These might be turnip greens. Or mustard greens. I’ve forgotten since I took the picture last week and didn’t have time to post it till today. I found a turnip in the fridge later–that would have been a reasonable pairing: turnip and turnip greens!
But the day I fixed this for lunch, I was all out of ideas, so I Googled for a recipe. I quickly found one posted by a person who loves beans and greens. She pictured white beans, like Great Northerns, in her recipe. That looked nurturing for a winter lunch.
Staring at the wall of canned beans in my pantry, I said aloud, “Why not Garbanzos?”
I can’t call this a recipe, because all I did was steam the greens in salted water and toss in a couple spoonfuls of garbanzos to cook long enough to reduce that canned-bean crunch garbanzos usually have. Enough protein to be satisfying, and enough greens to be light and healthful. It would have been prettier had I ladled the beans on top of a mound of greens, but this way, I had only one pot to wash!
One reason I don’t remember whether they were turnip or mustard greens is because I’ve been buying both, along with spinach. In our post on eating color, I recommended following Dr. Michael Gregor’s advice to eat across the spectrum. Each plant food has a different composition. You’ll get different nutrients from broccoli than from apples, and different nutrients from turnip greens than from mustard greens. So eat them both. Eat them all.
I haven’t had collard greens since I lived in the South where it was customary to boil them all day. But I will try them. I also enjoy red Swiss chard. Sunday night I made fresh spinach with sliced button mushrooms and diced onions. That was a family hit. (Whatever it takes to get people to eat spinach!)
What are your favorites and how do you prepare them?