Filling Greens for Chilly Weather

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

Winter is the season for dinners that fill the belly and warm us up from the inside out. That often means dishes rich with meat and heavy sauces like stews, or thick and oozing with cheese and cream like Fettucine alfredo. Indeed, those dishes are so hearty they can sustain an Olympic skier or even a lumberjack. But unless you are out there are all day hitting the slopes or cutting down trees, the warmth and sustenance you need out of a winter meal should most likely be filling but not necessarily fattening.

An easy way to the fill the belly without fattening it is with the wonder nutrient, fiber. Fiber is the insoluble and indigestible part of the plant that aides in digestion and can give the feeling of being full. Foods high in fiber range from apples, to whole wheat, to leafy greens.

One of my favorite filling winter foods is the leafy green known as kale. Kale is a member of the cabbage family but most like evolved as a sort of wild cabbage. It is extremely hearty, growing well in nearly any kind of soil conditions, which is why it is a vegetable you can usually spot at the farmers market long after most crops have died off for the winter.

There are many types of kale from standard curly, to plain leaved, to cavalo nero (also known as black, lacinato, or dinosaur kale). In addition to being high in fiber, kale is high in Vitamin C, Beta-carotene, lutein, and is fairly high in calcium. Altogether, kale is somewhat of a wonder vegetable, with health benefits beyond the vitamin content--from high-antioxidants to anti-inflammatory properties.

What’s great about kale along with other hearty winter greens like mustard greens and collard greens, it that it is hearty enough to stand up to the winter chill. Even though you need to eat greens year round, the last thing you want after a day of trudging around in the snow is a light salad. Sautéed or stewed leafy greens like kale give you all the nutrients you need with a depth of flavor and heft to get you through a cold winter night.

Cooking these hearty winter greens is fairly easy in addition to being adaptable to a variety of dishes. Chopped greens can be added to soups such as minestrone and will maintain their integrity if cooked for a long time, unlike other green vegetables like green beans or spinach which require a much shorter cooking time before they start to fall apart. Kale can be shredded and stewed with beans and reduced white wine for a sauce to add to a vegetarian pasta dish. Or these greens can easily be prepared on their own, as a side dish to any hearty main course from fried catfish to pork chops.

In the southern tradition, kale, collards, and mustard greens take really well to acids. When braising the greens, a bit of onion, some white wine, and splash of red wine vinegar such provides a balance to the bitterness of the leaves. For dishes such as a white bean and kale pasta, a squeeze of lemon juice to the beans and kale will serve the same purpose as the vinegar without overwhelming the pasta dish.

I once had a class in college where we had to run a restaurant for a night, complete with our own theme and menu. As my night fell at the beginning of November in upstate New York, I thought the perfect side dish for all main courses would be some lovely braised baby kale.

Somehow we over-ordered and what arrived on delivery day was enough kale to serve the restaurant for a whole week, well beyond my own restaurant night. Like it or not, I introduced my fellow students, and a week’s worth of diners to the filling, warming powers of this perfect winter vegetable. Although certainly an ordering mistake, I would like to think I did everyone a favor, adding some serious good and good for you greens to their diet that could warm even the most chilled New York belly.

Serves/Makes: 8

• 1 pound whole wheat linguine (or fettucine)
• salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 pound kale, stem removed and leaves sliced in 1-inch strips
• 1 can (14 ounce size) cannellini beans
• 1 1/2 cup white wine
• black pepper
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 lemon
• Parmesan cheese