When I was a little kid, my Grammy used to cook up beet greens studded with tiny baby beets, a dish that I both dreaded and adored. Finding the little beets were like going on a treasure hunt, but I always found the greens too bitter for my taste.
That has all changed as an adult. Now, I love getting fresh beets and greens at the farmer’s market, bringing the beets home to roast, and washing and sauteeing the greens with olive oil and vinegar and some hot sauce. If I’ve got some bacon around, I might throw that in, too, for meaty flavor.
But this year, my knowledge of the using of greens has expanded far beyond the beet greens of my childhood. It started with Clotilde Desoulier’s recent post about radish leaf pesto, which was my first indication that radish greens could be used for anything besides compost. I’ve been snapping up radishes with their lovely greens at the farmer’s market ever since, using the greens as another item for the sauté pan, or, as Clotilde did, in a pungent pesto that I tossed with lobster ravioli.
I landed in Chicago late yesterday, and, cranky and exhausted from a turbulent travel day, turned to Twitter for a dining suggestion that was close to my hotel. “Honestly, get in a cab and get thee to Avec. Seriously. Thank me later. It’s 5 mins, and as a singleton, you’ll be fawned over,” Tweeted back my friend Fatemeh. My friend Sean, shortly thereafter, corroborated Fatemeh’s evaluation of the situation.
Fatemeh’s wicked smart, so I followed her and Sean’s advice and hopped a cab over to Avec, where there was, indeed, an open seat at the bar and where the bartender welcomed me graciously. One of the specials on the board was beet and kohlrabi greens sauteed with garlic and shallots, tossed with housemade cotta, which is like a softer version of salami. 
Kohlrabi greens? I had never even heard of kohlrabi before I moved to Iowa, but eat the greens? Who would have thought it?
I ordered it (along with a half-order of the bacon-wrapped Medjool dates stuffed with chorizo and topped with a smoked bacon and piquillo pepper sauce that was worth licking out of its little ceramic crock), and can now report that I can add yet another unexpected green to the list of What I Like.
I can also report that I’m going to start taking a closer look at all greens in general, but particularly the ones attached to vegetables at the farmer’s market. Being able to cook the greens as well as the vegetable itself certainly makes the item even more economical than it already is. Even more satisfying is the fact that I’m wasting less of what I buy. That feels good, particularly when I don’t have any kind of compost set-up in place.
on Jun 26th, 2009 at 5:37 am
I’ve never heard of radish leaf pesto, but I’ve eaten plenty of radish leaves. Radish top soup is also a wonderful spring treat.
on Jun 26th, 2009 at 9:34 am
I was so relieved to find out that the headline of this post didn’t mean the closing of Greens, the restaurant.
on Jun 26th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Shoot! I’ve never been able to find anyone to go to Avec with, and there we were, both in the city…
Glad for the review, though. Now I’ll just have to try it on my own. ;-)
on Jun 26th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Just tried the radish pesto, yum! I’m growing 5 precious Japanese heirloom watermelon radishes to attempt the raw-violi we had at Millenium years ago. The leaves are monstrous with a spiky texture, which made me nervous, but the pesto seems spike-less. I just used my regular pesto recipe (pinenuts only, no walnuts on her recommendation for this version), and tasted it with half the green amount added. The radishes made it very spicy, so I added the rest in carrot tops. At Ubuntu, that amazing veggie restaurant in Napa, they had a carrot top pesto…anyway, that smoothed out the taste and it was glorious on cold farfalle pasta. Thanks for the link, nevermore will I look at all those radish leaves and think “waste”!
on Jun 27th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Daphne, that soup sounds interesting. Do you have a recipe?
Scott, no worries there!
Ree, definitely try it — I think you’ll love it!
Erika, I have got to get to Ubuntu…have heard such good things. And those watermelon radishes sound like they’re going to be awesome!
on Jun 29th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
I tossed radish greens into a chicken soup a few weeks ago, with delicious results! will have to try the pesto.
on Jun 30th, 2009 at 9:03 am
I’ve eaten at Avec twice when I was working downtown last summer. First time, I was with a friend. Second time, I went by myself and was pretty hesitant to do so — but then I walked on in, saw the bar, and met a new friend sitting next to me. We ended up splitting all our dishes and a bottle of wine, and the servers were so awesome with us.
Granted, I still spent $35, but that’s not bad at all for two glasses of wine, two dishes and half a salad. And that killer bread. The Medjool dates are to die for, so was their salted cod brandade when they had it on the menu.
on Jul 1st, 2009 at 12:06 pm
First — tons of thanks for pointing me to the radish leaf pesto concept. Brilliant! And all this time, I’ve been tossing out those greens… although I always wondered if they could be used. We’ve been using all sorts of other unusual greens, so why not radishes?? Not sure.
on Jul 1st, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Delilah, I’m definitely going to have to try them in soup.
Nellie, I’ve probably lived in the Bay Area that long, but for wine and that much food at such a lovely place, that seems like a relative bargain! That salted cod sounds terrific. Yum!
Lo, it never occurred to me to use them before I saw that blog post. Definitely want to investigate more unusual greens at this point.