Have I mentioned that I belong to a CSA? Don't know what a CSA is? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and basically it means that you are buying a share in a farm for a season and your payment entitles you to a share of what the farm produces. In my case, it means a box of interesting vegetables (and sometimes strawberries) once a week from The Golden Earthworm Organic farm.
It's always interesting (and often challenging) to come up with ideas for what to do with all the vegetables. This week I got a couple of bunches of bok choi -- which is a Chinese vegetable, in the cabbage family. It's very good stir fried with garlic and ginger and soy sauce, or put in soups, etc, but I decided to try something different.
Last night a friend dropped off (of all things) a HUGE bag of bacon. I'm not sure I've ever seen so much bacon -- three or four pounds probably. Did I mention I live with vegetarians? So that four pounds of bacon... all mine.
I am, however, a fairly healthy eater, and I couldn't fathom just making a huge plate of bacon, so I decided that for lunch I'd combine the bacon and the bok choi and make myself a cooked green lunch. While I ate it as lunch, I think it's probably best suited for a side dish. It would work with any number of greens -- spinach, swiss chard, kale, etc.
Here's the basic idea...
- Bok choi (or any other greens) - chopped. About 4 cups, but really whatever you want.
- Bacon - 2-3 strips
In a frying pan, cook the bacon until crispy. Remove bacon, and put on paper towels to dry. Wash and roughly chop greens. (I also added a garlic scape - which is the top shoot of garlic - to this dish.). Cook the greens in the bacon fat, adding salt and pepper as desired. When the greens are wilted and bright green, remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Top with the crumbled bacon.
Easy and delicious!
