Use Your Booty: Sri Lankan Greens

With all the green, leafy bounty I've been getting from my CSA, I'm surprised it's taken this long to get this recipe onto our table and into this blog. The recipe comes from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian, which, by the way, is a great resource for recipes for vegetables that are new to you.

I used amaranth in this version, but you could use cabbage, KALE, chard, KALE, mustard, KALE, spinach - you get the point. The coconut is a nice touch: don't be fearful that your dish will taste like a pina colada, there's just a wee bit.

We enjoyed these greens on a plate (that's them in the top of the picture) with some curried cauliflower, a radish pickle some seriously hot hot sauce and basmati rice.

Sri Lankan Greens

Serves 4

• olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced into thin rings
• 1 jalapeno, sliced into thin rings (for lots of heat) or just slit lengthwise (for a wee bit of heat)
• 1-2 bunches of greens, leaves stripped from stems and cut into thin strips - enough to yield about 8 cups of greens
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 2-3 tablespoons shredded coconut (I have used unsweetened coconut from the health food store and sweetened flake coconut from the supermarket - both work fine, you can also use fresh coconut if you have it)

Saute the onion and pepper in a large skillet over medium-high heat until the onion starts to brown - about 5 minutes.

Add the greens, salt and turmeric and stir. Let the greens start to wilt down. If the greens appear too dry add a little water to the pan. Cover and turn the heat to low.

Braise the greens for 10 - 20 minutes (softer greens like spinach will be tender sooner than tougher greens like kale).

When the greens are tender, stir in the coconut - taste for salt and adjust seasoning to taste.

This Summer, I am chronicling my first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) experience. My CSA share is from Arrowhead Farm, a farm based in Newburyport, MA. Each week, I am posting about what was in my share and what I'm doing with it. By way of full disclosure, I won my share through a raffle and am not paying for it. However, Arrowhead did not know I was entered in the raffle, and I received no special consideration because of this blog. I paid for my livestock share. A full set of all the photos I've taken of this share is here.