Kale

Turn the Sweet Potato Soup Base into a meal with spicy chorizo, hearty chickpeas, and vibrant green kale. This makes a truly beautiful bowl of soup. If you’d rather keep this soup vegetarian, try the grain-based chorizo substitute from Field Roast, one of the first meat substitutes I’ve actually liked. It’s available in natural food stores in almost every state and through www.fieldroast.com.

Even though much of the bitterness of this cultivar has been bred out, some extra sweetness is often welcome. Casting around for something sweet to scatter over a plate of steamed kale, I suddenly remembered the Sicilian habit of adding golden raisins to soft, sweet onions. The contrast between the leaves and their seasoning is strangely comforting. Quite when you might eat this is debatable. We first ate it with treacly rye bread and Gruyère cheese, next to fillets of smoked mackerel. It is tricky to know where it would sit most comfortably.

Kale is just one possibility for bulking out this supper of pork balls and broth. I use it because I like the fullness of its leaves with the smooth pork balls. You could use any member of the greens family, and particularly Savoy cabbage. The important bit is not to overcook the greens.

The soup-stew, a bowl of spoon-tender meat, beans, and aromatics that partly collapse into the surrounding stock, is one of the suppers I hold dearest. More often taken as lunch, this is food that feeds the soul as much as the belly, enriching, calming, quietly energizing. This is the cooking on which to lavish the cheapest cuts going, the fatty, bony lumps that butchers sell at reduced prices: mostly cuts from the neck and lower legs. Ingredients whose sole purpose is to give body to the liquid in which they cook. A knuckle end of prosciutto would be a sound addition here, if your local deli will sell you one. Most will charge very little. Butchers are an excellent source of ham bones with much meat attached. Failing that, I use a lump of ham, complete with its thick layer of fat.

A fantastic little recipe, cheap, simple, and fast. I usually have some bread with this, if only to rub round the plate afterwards. This is best on very hot plates.

I often take bright young leaves and their sprouting shoots, cook them briefly in boiling water, then toss them into sizzling butter seasoned with garlic and lemon as an accompaniment for grilled pork belly, a roast fillet of lamb, or a nice piece of fish. That said, it still takes up more room on the plate than the meat. Red Russian kale, which I often cook in this way, is finer boned than the curly plumes we know so well. The heavily laced leaves have a fragility to them, and wilt quickly after picking. For all their gentility and mauve-pink blush, they still carry something of the coarseness of the stronger stuff.

A damp January morning (2006) and a walk round the vegetable patch reveals only two herbs in reasonable condition: rosemary, which loses some of its potency in winter, and parsley, most of which has collapsed in a dead faint to the ground. I value both enormously, feeling even now that they have an edge on the imported basil and spindly thyme in the markets. Both respond well to earthy winter cooking. Chilled to the bone (I find it’s the damp that gets to me more than the temperature), I come in and use the parsley where it really matters: in a pan of braised artichokes and pork sausage, whose brown depths I freshen up with Italian lemons and, at its side, some crisp and chewy greens.

The frugality implied in the words “cabbage soup” appeals to me just as much as the fanciful descriptions of Michelin-starred menus. The words evoke a rich simplicity where nothing unnecessary intrudes. This is indeed a soup of extraordinary solace, gratifying in its purity. The stark fact that this was a meal formed in poverty is there for all to see. Portugal has a cabbage soup, perhaps the best known of all, caldo verde. It is made with couve gallego, a yellow-flowered kale, whose leaves are flatter and less plumelike than the kale we generally buy in the market. The other ingredients are from the pantry, but should include a few slices of chorizo if the soup is to have any authenticity. This soup works with any coarse-textured greens and eminently, I think, with Savoy cabbage.

These poblanos are stuffed with tempeh, a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans. Tempeh tastes rich and meaty when seasoned and cooked properly. The chiles can be either grilled or roasted. You can prepare the filling and even stuff the chiles the night before cooking. For a memorable summer meal, serve with Pickled Mango and Habanero Relish or Mango and Habanero Salsa Cruda (page 183) and grilled corn on the cob.

Take a break from cooking and make a satisfying meal from raw fruits and vegetables. This drink takes about twelve minutes to make from start to finish. It’s a great way to get your greens without any work, and I like the slightly fibrous texture the greens impart. The smoothie is good for two days if you want to have it for a few meals. After storing it overnight in the refrigerator, just reblend it for a few seconds. As different fruits come into season, try berries instead of oranges, or a ripe peach instead of the banana. In hot weather, blend in several ice cubes.

Massaging kale (shown opposite) with olive oil and salt is a useful technique popular in raw cuisine. The greens get “cooked” by the salt and the squeezing action, becoming tender and more digestible. Nori seaweed, the kind used to wrap sushi, adds a rich, savory note to the salad. Find nori at natural food stores or Asian markets. In summer, add shaved radishes, fresh corn kernels, and mint leaves.

If there’s a safe haven in the vegetable kingdom, it’s sweet potatoes. In fact, I bet that if every kid’s introduction to veggies were a sweet potato, it would knock down parental stress over healthy eating by at least 50 percent. I mean, what’s not to love? Sweet taste, beautiful color, and fantastic nutrition, not to mention a creamy texture that allows you to introduce chopped greens in a nonthreatening manner. Here, I’ve added kale, which has some outstanding anticancer properties, and ginger, which aids digestion, for a little zip.

We’ve come a long way with greens since those days when the produce section in the grocery store consisted primarily of iceberg lettuce. First we started seeing more romaine, then—gasp!—mesclun, and now there are endless varieties of field greens, baby greens, micro greens, and even micro sprouts. That’s not a bad thing, of course, but it can be a little intimidating when you stare at the produce and say, “Hmm … what’s that?” Which brings us to kale. People sometimes steer away from kale because it’s slightly bitter, but a yin-yang approach will bring it into balance—in this case, using carrots and ginger to neutralize kale’s slight bitterness. Greens really are vital for maintaining health during treatment, and this recipe will help you learn to love the taste. For a decadently delicious touch, sprinkle Maple-Glazed Walnuts (page 141) over the greens just before serving.

As everyone knows, greens are good for you, but with its high calcium content, kale is a standout. Unlike many greens, kale does not wilt on contact with heat, but needs a good bit of simmering to get done. Its deep green color and elaborately ruffled leaves, contrasted with the yellow of the squash and the orange of the sweet potato, make this an attractive and nourishing dish for the early autumn harvest.

I love the depth of flavor offered from the blend of fresh and roasted red peppers here. These sweet notes play off the salty feta for a delicious contrast.

Want to add meat to this meal? Consider strips of salami or prosciutto.

Quinoa is not only a complete protein, providing all the essential amino acids, it’s also gluten-free. This light and delicate grain has a delicious nutty flavor that is perfect for summer weather. The type of chile is up to you. For a milder flavor, choose an Anaheim green chile; pasillas or jalapeños will give more of a bite. You may use spinach rather than kale or chard. If you find that your greens emerge browner than you’d like, move them down a layer and top with the bell pepper instead.

Garam masala is the basic mix of Indian spices. You can purchase it at ethnic or health food stores. Use your favorite chile pepper in this dish. Jalapeños work fine, as do Anaheim or other green chiles, or even red pepper flakes if that’s what you have in your cupboard. For additional garnishing, use sprigs of fresh mint or cilantro. If your diet is dairy-free, try this recipe with plain soy yogurt.