Pesto

I am not a huge fan of cooking with greens.  I use them in soup, but other than that I don't know what to do with them and therefore end up not cooking with them very often.  Usually if I have some in the fridge chances are pretty good that a portion of them will end up in the garbage, and I thought that was the fate of the half bunch of Collard Greens I had leftover from our New Years Day celebration.  Then I saw Sunny Anderson making a collard green pesto and  I now have one more way of  using up those greens.

This is a wonderfully  garlicky and nutty pesto.  Without any bitterness that is sometimes found in greens.  The recipe by Sunny Anderson uses kalamata olives.  I didn't include them because I thought the brine flavor of the olives would be too much for the kids, but after reading reviews of similar recipes I am definitely going to add the olives next time I make this pesto.

Besides the wonderful flavor and numerous ways this pesto can be used, it is a a great recipe to make with kids.  There is something kids of all ages can do.  Older kids can do all of the steps, with the exception of cooking the greens.  Younger ones they can get lots of practice cutting by rough cutting the greens and garlic before adding them to the food processor.  And the really little ones always love pressing the buttons and watching the food go around in the food processor.

I got two meals out of this recipes.  I used it one night on pasta and another night used it as a sauce for turkey meatball subs.  Both dishes were simple, super flavorful and enjoyed by the big and little people of the house, which recently hasn't been happening very often.  

Collard Green Pesto
Printer Ready

1 lb Collard greens (stems removed)
½ cup Almonds lightly toasted
2 cloves Garlic
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup Olive Oil

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add greens and blanch for about 1 minute, or until bright green.  Drain and shock in ice water bath.  Remove from ice water and pat dry with paper towels.  Roughly chop greens

Add greens, almonds, garlic and cheese to food processor.  Process until ingredients become finely chopped, with processor running begin adding olive oil until a paste is formed and pesto comes together.