Plant-based eaters - I need help getting greens!

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  • badtastebetty
    badtastebetty Posts: 326 Member
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    I should also add, instead of dressing for my salads I am adding my favorite fresh herbs. It's making a standard salad so much more interesting and enjoyable.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
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    I taught myself to eat greens years ago, when I had a breast cancer scare. I read all the stuff on leafy greens being good for you, and eating cruciferous veggies, and decided I'd just have to learn to like them.

    Finding good recipes is key. I would also say that many of the best preparations, especially of the tougher greens like kale, mustard greens, etc -- is NOT fat free. Adding some healthy olive oil to them allows you get more of the Vitamin A out of them (you absorb almost NO vitamin A unless you eat it with fat, anyway), and it also allows you to add all kinds of good flavors that will help you learn to love them.

    My favorite preparation of just about any green is simply to sautee some crushed garlic in olive oil and then pitch in shredded greens (or baby greens). Toss around and sautee a bit, then add a bit of water (1/4 cup or less, depending on skillet size), cover, and braise them until as tender as you like. A bit of crushed red pepper and lemon is good with this preparation.

    Remember that cabbage and broccoli are the same family as the dark leafies -- in fact, genetically they're all the same speciies, like breeds of dog. Steamed broccoli with a bit of garlic oil, or quick-blanched broccoli in a sesame-ginger dressing, are both delicious. Homemade coleslaw can be wonderful -- add diced apple for sweetness to cut the bitterness, or shredded carrot and pineapple chunks. Or make soups of pureed broccoli or cauliflower.

    The Moosewood cookbooks are actually wonderful for ways to cook greens that will make you like them rather than having to sneak them in on yourself!
  • cathomer
    cathomer Posts: 88
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    Curries are a good way to get lots of veggies in, I do use olive oil, but then you've got low calorie with all the veg. I sometimes add light coconut milk to make a korma, but obviously that would bump up the calories even more.

    Mushrooms are good for B vitamins, which is an important one to make sure you get if you're not eating meat. Adding marmite to cooking ads vitamin B as well.

    This was a good recipe using Kale http://www.riverford.co.uk/feed/in:recipes/kale-potato-cakes/ - I just didn't use the creme fraiche or the cheese.

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