Your Next Greens Cookbook: Greens, Glorious Greens

Have you ever had the experience of planting a garden full of greens and then end up scratching your head? What in the world will you do with all of these greens? There have been seasons where the hens consumed more of the greens than my family did. I know that’s not unusual and it’s even understandable. After you have made your two greens recipes five times a piece, everyone is crying, “Uncle! No more!”

Would you like a way out of this quandary? Get a copy of the cookbook, Greens, Glorious Greens!, by Johnna Albi and Catherine Walthers. This is not a book that dazzles with the big color photos, but it draws you in with a treasury of information on different greens and how to handle them. This is the sort of information I would have gotten from great aunt Flossie, if I had thought to quiz her. Thank God for cookbooks like this.

In Greens, Glorious Greens!, you will learn about:

• How to choose the best greens at the market
• How to get all that grit off your greens before you cook them.
• How to treat the stems of bok choy and Swiss chard.
• How to keep the “green” in cooked greens.
• How to enjoy some of the wild greens like amaranth or curly dock. (Did you even know that curly dock was edible?)
• How to grow greens.
• Choosing the best utensils for cooking greens.
• General nutritional profile on greens.

Keep this Greens, Glorious Greens! by your favorite reading spot. Besides being inspired with fine recipes, you will be gleaning an education that will serve you all your cooking years.

Did you know that tossing kale leaves into a boiling bath for a couple of minutes before adding the kale to soup will considerably cut down on the sharp flavor of kale? It’s true! I tried it. After two minutes in boiling water, the kale got pulled out, chopped and added to soup. It tasted like spinach and it stayed bright green. Whatever causes kale to have a sharp green flavor leached out into the bath water. The cookbook authors recommend drinking this water since it has some good nutrients in it. I just let it out with the gray water – another way of utilizing nutrients.

In the book, the authors start with arugula and work their way down the alphabet to wild greens. Get easy-to-read nutritional information on each green as well as mouthwatering recipes for preparing them.

Did you realize that arugula is higher in calcium than either kale or collards, vegetables known for high calcium? The nutrition profile of arugula caused me to sow additional arugula seeds. We are eating it like never before in place of spinach. Just like kale, arugula looses its mustardy edge if tossed in a boiling bath.

I have been cooking my way through this book and have not been disappointed. I know you will love it too. The seasonings are well conceived and the greens in combination with other vegetables have obviously been inspired by a number of ethnic cuisines. Greens do not have to be boring. Work your way through this book to double, triple, quadruple the amount of greens your family consumes. Shockingly, no one will complain.