Greens in Your Freezer

So I keep nattering on about how you can eat the greens off your beets, radishes, turnips.  But there's a problem with that - if I bought the beets because I want beets, what do I do with the greens so I can eat them later?  Because THEY are going to go bad way before the beets.

Or what about the over abundance of greens that happens at different points in the season?  I have TONS of greens now, and I can't eat them all!

Blanch and freeze my friends, blanch and freeze.  The two biggest reasons why: a) they take up much less space (1lb = about 1C) and b) they won't rot on you while you are distracted by life, pie and that other thing.  The other reason to blanch and freeze?  You can take an overabundance now - and carry it over to lean times later.  (That was the purpose of sauerkraut, kim-chi and other fermented pickles back in the pre-refrigerator/freezer days).

So - chop off those beet tops, gather up the kale, trim the rest of those hardy mustard greens and chard, and lets roll this out.

Blanch - for Freezing

Wondering what to  for what to do with the frozen goodies?  

Check out Dawn's Spinach
It works for all the greens after they are blanched, frozen and rethawed

Equipment:

large pot w/ lid

sink or giant bowl of water - for washing

bowl or similar for placing cleaned leaves - if you are working through a bunch

large bowl - for cold shocking

retrieval utensil - tongs, slotted spoon, small sieve on a long handle - something for pulling the leaves out of the hot water

salad spinner - optional

small freezer safe containers - zip-top freezer bags are especially nice

sharpie pen for labeling

Ingredients:

lotsa' leaves

water
salt

ice cubes

Prep:

Fill the large pot about 2/3 full with water, cover it and place over high heat to bring it to a boil.

Wash your leaves, and move the cleaned ones to a holding area (no need to dry them).

If the stems of the greens are edible, leave them in.  If they are woody (like kale or collards), grasp one end of the stem and use the other hand to strip the leaf off the stem.

Fill the large "cold-shock" bowl half way with ice cubes.  Add water to about half full as well.

Cook!

Once the water comes to a boil, add about a Tbs of salt, and put about 2 very-large handfuls of leaves into the water.  Use the retrieval device (tongs, spoon, etc.) to push them under.  After about a minute*, fish them out with said device and move them to the ice water. 

When they are chilled and clearly no longer cooking, move them to the salad spinner, spin them to a dry-ish state.

Place appropriate amounts in the small containers.  Label them.

Pop them in the freezer for future use.  IF you are really thinking, freeze them flat in the zip top bags.  Then they can be stacked or line up in your freezer.

*How long to blanch different leaves:

Spinach - 45 sec.

Chard - 1 min

Kale - tender/flat - 2 min

Kale - curly/thick - 4 min

Mustard Greens - 2 min

Mystery greens - use your judgement based on how tough it seems to be.
Bonus:
Brussels Sprouts - whole 5 minutes, half about 2.5 min. (Gets rid of the "stinky" and makes them friendlier to bake, sauté, (batter and deep fry!?)
Green Beans - 3 minutes
Snow Peas/edible Pea Pods - 2 minutes
Shelled Peas - 1 minute
Fava Beans (and similar old world "shelling beans") 2-3 minutes (depends on the size - when they slide  out of the membrane around the bean easily they are ready)
Broccoli - 1-2inch size florets - 4-6 min (larger - a bit longer.  Go by color change)

Gotta go clean out MY freezer,  it is a serious source of chaos points.

Not choosing a freezer I can't put a half sheet pan in.
Ever.

Rescuing Spinach

And other dark greens.

How did it get such a bad name?  Well there is the canned version (grey-ish), the over cooked version (slime-ish), and the tough raw kind that squeaks on your teeth (also sandy-ish).  Oh, yeah, and the sautéed baby kind that can taste so (urk) bitter.  And then there was the poison spinach from California.

But spinach does not deserve this kind of press.  The whole point of spinach is that is SO good for you, but tasty and easy too.  And that is where frozen (Thank you Mr.Birdseye) comes in.  First of all, it is already cleaned, chopped and blanched (no sand, softened and that bitterness rinsed out), second so easy to get organic that way, and third and best, if you leave it in your freezer a few extra days/weeks because plans change, it does not melt in the back of your fridge into semi-intelligent slime based life forms.  

            Spinach is one of my very favorite answer to the question, “what veggie to have tonight?” when I just can’t think of anything else.  Besides, if you try this and hate it, you aren’t out very much cash.  Oh, and the reason you’ll never see this on the Food Network? 1) Food people think everyone knows this stuff (we don’t), and 2) there is NO way they could pad this out into a whole show.  It’s too simple and won’t make anyone feel inferior.

            This is the way I was shown back in my much earlier, bumbling cooking days.  Guess what? I still use it as a starting point and a fall back position.

