Greens, and Potato/Sweet Potato Mash. Did I Write This Already?

A friend posted on Facebook, requesting new, healthy recipes, because he'd decided to "step up his game" as a self-feeding home cook.

I posted these two recipes, and was like, "Hey! I just typed two recipes! THAT'S a food blog entry, right there."

Potato/Sweet Potato Mash

I like to roast peeled chunks of sweet potato (brushed with oil) while peeled chunks of regular potatoes boil. Once everything's fully cooked, drain the water from the boiled potatoes, add the sweet potato chunks to the same pot, and mash 'em up however you normally prepare mashed potatoes.

It's simultaneously more nutritious AND more interesting than traditional mashed potatoes, and is a good way to add a little variety to things. (Ed. I stole this idea from a cooking show, I think, but I've seen different recipes for this concept all over the place.)

Greens, How I Do Them

Here's an adaptation of Southern-style greens that I do pretty often, and it turns out a lot tastier than it has any real right to.

1. Prep the greens. Make sure that you have a bunch of edible green leaves that are clean and have been ripped into bite-sized chunks. Kale is rad, but you wanna minimize the amount of stalk in there. You can go totally nuts and prep what looks like an unmanageably huge pile of leaves, because it shrinks a lot.

2. If you like meat, brown a little bit of (usually non-breakfast) ground sausage on the bottom of a big soup pot. Leave the sausage in.

3. Fill the pot with water, scraping any brown meat residue off of the bottom, if appropriate. You can also use any kind of broth. To be traditional, use pork broth made by boiling some smoked ham hock. But I usually just go with water, and it's fine.

4. Put the leaves into the pot with the water, and get the water boiling. Use a spoon or something, if necessary, to keep mashing the leaves down until they fit into the pot. They'll shrink as the water gets hot.

5. Boil 'em as long as you want, and add a bunch of savory things to the water. A few splashes of apple cider vinegar and a bit of decent hot sauce or salsa are mandatory (I was skeptical before trying it, but I'm now a believer). After that, seasonings are "to taste."

I use salt, usually some kind of fat like butter and/or olive oil, this mystery stuff called "seasoning sauce" that I picked up in a store, worstechire(sp?) sauce, soy sauce, maybe some garlic powder, maybe some ground peppercorns, and sometimes just a subliminally little pinch of curry. I recommend tasting the broth pretty often, and having fun with this stage. I also recommend shying away from sweet additions, and leaning more toward sour and spicy additions.

Cook "to death," or until the leaves have seriously wilted, and taste good. (Ed. This is a personalized adaptation of some recipes I've seen elsewhere.)