This recipe is part of a longer post, Lockdown Dinners.

CREAMED KALE

NOTE: This works with any greens, or a mixture of greens. Spinach will cook very fast while kale and other greens, like mustard, turnip or collard, take longer to soften. Mix ’em up!

I start with A LOT of Kale, 3 or 4 large bunches, I’ve washed and roughly chopped (or 3 or 4 bags of chopped kale). Don’t worry, it cooks way down. I trim the end stems off but here I don’t worry about the ribs of the kale because it will all cook down and soften eventually. (In some recipes, you pull the leaves off the middle rib of the kale and discard the rib.)

– in your largest large pot over low heat, in a glug or two of olive oil, sauté a cup or so of diced onion and/or shallot. Red or sweet onion both work well. Sauté until soft. This should take a while, 10-15 minutes. (You can add the onion when you add the oil and start cold.) When soft, add 3 cloves thinly sliced garlic. Stir the garlic as it softens, being careful not to brown the garlic. This only takes a minute or so.

– Pour in a couple of glugs of white wine or dry vermouth. Turn the heat to medium. Then fill your pot with chopped kale. Don’t press it down, just gently fill the pot.  You’ll still have a lot left on the counter. Salt and pepper liberally. Toss it all up with tongs and let it start to cook down. (I like to add a little cracked red pepper or cayenne here also… your choice.)

– Cook the kale down in the wine and onions and garlic, tossing every few minutes. Eventually I turn the heat down to low. As the kale reduces, keep adding more kale, filling the pot and tossing, until there’s none left on the counter. Then keep stirring and sautéing and reducing over low.

– When there is only a little liquid left from the wine, start adding vegetable broth or chicken broth, a little at a time (a glug or two). When this is all finished, you want just a little liquid in the bottom of the pot, not the kale swimming in a lot of liquid. So just add as you need to keep some liquid in the bottom to continually soften the kale.

– Keep tasting for salt and pepper. When all the kale has been cooked down and softened to your liking (I like a little bite left but this is also good way cooked down), add a few glugs of cream and some grated Parmesan or Romano cheese. Stir well, getting everything mixed and warm.

– You can now serve right out of the pot!…  Or put the kale in individual baking dishes, or one large baking dish, and bake, on 350 for 20 min or so, with more cheese and bread crumbs on top, for more of a casserole/gratin. I usually serve the first night right out of the pot then, with the leftovers, do the baked version on the second night (which you see in the photo)