Easy: White Bean and Mustard Greens Soup

This is a no-brainer on a cold autumn evening. I’d been standing in line to check out at Whole Foods when the woman in front of me plopped nearly 10 glorious looking bunches of bright, fresh mustard greens on the belt. I asked her what in the world she was going to do with so much of it. She told me that it was going to be an important part of the Thanksgiving feast at her house, and that her family just loved them.

We shared our experiences about cooking ‘greens’ and found that we had a lot in common. But I wasn’t going to let those greens get away. I told the cashier to ring up two bunches and that I’d grab them on the way out to the car.

Done.

Normally, I just braise them with some smoked turkey meat but tonight soup just sounded a whole lot better.

This is what I came up with, which is sort of a riff on a Tuscan soup I’ve had elsewhere. The nutrition value of mustard greens and beans if off the charts. And since it’s a lot of fiber and whole goodness, it fills you up without a lot of calories or nasty fats. And you just can’t beat the yum factor.

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Big "yum": fish in a sauce of Indian Delhi saag

I love greens in any fashion, and I had a large bag of fresh baby spinach in the veggie drawer and a can of Joyti Delhi Saag sauce in the pantry. Hmmmm. There were also three orphan pieces of different white fish in the freezer.

Ahhh, an epiphany!

Take one third of a large onion and mince it finely, and then about three cloves of fresh garlic. In a saute pan, heat some oil and saute the onion and garlic. When that is almost ready add the fish - chopped into bite size chunks - and cook until the fish is firm. Add the fresh spinach and a bit of water to cook it down.

Add the Delhi Saag sauce, a nice knob of butter, mix and add some red pepper flakes. Put on a lid, reduce the heat and cook over low heat for about 15 minutes.

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Dandy dandelion greens with blueberries and pecans

Talk about a nutritional winner, it’s this great fast and easy veggie side dish that takes advantage of summer’s bounty of red stem dandelion greens ( produce section at Whole Foods) with the blueberries that are so abundant now. Toss in some nuts … and the sugared nuts you use for salads would be heavenly … and you’re ready to rock and roll.

I served this with some tender, buttered organic fingerling potatos and grilled fish.

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