fast vegetable side dish.

Forget about fussing with steamer baskets or wating on pots of water to boil. No need to blanch, shock and rinse. My greens cookery methods are easier, and taste better, too. Depending on the dish and what kind of pre-prep you've done, it can be lightning fast to have a steaming bowl of hot greens on your table -- breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Yes, I said breakfast. After we started restricting carbs at our house, we discovered the unexpected joy of breakfast greens. Breakfast can be heartier and more satisfying than ever when you replace that mound of grits or rice, or that slab of toast, with some delectable, vitamin-rich greens. A typical morning plate around here might be scrambled farm-fresh eggs, oven-roasted artisan sausage, and farmer's market collards pepped up with a drizzle of hot sauce. That'll keep you going well into the lunch hour. Without carb crash!

Fresh, frozen or canned? Right off, I'll say to forget canned greens. They taste tinny and overdone. In fact, I'd go so far as to guess that if you think you don't like greens, if you think you've got no use for them, you've probably been exposed mainly to canned greens. This ain't no Popeye cartoon. Leave the cans on your grocer's shelf.

Fresh greens are the best, naturally. But frozen greens are also great. In fact, most of the greens I cook are frozen. Even if I didn't obtain them frozen, they're frozen by the time I cook them.

Let's face it, greens wilt fast. That beautiful bunch of collards or kale at the farmer's market might just not be what you want on the table tonight. But wash and chop them, and stuff them in a zip-top bag, and you'll have farmer's market goodness at your fingertips for months to come.

Freezing greens can make the difference between having them once in a great while and having lots on hand to enjoy often.

Once you learn the basics of greens cookery, you'll find it's a snap to adapt different leaves and spices to achieve limitless flavor profiles, for whatever style or ethnic cuisine suits you.

Basic cooked greens recipe