Broccoli leaves

I have discovered something amazing—apparently there is a little farmers market in Decatur, right on the way home from work! I can’t believe I didn’t know about it before! It’s really tiny, only a few stalls, but it will be great for finding exciting local produce to take home and cook up. I found the market in the parking lot of my bank where I had stopped to get cash in order to buy biodiesel for my car. While there I picked up some organic, locally grown dark green leafy vegetables. I cooked them up with brown rice and tofu. Today I am seriously a hippie.

The man who sold me the broccoli leaves told me that he simply stir fries them for a long time in olive oil and that’s how it goes. I was intrigued by broccoli leaves—I really like broccoli, so it’s exciting that there is a whole other part of it that I can eat. I prepared them much as you do with chard—clean well, cut out the stem because it is too tough, then roll up the leaves and cut them into a wide chiffonade. Heated 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a tall sided pan and put in the leaves—they seem like a lot but cook down very quickly. I moved them around in the pan a lot and they turned bright green and I thought they might be close to done, but I tried a bit and no way. They need awhile to cook. So I just kept the heat on medium-low and stirred them every now and then. They got a bit darker and shrank down in mass some more before they were tender enough to eat. They probably took about 25 minutes. Salted and peppered them and that’s it! I also cut up into cubes the awesome Trader Joe’s teriyaki pressed tofu and heated it up in some of my favorite sauce (veri veri teriyaki). Put the broccoli greens and the tofu with sauce over brown rice and sprinkled black sesame seeds over the top of everything.