If you live in the South you have had collard greens. If you live in the North you have had beet greens. They are drastically different in my opinion. They are both begrudgingly eaten by children and they have the same consistency, but differ in how they are prepared. Many would say that both are disgusting. Well, I love collard greens. I hadn’t tried them until about a year ago and I fell in love. Salty, smoky, vinegary, awesome! Beet greens, not so much. But I bought a bunch of beets the other day and there were so many greens I just couldn’t throw them out. So I came up with a recipe to take them from bland to tangy beet greens. I promise, even if you think they are gross, this will be good.
I bought this huge bunch of beets the other day to make my favorite winter soup, beet soup. You can read the recipe here. It is a family recipe that I make every winter. The greens at the end of the beets were huge and I just couldn’t part with them. So I rinsed them off and cut them up, chiffonade style. Then I minced some garlic. I tossed it all in a pan with a little olive oil.
Once the garlic became fragrant (isn’t that a great smell?!) I added 1/4 C. of lemon juice and 1 tsp. of lemon zest. I let it all cook together for about 3 minutes, until the greens were tender. That’s it! It had all the tang of collard greens with their vinegar which is what I love. And the garlic added a little bit of spice and depth of flavor. I really enjoyed these. I hope you do too!
Here is the full recipe.
Tangy Beet Greens
2 C. chopped beet greens
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 C. lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest
Make sure the beet greens are rinsed very well. Pat them dry with a paper towel. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium sized pan. Add the garlic first and then the greens. Once the whole mixture becomes fragrant and the greens begin to wilt, add the lemon juice and lemon zest. Continue to cook them until the mixture is wilted and cooked through, about 3 minutes. Enjoy!
