Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Collard Greens & Swiss Chard

Ingredients
Collard Greens (stems and leaves separated...from my garden)
Swiss Chard (stems and leaves separated...from my garden)
2 red onions
Red cherry, Yellow pear & chocolate cherry tomatoes (from my garden)
2 Chinese 5 colored hot peppers (from my garden)
1 tsp Jeera seeds
1 tsp black mustard seed
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp of Ghee 
garlic paste
ginger paste
Vegetable stock
sprinkle of Himalayan salt to taste
sprinkle of pepper to taste
small handful of pecans 
Quinoa

Directions
Chop Collard Greens and Swiss Chard leaves into bite size pieces, separated from the stems, as they need different cooking times, and keep both leaves separate too.  Freshly grind the jeera and black mustard seeds.  Chop tomatoes in half or quarters, and dice onion. I cut one onion in strips and the other diced for variety. Chop the stems into small pieces. Cut the chili pepper as finely as possible.
Heat up the Ghee. When hot add the ground spices, garlic, ginger, hot peppers and onion. Saute for a couple minutes until the onion softens.  Add the tomatoes and stir, cook until soften.  Add one teaspoon of cumin powder and mix in. 
In another pan I heated up a little olive oil and garlic past to cook the stems. I used two pans due to the volume of the greens in the raw.  Add a little vegetable stock and let tenderize for a few minutes. Add Collard Greens and cover to steam. Do not over cook. 
Add the Swiss Chard leaves to the onions and tomatoes. Add a little bit of vegetable stock and stir in, cover to let steam and cook.  Keep checking and stir, to not over cook.  Keep at medium heat. 
When both pans of greens reduce, combine into one pan.  Sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper to tase. Keep checking on greens until it is at a desired consistency.  Turn off heat and sprinkle on chopped pecans. 
Combine cooked quinoa and Collards and Swiss Chard. Mix together and enjoy hot!  To add a little bit of a creamy kick I added a spicy peanut butter mix from my local co-op.