Good With: Fish, Pasta (or in pasta), Starchy foods
Prep Time: 20 minutes (mostly for cleaning)
Cookin Time: 7 minutes
Cost: 48¢ per serving
Adapted from Alton Brown’s Vlad’s Very Garlic Greens

Greens are frightening creatures. They’re the underdog of many root vegetables, and you have to wonder why… Are they hard to cook? Do they require a sophisticated palette? Fortunately, the answer is “no” on both accounts. Greens are a nutritional goldmine that are consistently neglected in home cooking… At least in the Pacific Northwest, where we grew up. Beet greens, the type we used today, are extremely high in Vitamin K, Fiber, Vitamin A, Calcium, Iron and a multitude of other healthy necessities. An added bonus? They’re pretty delicious, too, especially when paired with 5 cloves of garlic.

Ingredients

Makes: 2 servings

3 cloves garlic, peeled, plus 2 cloves garlic, one sliced, one minced
6 medium/large beets worth (or 2 cups) beet greens
Enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a wide saute pan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation Instructions

1. Cut the beet greens away from the beets, leaving about a 1″ stem on the beet. Prepare the greens by slicing down both sides of the hard, red stem in the center. Don’t worry about leaving the leaves in tact, they’re just going to get roughed up later. Try to dry the leaves as much as possible, but don’t worry if there’s a little water left.

2. Place the newly de-stemmed greens into a colander and rinse many, many times – until the greens are dirt-free. Tear into business-card sized pieces (it’s the only object of reference we could come up with).

3. Over medium heat, pour oil into a wide, deep skillet until the there’s enough to cover the bottom of the pan. To avoid using too much oil, “roll” the oil around the pan as you pour it.

4. Take the 3 peeled, whole cloves of garlic and give them a quick smash with the side of a knife, and add them to the oil. Shake the pan, so the oil coats the garlic, and fry until the garlic pieces are golden brown. Kill the heat and add the sliced garlic.

5. Once the sliced garlic is golden brown, crank the heat back up to medium, and remove the whole, smashed cloves. Add the greens to the pan and stir lightly to enure even coating of garlicked oil. Cook for about 3-5 minutes, until the greens have reduced to 1/3 to 1/2 their original size.

6. Add the minced garlic to the greens, and cook for an additional 30 seconds, or so. Eat immediately!

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