Fall cooking greens are new this week, and our recipe includes three of the items you will get from the Student Farm in your box, including, as the star, collards!
Other items: Baby ginger (!) Garlic, 2 weeks supply of green beans (I’ve been roasting mine-delicious!) Red Russian kale, Shishito and Carmen peppers, Ruby Streaks mustard (isn’t it beautiful) and the collards, which will be tender, delicious and full of nutrition.
Ingredients
- 1 bunch collard greens
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
Instructions
- Prepare the collard greens. First, remove the leaves from the stems. Then chop the leaves into bite-sized pieces. You won’t be using the stems in this recipe. They can be disposed of, composted or used for something else.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and the ginger and cook for about 1 minute, or until fragrant.
- Add the collard greens to the skillet. Toss well with the garlic and ginger to combine. Season with salt and paprika. Toss again.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the collard greens reduce in size by about one-half.
- Add the rice vinegar. Stir to combine. Cover and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the collards are a dark green and the liquid is mostly evaporated. Some may dry or turn a very, very dark color. This is okay — just scrape this part into the bowl too. It’s delicious.
The Student Farm at CCCC 
Oh my gosh! I can’t wait to try that recipe! 🙂
I have found some good ways to preserve baby ginger for those CSA members who aren’t planning on using it this week (or even the next, or the next!). If the entire stalk is still attached with the leaves, separate everything from each other (leaves, stalk, and ginger root) and do the following:
1. The leaves can be dried at room temperature for about two weeks and made into a lovely tea by steeping for 4 minutes and adding a slice of lemon and/or a slice of fresh ginger as well. Ginger tea is very good for nausea and settling mild indigestion.
2. I usually cut the stalks into about 3 inch segments and freeze them to be added to rice during the cooking process (about 2-3 pieces for 2 cups of rice) which provides a gentle ginger fragrance and depth of flavor. Be sure to fish out those pieces before eating/serving the rice.
3. The root can of course be frozen whole or processed in a food processor to be thawed and used at a later date. When I freeze it whole, I leave the outer skin on the root. This way when it thaws, the moisture from the thawing process allows the skin to slip right off! If you’d rather process them ahead of time, use a spoon to scoop the skins off the root and chop them (the roots) in a food processor.
4. For those of you who live on the edge and boldly go where no man has gone before – ginger root can also be dehydrated or freeze dried and made into the best dang ginger powder you’ll ever get your hands on. Same goes for that garlic!
All things will need a good air tight container to maintain freshness.