Utilize tasty, affordable market greens to make this satisfying dish! Get a free sample at the market this week!
Greens and Potatoes with Garlic
A basic Mediterranean quick technique for turning healthy greens into a flavorful and substantial side dish…..sweet potatoes make it even healthierIngredients
| 1-4 tbsp | Extra-virgin olive oil [to diet or to taste] | |
| 2-3 medium | Baking or sweet potatoes, scrubbed, NOT peeled | |
| 1-2 bunches or 1 bag frozen | Any green [leafy greens, broccoli, green beans, etc.] [always wash any fresh vegetables] | |
| to taste | Salt & pepper | |
| 2-4 cloves | Peeled garlic [or to taste] |
Preperations
| Boil greens [chopped if needed] in lightly salted water until nearly done to your taste [omit salt if you are on very-low or salt-free diet, but a little salt enhances flavor a great deal] | ||
| Bake potatoes in microwave or oven — or boil — until slightly more than done. Set aside | ||
| Drain greens in colander and set aside | ||
| While greens boil, prepare garlic-infused olive oil: | ||
| Heat olive oil in thick-bottomed pan over low heat | ||
| Cut the peeled garlic cloves into large chunks [only 2-3 chunks per head] | ||
| Heat garlic in olive oil, turning and stirring them occasionally, until they are rich golden but not browned | ||
| At this point, the oil is very well infused with garlic flavor. Remove garlic chunks [if you do not want to risk eating a chunk] of else leave them in the oil and warn people to look out for large golden chunks of garlic — this is hard to do with the potatoes there too | ||
| Add greens to the infused oil over medium heat and toss towell coat the greens | ||
| Chop potatoes [with skins on] into bite-size slices or pieces and add to greens, tossing well so that potatoes pick up the remaining oil and juices |
TIPS:
- In this particular recipe, the oil is strongly infused with fresh garlic flavor, so a little oil carries a lot of flavor punch, but some oil is required to pick up the garlic flavor.
- You may use any oil, but extra-virgin olive oil has much more flavor than others, and has beneficial effects on HDL cholesterol levels in the blood.
- With heartier-flavored greens such as Swiss chard, green beans, rapini, turnip greens, etc., a chopped tomato or two added to the oil will spread and carry the flavors and provide the potatoes with more juice to soak up.
- Squeezed fresh lemon juice can also enliven this kind of vegetable preparation.
- Cook greens to your desired level of doneness, but with more solid greens [broccoli, green beans, etc.], slightly longer cooking than currently fashionable al dente tastes releases more flavor and helps absorption.
- In this kind of dish, potatoes that are on the verge of falling apart are better than slightly underdone — their function is to absorb flavors and, by beginning to break up, to spread and attach them into the greens.
Serves 4-6Total time: 10-20 minutes
