Mustard greens, along with turnip, spinach, and collard greens, can be prepared a number of ways.  For our New Year’s Day dinner, I usually prepare them southern style—cooked in ham hocks and sugar—as one of our lucky foods. The rest of the year we cook mustard greens in garlic, olive oil, and white wine as we do spinach, collard, and turnip greens. You don’t need to wilt the greens in boiling water before adding them to the garlic infused olive oil.  I like to add a healthy pinch of crushed red pepper flakes to the garlic while it’s cooking in the olive oil. Maybe we should call these “Italian-style” mustard greens.  This dish is good cold too.

Mustard Greens Recipe

Prep time:  10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS 

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 pound mustard greens
• ½ cup white wine
• Salt & pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Put olive oil in skillet, add garlic cloves, and sauté until garlic is soft (about 5 minutes).  Remove garlic from pan, discard, and add mustard greens, a few at a time, until all greens fit in pan.  Add white wine.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Cover pan and sauté for thirty minutes or until greens are tender.

YIELD: 6 servings