Dawn’s Spinach… with Variations

These are the basics – use it with everything dark green

that’s been blanched and frozen

These amounts are for 1 box/bag of spinach (12 or 16 oz.? not important) 

Only have a partial bag?  Don’t sweat it, use a little less of the other stuff… or not.

Equipment:

skillet/sauté pan + 1 lid

stirring spatula/spoon

knife

cutting board

Ingredients:

1 bag/box frozen spinach

1/4 C water

1 smallish onion (or ½ a big one)

olive oil – enough to moisten skillet

salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbs butter (if you are feeling super fancy)

Cook:

Chop the onion

Heat the skillet and oil over pretty high heat, until a piece of onion starts to sizzle (2 - 4 min)

Dump in the onion, add a pinch of salt and sauté to give it some color – brown around the edges, translucent in the middle.  If it’s turning black, turn down the heat. 

Dump in the spinach and the water

Spread it out over the skillet and clap on the lid for about 4 minutes (This will steam and melt the spinach)

Take off the lid, stir the spinach, add salt and pepper to taste.

If you are feeling fancy, drop in the butter and stir the spinach to make it shiny and extra tasty.

Done!  Was that so hard?

Variations:

Asian

Substitute soy sauce for salt and sesame oil for butter

I Don’t Like Onions

Substitute 1-2 smashed/pressed garlic cloves for the onion

(or 2 tsp bottled minced garlic)

I Love Garlic

Add above garlic to the onions when they are almost done.

I’m Feeling Southern / I Don’t Want Spinach / I’m Sick of Spinach Variation

Substitute frozen mustard and or collard greens, or some blend of spinach/mustard/collard…. hard to go wrong there.

Southern II
Crisp up a piece of bacon cut into small pieces in the oil before adding the onion.  Remove the crispy bacon pieces before adding the onion, and add them in at the end.

Oh NOs!  I have raw leaves.
This work with raw as well - but you might get the bitterness - depending on when/where/how/how long the spinach was grown.

What to do:
Long Way - Blanch and then sauté as above. (Blanch?! What'e Blanch?  check back in, I'll link this in a few days to my Blanching post)
Short Way - stir the raw (rinsed - and torn if they are huge) leaves into the cooked down onion.  A bit at a time as they wilt and shrink.  Then add the water - and proceed with the steaming.  This can take the 4 minutes - or up to 10 or 20 minutes depending on the toughness of your leaves.  (Spinach takes just a few minutes, kale and mustard green takes much longer.)
Taste test for tenderness and bitterness.  When the leaves are a nice texture they are ready.  If they are bitter add some vinegar a splash/tsp at a time.  Rice vinegar, Cider vinegar and Balsamic vinegar all do a good job here.

Beet Salad - with the goods!

If you liked the last beet salad, and your were not run out of the town on a rail by those that were served the raw beet salad, you are ready for the next round of....

"See, Beets Aren't So Scary After All."

Roasted chioggia beets are an approachable pink,
not a scary red.
The cornbread is just a bonus

This one has beets, beet greens, pistachio nuts, goat cheese, and plenty of vinegar.

But the wonderful thing about this beet salad is it can take several substitutions.












Ingredients:

4 small to medium beets (nothing larger than your fist)
4 1/2 inch slices of goat cheese
small handful of roasted nuts - pine nuts, pistachios and pecans are all good choices
1 overflowing handful of a dark green - nothing too tough (beet greens, chard, tender kale, arugula etc.)
1/2 tsp oil + 1 tsp oil/bacon drippings
salt & pepper (if you have truffle salt, break it out here!)
cider or wine vinegar - to taste

Equipment:

pan for roasting beets & foil to cover... or just wrap beets in foil
cutting board
sharp knife
medium bowl
utensils for mixing and eating the salad
Saute/fry pan & spatula

Cook!

Cut off the beet tops, and the roots, and give them a good rinse.  Rub the beets with the 1/2 tsp of oil to speed up cooking.
Roast the beets in the oven at 425˚F for about 1 hour (this can even be done a few days ahead) until they are fork tender (a fork easily pierces them).
Let the beets cool all the way down.
Use your fingers or a towel to rub off the tough outer skin.

Cut the beets into thumb size pieces, place in your bowl.
grind on some pepper, and add a pinch of salt.  Toss with at least a Tbs of vinegar, and set aside while you get on with the rest of the prep.

Rinse your greens, chop or tear roughly if they are large leaves.  Heat a saute pan with the 1 tsp of bacon  drippings or oil over medium high heat.  Saute your greens until they are tender, and have wilted down to a tiny huddled mass.
Toss in the nuts and heat them through as well.
Keep an eye on things.  Toasty nuts are good. Burnt nuts are yucky.

Slice the goat cheese, and crumble into pieces.

Toss together the beets, nuts and greens.
Taste.  Add salt, pepper and vinegar as needed.
Taste with a piece of the goat cheese to see if there is enough tanginess.

Serve the salad over the crumbled goat cheese.