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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 0 Minutes |
Ready In: 0 Minutes Servings: 15 |
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I'm sitting in our hotel room now adding this recipe. We spend weeks on the road in our family business. A road warrior simply must avoid toxic fast food to survive. We try to get a suite with a kitchenette and make our own meals. Read more . We always make greens the first day and we use them for the duration of our stay. We use our greens as a base or side dish in every meal. Mix with eggs in the morning for a perfect frittata. I'll reference our family greens in many of my recipes.. :) Ingredients:
2 lbs. fresh dandelions (dandelions are the absolute 1st choice if you can find them.... and you really can always find them by simply picking them yourself from a fresh field.) |
2 lbs. fresh spinach (or: chinese cabbage, bok choy, kale, mustard greens, beet greens, swiss chard... any greens you may find in a local market)) |
2 lbs. yellow onions (strong onions work best, sweet onions lose their individual flavor too easily. i don't use red onions here but you might like their flavor) |
2 15-oz. cans cannelloni beans. (any beans are fine but we like the italian style ingredients since it is so much our heritage) |
4 large sweet bell peppers (sweet poblano peppers are better if you can get them inexpensively) |
8-10 medium hot chile peppers |
(your fave chiles, serrano, jalapeno, hot bananas, etc.. maybe 1 or 2 habaneros if you want more heat) |
2 15-oz. cans italian stewed tomatoes (substitute with any of the many diced and stewed variations you may find in your local market.) |
3 12-oz cans straw mushrooms (any 'shrooms will work, we always grab the least expensive canned variety available.) |
1 large bulb fennel |
3 whole bulbs garlic |
12-oz jar capers |
1 10-oz jar green pimento stuffed olives |
6 tblsp dried oregano |
8-10 bay leaves |
2 tbsp ground black pepper |
16 oz. olive oil (extra virgin if you can find it inexpensively.) |
2 small bunches chopped fresh cai cilantro (my fave is wide leaf cai cilantro.. if you can find it... exquisite!) |
grated romano cheese. |
8 oz balsamic vinegar |
1 large rutabaga |
if you can't find fresh greens, you can always find canned greens and all canned ingredients... the idea is that when you are on-the-road you must eat healthy and avoid white flour sandwiches and fried fast food to survive. |
Directions:
1. The first thing I wanna say here is a discovery we made while on the road. For years our family always made greens the old fashioned way by cooking them slowly on a stove-top in a large pot. By necessity we needed to use the microwave to help cook in our hotel. By prepping the vegetable in the microwave first we have found a better way to make the dish quicker and more tender. Microwaves cook by boiling water molecules using molecular resonance. The boiling water molecules explode much of the interstitial fibrous vegetable matter at the cellular level tenderizing the vegetable!! So now we use this method as a standard!!
2. Chop all vegetables into approx. 1-in. square pieces. (Chop the vegetable to your preferred density. We use the old Italian philosophy of cutting food into pieces no smaller than the size of a jumbo olive.)
3. Chop the Garlic and Cilantro fine.
4. Chop Olives into 2 pieces or leave whole if they are very small.
5. Mix half the Olive Oil, Rutabaga, Onions, Peppers, Fennel, Oregano, Bay Leaves and Black Pepper into a microwavable bowl. Microwave Onion mixture on high for 12 mins.
6. Add Remaining olive oil to pot on stove-top. Heat oil until shimmering.
7. Add Mushrooms and Chopped Garlic to heated oil and cook until lightly browned.
8. Add Stewed Tomatoes, Copped Olives, Capers, Chopped Cilantro, Cannelloni Beans,
9. When microwaved onion mixture is done, Add entire vegetable mixture to browned Garlic in pot on stove-top. Reserve part of the liquid from the onion mixture in same microwaveable bowl. Cook in stove-top pot on med-hi heat stirring regularly.
10. Add chopped Greens and Peppers to microwavable bowl and reserved liquid. microwave on high for 8-10 mins until completely limp.
11. Add Greens, Peppers, and liquid to stove-top pot.
12. Remove Bay Leaves at end of cook time.
13. Add Balsamic Vinegar to batch at very end and mix into batch thouroughly.
14. Cook Vegetables on Medium-Hi for 30-mins stirring regularly..
15. Serve in bowls with Romano Cheese sprinkled on top. We also like a to have a good whole grain bread with them to soak up the delicious juice.
16. We all experience a real rush of energy the day after when we have to face our inevitable workout at the gym; another necessity for healthy life as a road warrior.
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