The summer is ending and the winter is approaching. We are in autumn, the liminal space between the seasons.
The amaranth in my garden is dying, with most of the leaves already turning an ugly yellow. The rocket plants are bolting and not producing many new leaves any longer.
This allows me to harvest some of the last of these leaves, using it to make a side dish that will blow away most other dishes! I usually make this as my lunch, sharing it with whoever wants to join me.
This is kind of a running or constantly changing recipe for me. I constantly work new ingredients in, and take old ones out, perpetually evolving as nature gives me.
I try to use as much as possible homegrown ingredients in this, as it makes the growing of your own food worth it.
So please join me as I show you how I make this dish using leafy greens that I grow in my own herb garden!
Selecting Leafy Greens
I love to travel with seeds. As soon as I started visiting my girlfriend more regularly, her father allowed me to garden in an unused space on his property. Since then, the amaranth, rocket, and swiss chard have taken over. Literally. The rocket plants are even growing between the paving.
But with this abundance, I am lucky to have "too much" leafy greens. If there is one ingredient we all can add to our diet, it is these leafy greens.
I had the following greens:
- Amaranth
- Rocket
- Swiss chard
- Garlic chives
Recipe/Ingredients list
The following ingredient amounts made about one big portion for a main lunch. If you want to serve this as a side dish, it might yield two to four portions, depending on how big you prefer your side dish!
I used the following ingredients:
- 1/2 a lemon's zest and juice,
- 1 medium onion,
- 1 generous helping of parmesan,
- 4-6 tbs of olive oil,
- 1 handful of sunflower seeds, and
- 1 big bowl of leafy greens (see above the mixture that I used).
Method/Process
The method of making this dish is so simple. It takes less than 10 minutes and it yields a beautifully complex dish.
As with all recipes, it starts with cutting things. I cut the onions first. Depending on what you prefer, I slice them into thin slices.
Then I move on to slice the greens into thin slices as well. If you keep these slices uniformly, the dish will be really beautiful. You can be creative with the plating. But if you just want to cut everything into cubes, that will also work out well.
After all of the cutting, I begin the cooking process. This involves a lot of olive oil. You really want to almost burn the onions, maybe even get some crisp on the edges!
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When the onions are really dark on the edges, I also throw in the sunflower seeds. Depending on the size of the seeds or nuts that you are going to use in this dish, you need to cook them a bit (especially if they are still raw). I cooked the sunflower seeds for only a minute or two; you really do not want to burn them at this stage.
If the nuts/seeds are almost cooked, I add the leafy greens. These cook almost instantly. Depending on the thickness and heat retention properties of you pan, you can almost turn off the heat. The carried-over heat will be enough to cook the leaves.
With the heat turned off, I add a bit of lemon juice, and I get my parmesan cheese ready with the lemon zest.
Plating
And then you just plate! It is that simple and quick. It cannot get quicker than this.
Depending on what you use this for, you can add even more ingredients. I only had this as lunch, so I added even more olive oil and parmesan cheese.
The photographs (on the left and below) of the finished dish are about one small side dish portion. If I had to add it to a main meal, I would have put it on some rice or some form of starch.
But I am also thinking about putting this on some sourdough toast. Cooking is fun because you can experiment almost endlessly!
Postscriptum, or Make this your own recipe
Cooking gives you the unique opportunity to re-write a recipe in your own style. A recipe is after all just a guideline that you can follow and see where it leads you.
I hope that you will try this recipe for yourself, and your loved ones, and please let me know how it went!
For now, happy cooking and keep well.
All of the writings in this post are my own. The recipe as well, as I just threw a bunch of things in olive oil and saw what came from it! The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and iPhone.