Seeing (And Eating) Green

A Couple Cooks, Alex and Sonja Overhiser, shop for greens at the City Market. Photo by Kelley Jordan Heneveld.

Indy food blog A Couple Cooks is inspiration for spring’s leafy greens

BY SARAH SUKSIRI

I

f you’ve ever been drawn to the baskets filled with leafy greens at the farmers’ market and felt stumped by kale, chard or collards, you’re not alone.

Helping to make sense of it all is the delectable cooking blog A Couple Cooks (ACoupleCooks.com), run by husband and wife Alex and Sonja Overhiser of Indianapolis. The blog, which combines the Overhisers’ healthy, wholesome and mostly vegetarian recipes with their stylish food photos, features an abundance of leafy greens—picture kale frittata, polenta with Swiss chard and garlic, and coconut curry lentils with spinach.

The couple begins by shopping at the Indy Winter Farmers’ Market on Saturdays through April at the Indianapolis City Market.

For the healthy-cooking bloggers, the farmers’ market is a little bit like what candy stores are to kids: full of surprises to discover. Alongside familiar greens like spinach, kale and chard, they’ve found toraziroh, a tangy Japanese green that cooks just like spinach, and maruba santoh, a mild Chinese cabbage, similar to bok choy—grown by Indiana farmers.

“We’re especially fond of Full Hand Farm [of Greenfield] and Homestead Growers [of Sheridan],” Sonja says, “but every grower there has very-high-quality greens.”

Alex recommends that people who are new to greens or looking to shake up their greens routine should seek out leafy varieties in their younger stages, when they’re most likely to be sweet and tender and without the bitter flavor that tends to scare people away from trying new greens altogether.

Other than that, Alex and Sonja say selecting greens at the market is a simple matter of making sure they’re not wilted—and if you’re still learning how to distinguish a young, sweet green from an older, spicier one, just ask the vendor for a little taste.

“People have become immune to tasting the richer flavors of greens,” Sonja says. “With high-sugar or high-salt foods, you can’t taste the intricacies of flavor.”

“Greens add a nutritious punch to soups in the last few minutes of cooking. The flavor adds a nice earthy tone to savory items.”

LENTIL AND SWEET POTATO SOUP WITH CHARD

Recipe by A Couple Cooks

Serves 4 to 6

4 cloves garlic 2 medium yellow onions

3 carrots

2 medium sweet potatoes 1 bunch rainbow Swiss chard

2 tablespoons olive oil 8 cups vegetable stock (or, 6 cups broth plus 2 cups water) 1½ cups brown lentils 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1 teaspoon dried oregano Kosher salt

Fresh ground pepper White wine (optional)

1. Prepare the vegetables: Mince garlic; dice onions; peel and chop carrots into small pieces. Wash sweet potatoes, then chop them into small pieces. Wash chard, remove stems and chop leaves into bite-size pieces. 2. In a medium soup pot over medium heat, drizzle olive oil in the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and sauté until they soften, about 4 minutes. Add carrots, garlic and ½ teaspoon kosher salt; sauté for 3 to 4 minutes, until softened.

3. Add sweet potato, vegetable broth, lentils, thyme and oregano.

Bring to a boil. 4. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes, until the lentils are soft. In the last 2 minutes, add the chopped chard and simmer until tender. Taste, then add additional kosher salt (about ½ teaspoon or so) and fresh ground pepper to taste. If desired, add a tablespoon or so of white wine to finish.

Once home from the market, greens are surprisingly easy to incorporate into almost anything.

“Throw them in a soup, or eat them raw in salads,” says Sonja. “Even sautéing them takes just five minutes.”

Some greens, like kale and chard, require trimming; others, like mustard greens and arugula, may need some experimenting to find other ingredients that pair well with their peppery flavors.

“It does take some practice,” Sonja says, “but if we can do it, anyone can.”

Alex and Sonja weren’t always so vigilant about what they ate. Before launching A Couple Cooks, they didn’t even cook much.

“I was surviving on whatever I could find in the frozen section,” Sonja says.

Since then, they’ve become cheerleaders for the kind of “simple, whole food” that their blog celebrates. The couple even wrote a cookbook, Green Mango Café and Bakery, which features recipes from the namesake restaurant in Cambodia, where the Overhisers spent time in 2012.

“Once we cut out processed foods from our own diets,” Sonja says, “our taste buds were opened up to a new array of tastes.”

Find our recipe for Easy Homemade Pizza Dough at ACoupleCooks.com.

Notes: We recommend using San Marzano tomatoes (a variety grown in Italy) as the base; we’ve found they’re irreplaceable in terms of flavor. However, if you can’t find them, you can substitute another variety of quality crushed tomatoes.

Recipe by A Couple Cooks

Makes 1 pizza

Dough for 1 pizza (use homemade dough or prepared dough) 3 garlic cloves ½ red onion

6 to 8 leaves kale

Olive oil

About ½ cup crushed San Marzano tomatoes A few handfuls Italian cheese, shredded (we used a blend of mozzarella, provolone and Parmesan)

Handful pistachios, chopped or crushed Kosher salt

1. Follow the preparation instructions for homemade dough or prepared dough. 2. Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500°F. 3. Prepare the toppings: Dice garlic; thinly slice red onion; wash kale, remove the stems and roughly chop the leaves. In a small skillet, heat a few drizzles of olive oil, then add kale and sauté, stirring, for several minutes until kale is wilted.

4. When the oven is ready, stretch the dough into a circle. Place it on a floured pizza peel or pull the hot pizza stone out of the oven and carefully place the dough on it. 5. Quickly assemble the pizza: Spread a thin layer of crushed tomatoes over the dough, then add diced garlic on top.

Sprinkle on as much cheese as you like.

Top with kale, red onion and pistachios.

Sprinkle with a bit of kosher salt. 6. Transfer the pizza to the oven and bake until the cheese and crust are nicely browned, about 5 to 7 minutes. Let pizza rest a minute or 2 before cutting.

This is a preparation that you can use for any type of dark, leafy greens. Here, we’ve used tatsoi, an Asian variety, but prepared it in an Italian way using Parmesan and lemon. This makes a great side dish to accompany any meal. If you’re using chard or kale, remove and discard the stems.

Recipe by A Couple Cooks

Makes 4 side dish servings

1 bunch tatsoi (enough for 3 cups chopped)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Pinch red pepper flakes

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice

½ tablespoon Parmesan shavings

1. Wash and dry the tatsoi. Chop greens and stems into ½-inch chunks.

2. In a bowl, toss the greens with olive oil, scant ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, and sprinkle with red pepper flakes. 3. Place the greens in a hot dry skillet, in one layer as much as possible. Sauté for about 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until bright green. Add lemon juice and Parmesan shavings. Serve warm.

“Tatsoi is an Asianstyle green, kind of like bok choy. This recipe can be adapted for any type of green; it’s simple, healthy and delicious.”