Last Legs

Having been severely under the weather last week I had quite alot of veggies and greens that would soon be on their last legs, and needed to be used up in a hurry. There were also some bits and pieces left over from my New Year's extravaganza dinner.

Still being not quite up to my normal amount of activity, I needed to come up with some ideas that were quick, easy, tasty and not very challenging.

Veuve Cliquot at Sugar Delirium gave me the brilliant idea of using up the turnip greens that came with my CSA box, and which I had never cooked with before. And being thrifty and having some baby bok choy and even babier swiss chard to use up, I combined all three together.

Easy Peasy Greens

• 2-3 cups mixed greens, sliced (I used about 1 1/2 cups of turnip greens and 1 cup of baby bokchoy and chard mixed)
• 1 large clove garlic, finely sliced (not minced)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• sesame oil, chili oil and light soy sauce to taste.

Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat, add garlic and stir. When the garlic is fragrant (do not let it brown) add the greens.

If you are using turnip greens and they are coarser than the other greens, start them off in the pan a minute or 2 before adding the more tender greens. If necessary add a tablespoon or so of water to help the greens steam/fry. They will take a grand total of 3 or so minutes all told - try and keep them bright and fresh looking.

Pour a very small drizzle of sesame oil, chili oil and soy sauce over top, toss a couple of times in the pan and then serve them up hot. This is one medium serving and would be great over rice or with some spelt noodles.

I always thought of turnip greens as being cooked until they were grey and mouldering, but now, thanks to VC, I have a new vegetable to look out for.

Other things that I found in the fridge that were about to start walking away were:

• a beautiful red pepper
• a bunch of basil and some baby spinach
• some lovely stinky Tome de Chevre cheese
• a bowl of spagetti that was cooked and just needed to be reheated
• the remains of a bottle of bubbly wine

I heated some olive oil and added the sliced up red peppers, cooking it on high heat until they started to turn colour. I added some slice garlic to this, and once the peppers were nicely carmelized and the garlic sweetly smelling up the kitchen (but not burned) I threw in the remains of the champagne (about a cup) and let that reduce down.

The spagetti got reheated in a pot of boiling water for just about 90 seconds, and then it got tossed with a small nob of butter, the spinach and basil. I then threw in a handful of the cubed Tome cheese, and then threw in the pepper/champagne sauce. A gentle toss and then into a bowl, with a bit of fresh basil on top and a very generous grind of pepper and I had one very satisfying dinner and a microwavable lunch.

Lucky me - champagne pasta with chevre for lunch.

I wonder if the cafeteria will have that on its menu tomorrow?