Editor’s note: Thanks to a grant from the Local Food Promotion Program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Berkshire Agricultural Ventures, which supports local farms and food businesses, has partnered with Berkshire Organics, a Pittsfield-based business which operates a home delivery service to make locally produced, nutrient-dense, delicious food accessible to every home in the Berkshires. The Edge is happy to support the promotion of local food and to present an article by Shaun Opperman, co-owner with his wife of Berkshire Organics. Because he spends his days coordinating with farmers, ranchers, bakers, and food artisans to source the highest-quality and most interesting ingredients the Berkshires has to offer, his cooking style revolves around our region’s offerings at any given moment
When deciding what to cook for my family, I often operate from the wisdom that wholesome food featuring loads of seasonal fruits and vegetables makes us feel our best. The idea that “food is medicine” isn’t novel. For my part, I try not to overthink it, and instead just cook what I know is in season here in the Berkshires. During Berkshire apple season – usually September and October – I’m able to abide by the “an apple a day” mentality. But right now, I’m fueling my family with the wide variety of greens that Berkshire farmers are currently harvesting: kale, collards, spinach, arugula, Swiss chard, as well as herbs like parsley, cilantro, and dill.
You’ve heard it a million ways: fill your plate with dark leafy greens. Most literature on healthy eating touts the significance of dark leaves and the role these vitamin-rich vegetables play in a healthy diet. These vegetables are rich in fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, and also have a wealth of antioxidants that help to protect our cells against damage. Magnesium, potassium, iron, calcium… they’re all there, too. Did you know they have more fiber than cereal grains? They’re really a powerhouse. When you eat locally grown greens—ones that arrive in your kitchen just-harvested from nearby farms—you’re getting the vitality of the plants in their most nutritious form. Did you know that a vegetable’s nutrient content declines as it sits in storage and shipment? When you cook with local ingredients, you’re eating vegetables closer to their harvest date, often just a day or so after a farmer harvests them. We deliver veggies that are very much still alive! All this to say: the time to eat your dark leafies in the Berkshires is now, while they’re in season.
If you’re like me, some nights dinner is more function than form. The quickest way to get nutritious greens on the table at my house is usually a simple sauté with garlic. I’m not necessarily here to knock the simple sauté… it’s one of our staples. But there is another way to easily incorporate greens in your meal that is only a few degrees more involved than chopping garlic: The great greens blitz. Blitzing, blending, or food-processing your dark leafy greens, with the addition of a few more ingredients, can make a sauce that functions just like pesto. A sauce that has endless possibilities. You can spread it on a pizza, mix it with pasta, or dollop it on eggs. It’s a great base for sauteed shrimp or a topping for roasted potatoes. You can fold it into mayonnaise for a tomato sandwich, add a spoonful to tuna salad, or mix some in with meatballs. You can simmer a greensy sauce with a can of coconut milk and serve it over rice, or stir a generous amount into a pot of soup or beans. The best part? A blitzed-green sauce (especially one that is dairy-free) freezes well, granting you plenty of options for future meals and for times when local greens are less plentiful, or when you have a newborn baby at home, like I do now.
The basic formula I use is akin to pesto: blanched (or leftover, sautéed) greens blended with olive oil, a nut, herbs, and parmesan, pine nuts, pecans, almonds, walnuts… even pepitas will do. Traditional basil-pesto does not include lemon juice, but I always include lemon in a greens-blitz, if I have one on hand. Otherwise, you can add a splash of vinegar to brighten things up. But a pesto-like sauce is just the beginning. You can certainly take this idea to blitz your greens and skip your way through the season. Don’t like nuts? Fresh out of parmesan? Instead of pesto, take your greens in the direction of an Italian salsa verde: blend dark leafy greens with a bunch of parsley, a shallot, something pickle-y (like capers or cornichons), red pepper flakes, and maybe an anchovy filet. Have an enthusiastic herb garden? Blitz equal parts dark leafy greens with a mix of tender herbs like parsley, cilantro, dill, oregano, and a more generous pour of red wine vinegar for something akin to chimichurri. Many corners of the world have a version of a blitzed-green sauce, and there’s no reason not to lean into this method of eating your greens this season.
Dark Leafy Greens Pesto
Blanching your greens before they get processed will help retain their color. Truthfully, that’s about all the blanching process does. When boiling water and ice baths seem too fussy, it’s okay to skip this step. More often than not, my green “pesto” is actually made from leftover sauteed greens from the previous night’s dinner.
This recipe is easily doubled and can even be made with a combination of dark leafy greens.
Ingredients:
- 1 large bunch of dark leafy greens like spinach, arugula, chard, kale, or collards
- ½ cup of nuts
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- ¼ cup freshly grated parmesan
- Juice of about half a lemon (~2-3 tablespoons), plus some zest
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
- Sea salt
- Freshly cracked pepper
- Optional: A generous handful of fresh herbs like parsley, dill, or basil; red pepper flakes
Directions:
- Prep your greens. If you’re working with kale, collards, or chard which have a thicker stem, de-stem the leaves. Here you have a couple of options: blanch your stems until tender and include them in the sauce or save for tomorrow night’s stir fry. (Or freeze them for stock.)
- Blanch your greens. In a big pot of boiling water, submerge your greens for about 30 seconds, until wilted. Transfer to an ice bath. Once cool, remove and squeeze out excess water.
- In a blender, food processor, or bowl with an immersion blender, add the blanched greens and the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust for salt and acid, adding more salt or lemon juice as needed. If the pesto is too thick, you can add more olive oil, or even a splash of water.
Pesto keeps in the fridge in a sealed glass container for at least a week. Or freeze for up to 4 months.
