Greens in Kheema

I’ve mentioned before that I am continually waging a war to get my entire family–myself included–to like cooked greens. There have been a few successes, but more thumbs down than up. Recently I got quite excited about a wonderful looking recipe using Christmas Lima beans and greens. John and I liked it ok, but the kids hated it. In the meantime, the recipe had only used about half of the pile of greens (in this case, Swiss chard and mustard greens, I think, maybe some kale). I hated the idea of all that produce going bad so I got to thinking.

I remembered that wonderful Kheema with Springtime Greens I had made several years back, that we all adored. That had a lot of greens, many more than the large pile on my counter currently. So what if I chopped the greens down and threw them into kheema. Any kheema.

Well I have done it twice since having that revelation and both times it has been a stunning success. With any green except beet greens, which taste like beets, which I do not care for. One of the keys is to throw in a good handful of cilantro with the greens, as much as a cup, chopped. As far as the actual greens go, the sky is the limit. Frozen spinach works well. My favorite is mustard greens, but kale has been fantastic as well as Swiss chard. My kids literally never even noticed. Alex did not pick a single green out of the mix! I chop the greens well, and then add them early enough that they almost melt into the ground meat mixture of the kheema.

I have shared  enough kheemas with you that instead of sharing another (no doubt similar in some fashion) one with you again, I am just going to link to my kheema page. Just be sure to add your greens with enough time to cook down into the sauce/ground meat, as I mentioned above.

I did manage–for once–to get a shot of what your onions should look like when sautéing them for Indian dishes. The before shot is above, and the after shot below (the onions and ginger have been added at this point, but no ground spices yet):

Hope that helps in your curry making endeavors–and in getting more greens into your diet. I also hope that everyone on the east coast is staying dry and that everyone everywhere affected by Sandy is staying warm (wow but Sandy brought some cold with it!).