Creamy Curried Cashew Greens and Chips

sorry for the fuzzy photo!

No, I'm not being "British", I mean actual chips.

You see, yesterday, we had a company meeting. They used to be about every 3 weeks, update of how things are going. They used to be at lunch time, but boy, that gets expensive. Since they moved them to the afternoon, I never go. Mostly because, I can't. I'm gone by then to pick up my kid from school. But yesterday was a school holiday and kid and hubby were home.

The snacks for these things are water, chips, and cookies. Now, I'm not a huge junk food fan normally. I don't mind salty snacks that are "natural". You know, corn, oil, salt. Or potatoes, oil, salt. But it's not something I like to keep around the house. However, I'm also not going to turn down free food.

As I grabbed a bag of baked BBQ Lays (I wouldn't recommend them...the Kettle BBQ chips I had for lunch were much better...uh...I have PMS, so sue me), my coworker Ed asked me "you going to blog about that?" I said "no, I didn't make it". You see, now there are 4 or 5 people who know about my blog at work, not just 2. So, I get some razzing now and then, but who cares really. It just means I have to think about what I post. :)

There were leftovers, so I grabbed some more for the road (as did everyone else). So Ed, this is for you.

Back to the greens...I have a new coworker (someone I've known for awhile), who is a member of a different CSA. I mentioned that I LOVE kale, and he's not really into it. Always composts it. So, I came in to work on Friday and found 1/2 dozen eggs (from different friend), avocado (from boss), and kale and a couple of clementines. Wow, it's awesome to be me.

In my attempt to work my way through my cookbooks, I found this recipe in Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair. I've had this cookbook forever, but have only made a few things. I've adjusted the recipe here, mostly because I didn't have the "curry paste" made, and I didn't want to make a couple of cups of it. So, I winged it and of course added garlic. I didn't measure much either so...these spices are approximate. This was really really delicious.

Creamy Curried Cashew Greens adapted from Feeding the Whole Family
canola oil: 0.06
olive oil: 0.11
2 large bunches greens - I used one kale, one collard: 2.00
1/2 to 2/3 c. cashews: 1.25
2 Tbsp soy sauce: 0.25
1/2 onion, diced: 0.20
3 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole: 0.15
2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger: 0.15

1.5 tsp cumin seeds: 0.10
4 whole cloves: 0.02
5-6 black peppercorns: 0.01
1/4 tsp dried mustard: 0.02
1/8 tsp allspice: 0.02
pinch cardamom: 0.01
1/2 tsp cinnamon: 0.05
1.5 tsp turmeric: 0.05
1.5 tsp coriander: 0.10

Total: $4.45 for about 5 generous servings (2/3 to 3/4 cup?), or $0.89 per serving

Grind the spices up in a coffee or spice grinder.

Wash the greens. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the greens, boil for about 8-9 minutes, depending on the type of green. Both kale and collards are pretty hardy. Drain in a colander, run a little cold water on them, and let them cool until you can handle. A metal colander works better for this, better heat transfer. But you can always take the top handful, squeeze dry, then run a little cold water on the lower hot stuff. In any event, squeeze dry and chop.

Meanwhile, cook the onion and garlic in 1 Tbsp canola oil until soft. Add the spices to let them "bloom" (heard that on Aarti Party). Here I added a little olive oil because it was too dry. Let cool a little bit.

In a blender, mix soy sauce, cashews, onion mixture. At this point, I had to add a little water to get it creamy.

Heat a little more oil in a frying pan (this step not totally necessary. You could do it in a pot without oil, but I like the crunchyness). Put in the greens and use your spatula to break up into small pieces. Because when you cook, squeeze dry and chop greens, you get clumps. I don't like clumps. Then add the cashew sauce and mix well to heat through and get that crunchyness. While you do this, wish you were either taller or stronger so that your right arm didn't get so tired from the stirring.

Serve.

Note, the only saltiness in here is from the soy sauce (I used no-salt cashews), and it was plenty flavorful.

We also made pizza. Hubby did the crust, worried that it didn't look right, looks the same as mine does. It was good.