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Sunday, June 27, 2010

Unglamorous Greens

Someone with four feet has nibbled off our beet greens.  We have these little stunted stems in our garden.  Sad, because I've really gotten to like beet greens.  I ate them the first time in an effort to 1)be healthy and 2)use up as much of the garden produce as possible.  Fortunately when we did our Saturday run to the farmer's market, I found some great beets at one of the stands - lovely greens attached.  When I said to Connie that I wanted that bunch because they had the best greens, the young man asked if I'd like some more.  Would I ever.  Turns out some folks don't like the greens so the standholder was cutting off the tops and reserving them.  We wound up with a veritable bounty of beet greens.  I thought they'd be good with the smoked pork chops.  Correct.  They were perfect with the pork chops.

As it turns out, beet greens are really easy to make.  They're pretty forgiving too.  You can kind of eyeball the other stuff you put in the skillet and they're ok.   I'm going to guess at most of the measurements here since I eyeballed the whole deal.



Sauteed Beet Greens

2 bunches beet greens
4- 4" wide salami slices, cut into slivers or diced
1 T olive oil
1 T shagbark hickory syrup
1 T soy sauce
1 T minced shallot

Wash the beet greens.  Shake the moisture off but don't dry them thoroughly as the remaining moisture will help cook them.  Put the salami in a large skillet and brown it. 


As it's browning, mix the cooking sauce. 


Add the beet greens to the skillet. 



Pour in about half of the sauce.  Stir until the greens are limp.  Serve with the rest of the sauce on the side. 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It's always bothered me that grocery stores cut the greens off the beets and then sell them as another product. This does look fantastic, though I've never even heard of shagbark hickory syrup!

Kate said...

I'm with you on that! Fortunately, our nearby grocery keeps the beets intact. Shagbark Hickory Syrup is like a maple syrup - but better. Their website is www.hickoryworks.com and their email is syrup@iquest.net. I use it in any recipe that calls for maple syrup. It's a little less sweet and to me has a better flavor.