Southern Lovin'

I'm a Southern girl at heart.  Growing up in North Carolina, I think that every family gathering involved greens and something fried.  Even to this day, if you're at one of my family's holiday dinners you can count on eating some greens, usually collards.  Although I was raised on these dark leafy veggies, I didn't start to appreciate them until recent years.  It was probably when I joined our local CSA and was introduced to the winter session.  This included sometimes 3 bunches of greens per share.  If you weren't familiar with greens before, you would be within a week or two!  Now, I love them and nutritional benefits are like no other.  So that's a plus.

Here's an easy and healthful recipe that I found from the 21 Day Vegan Kickstart website.  Lots of great ideas there, so check it out!

1 cup vegetable broth or water
3 cups drained cooked or canned beans (I used 1 can of red kidney and 1 can of black)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 bunch of your green of choice, mine was kale
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt & pepper, to taste 

Tabasco sauce, to taste

Apple cider vinegar

Combine beans, broth or water, and garlic in a large saucepan. Place chopped kale on top of beans and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until kale is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in oil, salt, black pepper, and Tabasco sauce to taste.  Drizzle with vinegar, just the way we did it in the South!  :o)

I served mine over garlic-y couscous and topped with the easiest fried okra ever.  Hey, I said we always had a green and something fried, right?  The okra isn't even a recipe it's so easy, but here's what I did...

Chop fresh okra, put in a bowl, and cover with cold water.  Sit in the fridge for an hour.  Drain the okra and toss in cornmeal (I seasoned the cornmeal with salt, pepper, and paprika).  Fry in batches in half an inch or so of oil.  Drain on paper towels and you're done. 

Enjoy!!