Flash-Fried Broccoli Greens with Garlic and Tallow

For several years before we moved off-grid, we relied on local farmers and CSAs for the bulk of our vegetable intake. Starting in May we received baskets of fresh produce weekly, accompanied by a friendly smile and a warm handshake from those who grew it.

It was during this time that I was introduced to bunches and bunches – quite literally – of vegetables we might not pick up in the supermarket but that certainly do just as good a job, if not better, at nourishing families.

These foods were kohlrabi and purple potatoes; celeriac and garlic scapes. They are many of the in-between foods that make up a garden’s growing season that can’t be had in an industrialized food system.

This is where I discovered broccoli greens. These tender leaves of young broccoli not yet flowered came once in our CSA box. They are something akin to young tender cabbage or collard leaves and those can certainly be substituted here. When fried in a screaming hot cast-iron skillet with just a bit of good animal fat and some chunky garlic, its crisp edges and tender middles make for a green we all can get behind.

So when I walked out to the Pallet Garden last week and found, between the burgeoning bed of mustard greens and the heavily-podded okra trees (for they are taller than me at this point and are being saved for seed), a bed of tender broccoli leaves and stems that needed thinning anyway, this is how they came to our table.

It is often these obscure, less-than-glorious foods that nourish us the most, I am finding. The just-sprouting garlic left from the spring harvest, tallow harvested from the gallons and gallons of broth that comes from a whole cow, and these vegetables that can only be found in the in-between.

We ate this alongside a casserole made from the meat harvested from the same broth extravaganza along with several store-bought items like organic masa flour. This meal is quite representative of our agrarian reality – a bit of homegrown, a bit of store-bought, always more seeds to be sown.

Flash-Fried Broccoli Greens with Garlic and Tallow

Note: The sturdy yet delicate nature of these leaves is what makes this recipe work. Young cabbage or collard leaves would work similarly, though I do not recommend kale, mustard, or turnips here as they generally soften too much and require longer cooking to mellow their distinct flavor. Tallow can be made in much the same way as lard, if the fat is available to you.

Ingredients

• One large bunch of young broccoli stems and leaves (~20 plant thinnings)
• 2 Tablespoons grass-fed tallow
• 3 garlic cloves

Directions

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over high heat and add the tallow. Allow the pan to preheat until the tallow is nearly smoking and the pan is screaming hot.

Chop the broccoli leaves and stems into one inch pieces and throw them into the screaming hot pan. Leave them for a minute, then stir them, and leave them for two more minutes. Meanwhile, roughly chop the garlic.

Add the garlic to the pan, allow to cook for 30 seconds, and then remove from the heat.

Salt to taste and serve.