collard greens – Mel's Mosaic

January, cold, soup weather. It was the perfect day to make something nice and hot for dinner, especially since I hadn’t made a one-pot wonder for awhile. I flipped through several cookbooks looking for a recipe I hadn’t made yet (because I wanted to try something new) and came across a Portuguese Green Soup in my Bon Appetit book. Basic ingredients, could make some changes to use what I had, and sounded delicious.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch collard greens, center stems cut away, leaves thinly sliced — or sort of chopped/cut into pieces
1 pound fully cooked spicy sausage (such as linguiça, andouille, or hot links), cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds — I used venison roast that I had and cubed it
5 3/4 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 3/4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, diced — why peel them? There is great stuff in the skin!
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic. Saute until onion is soft and golden , about 5 minutes. Note: my apartment smelled SO good.

Add collard greens and saute until wilted, about 4 minutes.

Add sausage (or venison in my case) and saute 5 minutes.

Add broth and potatoes. Simmer soup uncovered until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

Transfer 2 cups soup (without sausage) to processor. Blend until smooth; return to pot of soup and bring to simmer. Mix in crushed red pepper. Season with salt and black pepper.

This is where immersion blenders are heaven!!! Now, it was hard to totally avoid the meat here but it made it kind of cool in the end. I made it not super smooth but not super chunky.

It was a very nice soup. As mentioned, the meat was sort of ‘smoothed’ out from the immersion blender. I had to add more salt — don’t know if it’s because sausage can often have more salt (and the recipe doesn’t call for any to begin with, they mention to add it at the end). I added some garlic salt to give it some more kick. But, I like this recipe. It says 4 dinner servings. Definitely! I have plenty of soup to go around.

I love getting my Bon Appetit magazine each month and there is one recipe in there I’ve been eyeing for awhile from the January issue. Finally got around to making it last weekend while watching (yelling, screaming, cheering, crying, and finally celebrating) the Seahawks game. It was the Collard Green Salad with Cashews and Lime (they mention you can easily substitute kale for the collard greens, which I did). Delicious, filling, vegetarian, can make it lactose-free (as in non-cow milk).

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted, roasted cashews, divided (love being able to buy in bulk at my Whole Foods)
4 tablespoons finely grated Pecorino, divided, plus shaved for serving (I used Manchego! — tastes just as good and I can eat it)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 anchovy fillet packed in oil, drained, finely chopped (I used anchovy paste — I didn’t want to open a whole can of anchovies for 1 fillet)
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (just used bottled, was lazy)
1 teaspoon pink peppercorns, crushed, plus more for serving (didn’t get that fancy)
½ bunch collard greens, ribs and stems removed, leaves coarsely torn

Directions:

Process ½ cup cashews, 2 Tbsp. grated cheese, and 3 Tbsp. water in a food processor (I used a mini prep — fun!), thinning with more water as needed, until a smooth, creamy paste forms; season with salt and black pepper. Set cashew paste aside.

Whisk anchovy (paste), oil, lime juice, 1 tsp. pink peppercorns (for those who follow recipes to the dot), and 2 Tbsp. grated cheese in a large bowl; season with salt and black pepper.

Coarsely chop remaining ½ cup cashews. Add nuts and collard greens to large bowl.

Toss to coat, gently massaging dressing into leaves with your fingers to bruise and slightly wilt. (Spread some reserved cashew paste onto each plate and top with salad and shaved Pecorino; sprinkle with more crushed pink peppercorns.)