Greens: welcome back into my life

For more than a year I avoided greens like lettuce and spinach and kale and so on due to my touchy stomach and guts. When I had a garden the year before last, I experimented with the occasional very small lettuce salad eaten at the end of the meal and it went modestly well, but not swimmingly. Since then, I have only eaten greens occasionally, in small amounts and still only after eating most of the rest of a meal.

This winter, inspired by some greens-based dishes I've been cooking for work, I've played around a couple of times at home with kale as a part of main dishes consisting of other Heather-friendly ingredients. This week's addition to that list of experiments was declared "amazing" by the spouse and the smell was admired greatly by co-workers when I brought leftovers to eat for my lunch at work.

As for the touchy stomach, well, it was a bit grumbly, but this dish was well worth the small amount of complaining from the guts a few hours later. Note to self: next time for a happier tummy, make plain potatoes the main dish and this dish the side instead of eating this dish with a side slice of bread. For folks with hardier digestive systems, this dish is great with a side chunk of focaccia bread.

Spicy sausage and greens
four servings

20 oz hot Italian turkey sausage, cut into chunks
1 large bunch kale, leaves stripped from stalks and chopped for about 2 quarts of leaves
2 leeks, white parts only, sliced thinly
1 handful fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1 onion, sliced thinly (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook sausage chunks in a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a large frying pan. When sausage is half cooked, add onion and leek slices around the sausage and fry until tender. Fill the pan with kale and stir until wilted, then continue adding batches of kale and wilting until all the kale is in the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until kale is tender and sausage is cooked through. Stir in parsley and season to taste.