Mashed-Potato Cakes with Onions and Kale

A member recommended this last year. Sounds great. This is from Cooking Light.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 patties)

Ingredients

• 12 cups water
• 1 bunch kale, trimmed (about 4 ounces)
• 2 2/3 cups (1-inch) cubed Yukon gold or red potato (about 1 pound)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter or stick margarine
• 3 cups diced onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Cooking spray
• Sage sprigs (optional)

Preparation

Bring water to a boil in a Dutch oven; add kale. Cover and cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until tender. Remove kale with a slotted spoon, reserving cooking liquid. Chop kale and set aside.

Add potato to reserved cooking liquid in pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until tender. Drain; partially mash potatoes. Stir in kale and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

Preheat oven to 400°.

Heat oil and butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, diced onion, and chopped sage. Cook 13 minutes or until browned. Combine potato mixture, onion mixture, green onions, and pepper. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Divide potato mixture into 8 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty. Place patties on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.

Preheat broiler.

Broil patties for 5 minutes or until browned. Garnish with sage sprigs, if desired.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

246 (26% from fat)

Fat:

7g (sat 2.4g,mono 3.4g,poly 0.6g)

Protein:

5.1g

Carbohydrate:

43.2g

Fiber:

5.1g

Cholesterol:

8mg

Iron:

2.6mg

Sodium:

495mg

Calcium:

87mg

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 1999

Smothered Mushrooms and Kale Rachael Ray Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

We made this last year - it's very tasty and a nice change from plain greens/olive oil. You can also fold in a little goat cheese in the end (or other soft cheese) for an extra twist.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 24 small crimini mushrooms, wiped clean, halved
• 1 bunch kale, trimmed, stems removed and chopped
• 1/4 cup Marsala or other sherry
• Salt and pepper

Directions

Heat a medium skillet with extra-virgin olive oil and butter over medium to medium-high heat. When fat is hot, add garlic and mushrooms and place a lid which is too small for the skillet down into the pan, pressing and smothering the mushrooms. Cook 7 to 8 minutes, stirring once, then wilt the kale into the pan, turning it with tongs to combine with mushrooms. Smother the greens for 1 to 2 minutes, then deglaze the pan with Marsala and season the mixture with salt and pepper, to taste.

What to do with all those Stems

If you don't want to saute your stems or eat the greens, you have a few options:
1. Make veggie stock or soup stock. Mostly in the fall, when the hens are processed, I make a lot of soup stock. But you can also make a straight veggie stock. Check the recipe blog for recipes. I can it in pint-sized containers and store in the pantry and use when needed. It's cheaper than the box stock you buy from the store and you know what's in it.
2. Feed them to your goat or chicken
3. Compost the waste. Watch warnings from me though - sometimes we'll get a fungus that you might not want to bring over to your garden so you might not want to compost unless you know that you're maintaining a hot pile.

I don't suggest running these through your garbage disposal. We had a member shove a large amount of kale ribs into her disposal last year and she had to call the plumber to snake the drain. No fun.

You can always bring veggie scraps here and feed them to the goats. Just remember - no stringy uncooked things like cucumber peelings for the chickens. They don't have teeth to break up the strings. Also no moldy veggies.

What to Do With Your Greens

This post is contributed by Marnie Reid - thanks for the easy suggestions, Marnie!

Two ideas….

1. Salad….a must for every dinner this time of year, use all the greens (stronger flavors in smaller bites)

2. Chicken, sautéed in olive oil with salt and pepper and any other seasonings you like, top with mixed greens (arugula, chard, kale, spinach, mustard, onions, garlic---whatever you like), once soft, mix in goat cheese and put on top of cooked chicken

3. At the end of the week when your greens are going south and you are feeling guilty that you haven’t eaten them—sauté them (any, per above) in butter oil or water, add in herbs, in another bowl mix 6 eggs 1 cup milk, cheese of your choice (I like feta or goat, with a little cheddar or mont jack), season, mix all together and cook 35-45 minutes until golden on top

Quiche and salad for lunch or breakfast….

Next week….lasagna recipe with greens.

Marnie

Basic Greens

We eat greens almost every night. You can add any spice you like. Sometimes we add a little curry powder. Sometimes some thai paste. Sometimes garlic or onions. But generally we only use salt and oil.

1. Prepare your greens. If they have large, woody ribs, devein the leaves by slicing them out. I now skip that and fold the leaf in half holding the soft part of the leaf with my left hand and pulling up on the stalk with my right. This removes the woody part quickly. You can then slice your greens in 1" sections if you'd like. To do this uniformly, pile up a large stack of leaves and roll them and then slice. I also skip this part and just cook them whole.

2. Wash your greens thoroughly. If they're really dirty (after a rain) I'll soak in a sink and drain and soak again and drain and then spin in a salad spinner. Again, if I'm really in a hurry, I just place the greens in a colander and let them drip a little. The water helps them steam and cook anyway.

3. Turn on the heat in a large skillet. Pour in a circle of oil (about 2 or 3 T). If you're using onions or garlic, be careful not to overheat the pan because you'll burn the garlic quickly. Quickly add the garlic and then the greens. Toss. Salt using a salt grinder and sea salt (1 - 3 turns). Toss. Cook until they're deep green and wilted. Add about 1/2 c water, cover and turn off the heat. They're ready to serve.

If you cook your greens too long they're mushy and not very flavorful.

Pesto

This is a basic recipe that we use for pesto of all types. It's good for mustard greens, basil, very young garlic mustard and nettles:

1. Gather and clean your leaves. Take them off the stems and spin in your salad spinner.
2. Most greens can be used fresh. If you're making nettle pesto, you should blanch and plunge in ice water and drain (this will remove the stinging from the leaves). Place leaves in a food processor along with 1/1 to 1 clove of garlic and about 1/2 T of sea salt. Turn on the processor and pour in olive oil until the leaves are processed according to your preference. If you run the processor too long, it will turn to mush. I keep adding leaves until the batch is pretty full (about 2 - 3 cups).
3. Add a few pine nuts (maybe 1/8 c) and a handful of grated parmesan cheese. If you're using garlic mustard, I recommend walnuts.

Taste and add more salt or garlic if you would like. But be careful - the garlic strengthens with time as the mixture ages.

This can be kept in the fridge for a week or so or you can freeze it. The quality isn't as good when frozen but it sure is nice to have basil pesto pasta in the middle of winter!

Vegan-Raw beet and cashew spread

Vegan-Raw beet and cashew spread

This is another recipe from Angela Madaras - it is about the best appetizer I've had in a long time. Also good as a side dish with eggs (well, we eat a lot of eggs so anything is paired with eggs around here).

1 chopped beet (all veggies raw)
6 chopped carrots
3 cloves crushed garlic
2 Tbs. grated ginger
2 C. chopped cashews
2Tbs. tahini
1 cup chopped parsley
juice from two lemons
2 Tbs. tamari, brags or soy sauce
2 Tbs. olive or flax oil
water to thin out
Blend it together and adjust to your own taste