Collard greens as crispy seaweed

Collard greens as crispy seaweed: Collard greens belong to the same brassica family as broccoli and cabbage. According to research collard greens are very high in vitamins A, C and K as well as manganese and calcium.

Furthermore, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, found that collard greens contain something called ‘diindolylmethane‘ which works to activate the antiviral, antibacterial and anticancer system of your immune system. You gotta love those greens and in fact, collard greens are a staple part of the diet in many parts of the world as well as here in the southern states of America.

In the Kashmir Valley regions of India, collard green leaves, roots and buds are eaten nearly every day, most often in a soup. This is also so for collard greens eaten in Portugal where they are called ‘couve‘ and used to make their popular soup ‘caldo verde‘. In the UK collard greens are known as ‘spring greens‘ and are cooking in various ways including a British version of a Chinese favourite, crispy seaweed:

Simply roll the leaves and slice them into shreds, deep fry them, sprinkle them with sesame seeds, salt and sugar or your favourite blend of spices and that’s all their is to that! You can use bok choy, pak choi or kale too:

Ingredients for collard greens as crispy seaweed- serves 2 – 4

225 grams (8 oz) spring greens, pak choy, kale or dark green cabbage
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil for deep-frying

Wash the spring greens and allow to dry very well.
Roll and chop the leaves into the thinnest shreds possible.
Heat the oil in a very deep pan or deep-fat fryer (shallow frying is not a good idea here) until very hot. A piece of bread should sizzle and brown in a few seconds.
Add the greens and fry for 2-3 minutes.
This may need to be done in a few batches to prevent the temperature of the oil from dropping too far. Adding too much in one go can cause the oil to froth over the side of the pan which poses a severe fire risk.
Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon or the mesh basket of the deep-fat fryer and drain well on absorbent kitchen paper.
Place on a heated serving dish, mix the salt and sugar together and sprinkle evenly over the greens.

NOTE: Make sure the spring greens leaves are well dried by putting in a salad spinner or wrapping in a clean dry tea-towel and shaking. Any remaining water can detrimentally affect the deep-frying process and give rise to an inferior finished product.

Collard greens are best eaten when the leaves are young and freshly picked.

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