I went to the Farmer’s Market the other day—so glorious in the summer!

We’re at the peak of Mother Earth’s summer bounty: raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, nectarines, peaches…ooooh, I’m drooling. I can almost taste them…

Do you ever go to the Farmers market, or the regular supermarket, buy a bunch of produce because it looks so good and then get home and totally not know what to even do with it? And then of course it ends up sadly wilting or rotting in your fridge because a) you didn’t store them correctly and b) you never used them.  Yeah, that happens a lot. 

Me? I love produce and vegetables, especially dark leafy greens like kale, swiss chard, and collards (my fave). But for someone who isn’t used to working with them, those bushy monsters can be downright scary. What the heck do you do with them when you get home? How do you actually cook a kale?

So glad you asked! I too was once like you. But then I got this amazeballs book, Greens Glorious Greens! More than 140 Ways to Prepare All Those Great-tasting, Super-Healthy, Beautiful Leafy Greens by Johnna Albi & Catherine Walthers.

Man, this book delivers. Let’s take kale, for example. The authors tell you how to shop for it, cook it, and store it. The kale chapter had 13 different recipes (all VERY easy) from basic kale, lemon-basil kale to potato kale soup. Seriously, all so easy to make.

This is a MUST-HAVE for any kitchen. Sorry to say, now you no longer have an excuse not to buy your leafy greens. Which, by the way, are super and fun to experiment with. They are a goldmine of minerals like iron, potassium and magnesium. Don’t forget vitamins like K, C, E, and the B vitamins. One cup of cooked greens provides 9 times the recommended intake of vitamin K (which is super important for blood clotting, bone health, diabetes, and inflammation). So basically, eat your greens.

To get you started, here’s one of my favorite recipes from the book which I made last night.  All of my ingredients came straight from the farmer’s market…delish. 

Collard Greens and Caramelized Onions (serves 2-3)

• 3/4 pound collard greens (6 or 7 cups, chopped)

• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (although this would taste great with coconut oil, too!)

• 3 onions, sliced into thin crescents

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• Salt to taste

1. Wash collards, remove stalks, and stack 4-5 leaves. Slice into strips, approx 1/4″ wide

2. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and saute for 15-20 minutes, until golden and sweet.  Take care not to burn (LOL, i always do!). Add garlic and saute for another 2-3 minutes until golden.

3. While the onions are cooking, bring 2-3 cups of water to boil in a 10-12″ skillet with a lid. Add collards, cover, and cook over high heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. The greens are cooked when they are tender but still bright green. Drain in a colander and set aside. (As an aside, you can save this water and when it cools, water your plants with it. They’ll get all the water-soluble vitamins from the collards that leached out into the water!)

4. Add greens to onion and garlic. Season with salt to taste and cook for another 1-2 minutes to heat through. Serve hot, drizzled with additional olive oil if you dare.

**Add 2 tablespoons raisins for the last 3 minutes of cooking if you wish!**