Wild About Greens: 125 Delectable Vegan Recipes for Kale, Collards, Arugula, Bok Choy and Other Leafy Veggies Everyone Loves (Sterling Epicure, 2012) is a comprehensive collection of easy, delectable recipes, all featuring super-nourishing leafy greens.
From the publisher: Kale, collards, spinach, Asian greens, and other leafy greens are a breeze to prepare — and these 125 recipes showcase the most commonly used varieties in a wide selection of flavorful dishes.
The book’s up-to-the-minute ideas range from using sturdy collard greens as wrappers for savory fillings to making luscious dips from arugula and watercress. Theres even a section on green juices and smoothies that make it easier than ever to incorporate the most nutritious foods on earth into delicious everyday fare that everyone can enjoy.
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“Greens are a side dish no more! Inspired by an overabundance of chard in her kitchen garden, Atlas created a full menu of over 100 internationally inspired dishes and dips starring cruciferous greens. Full of enticing recipes like Kale Chips and Collard-Wrapped Yellow Rice and Black Bean Enchiladas, this cookbook will attract vegans, vegetarians, foodies, and adventurous dieters.” — Library Journal
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It wouldn’t be terrible if all you ever do with big bunches of kale, collard greens, and chard is to sauté or braise them in olive oil. Your well-being would certainly be enhanced if you do little more with tender raw spinach, arugula, and watercress but toss them into salads. And if the only way that Asian greens make it into your repertoire is quickly wilted into stir-fries, neither these veggies nor you will be any the worst for it.
If you do nothing more with greens than prepare them in these tried-and-true ways, you’re still way ahead of anyone who has yet to make eating leafy greens a daily habit (and your health will benefit, as well!). But why stop there, when there’s an abundance of easy ways to use these supremely nourishing, abundant, and delicious leafy veggies?
From stirring them into soups and stews to creating vitamin-packed juices and smoothies, greens keep the palate open to delight and surprise. I myself have been delighted by amazing fruit smoothies can be with spinach added, and surprised by how addictive raw kale salads are.
No longer do you need to follow the old rules of boiling big pots of water to cook greens, thus losing vitamins and flavor in the process. Stir-fried collard ribbons, anyone? Interest in leafy greens has proliferated in the past few years, right along with their availability, in just about every type of market there is—farm markets, produce stands, community-supported agriculture farms, natural foods stores, and even the ordinary supermarket.
Not long ago, in the dead of winter, I was stunned to see an array of at least a dozen varieties of fresh greens right in my none-too-urbane local supermarket; they were a sight for sore eyes and a weary palate. Most were organic, as apparently, many greens are easy to grow that way.
Rarely do I see limp, unloved greens languishing in the produce section—their lively freshness indicates that conscious consumers are buying up these leafy beauties well before they’re set to expire.