My Favorite Green Leafy Vegetable~

Select your rapini nice and green with tight florets, minimal yellow.

Everyone knows that green leafy vegetables are good for them. Many people won't eat them because they think they taste terrible. This is an awful crying shame.

There are a lot of greens out there to choose from such as kale, collars, spinach, beet, chard, mustard, dandelion and rapini to name a few. They all have different textures and tastes. They all have a unique way in which they stand up to cooking. There are a lot of websites out there such as Epicurious  and Food Network. There are also many food blogs and random websites with interesting cooking suggestions. I don't know how to cook this is no longer an excuse not to try something new!

The green I want to focus on today is my favorite green leafy vegetable of all time. Rapini is packed with vitamin A, C, Iron, Calcium, Vitamin K, Potassium, etc. Most people I talk with have no idea what it is. They have no idea how to cook it. They have no idea that the flavor will continue to grow on you until this delicious nutrient packed vegetable becomes an addiction. Rapini is bitter, flavorful and holds up to cooking pretty darn well.

Enough Babble, on to the Recipe!

Ingredients:
1 bunch rapini
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 pinch crushed red pepper optional
salt and pepper to taste (although I tend to omit the salt in favor of adding Parmesan at the table)

1. Clean your sink and fill it part way with nice cold water. Remove the packaging from the rapini and dump it in the sink. Then, take the leafy part and discard the hard stalks. Take the lid of the frying pan you are going to use and set it by the sink. As you clean the leaves add them to the lid letting a good amount of water go with them. You don't want the leaves dry.

2. Then chop up some garlic.

3. Add your oil to the pan. See me measuring?

4. Heat the oil over medium heat and add the garlic. When it starts to smell nice add the rapini and water to the pan keeping the lid on to get a nice steam effect going.

5. When the rapini starts to wilt and get green stir it so it cooks evenly. Add your red pepper flakes now.

6. You'll notice that I didn't add timing. There is no timing. Use your eyes. When the green is bright, and starting to wilt, you are done. Remove it from the heat and enjoy!