Sautéed Greens Two Ways

Two variations on the simplest way to prepare cooked greens.

Ingredients

Fresh seasonal greens, about 1/2 pound per person. Choose from mustard greens, turnip greens, kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, broccoli rabe, beet greens, spinach, Asian greens, or even wild greens like dandelion.
Some kind of fat. I use either bacon (cooked to render the fat) or olive oil.
Salt and pepper
Red pepper flakes and/or hot sauce (optional)
Garlic and/or onion is something I often add, but that's optional too.
Vinegar is a condiment many folks wouldn't think of eating a mess o'greens without, though that's not my preference.

Prep Instructions

Wash your greens of choice carefully. I usually immerse them in cool water in the sink and rinse them again as I transfer them to a colander or salad spinner, just to be sure there's no grit trapped in the leaves. (Some people recommend adding up to a half-cup of white vinegar to a sink half-filled with water and letting the greens soak for 5 to 10 minutes, but I only do that if I've just picked them from my own garden and suspect some bugs might be lurking, or if the greens have dirt clinging to the leaves. You won't generally find either to be the case with greens purchased at a farmers' market, which will be pre-washed.)
If you're using chard, cut off the thick stems, trimming and discarding the ends, then cut the stems into 1/2 to 1-inch lengths, keeping them in a separate pile. Pile up the leaves and cut them roughly vertically and horizontally into about 2-inch pieces.
If you're using any green with a tough stem, like mature collards or some types of kale, you can cut the toughest part of the stem from the leaves, discarding the stem. If the greens are young and tender, or the stems are fleshy (as with mustard and turnip greens), just cut off the as much as the stem as you'd like and assume the rest will cook down.
I like to pile all my trimmed leaves into a stack if they're very large, then just cut them vertically and horizontally into 2-inch pieces or so. You can also take a pile of leaves and loosely roll them up, then cut the roll horizontally and vertically. Greens will reduce to a fraction of their current size once cooked, so don't worry about chopping too finely.

Cooking Instructions

Option 1, greens with bacon: I tend to use this recipe when I have a nice mess of collards, mustard greens, turnip greens, and sometimes kale, but any green will do.
Get out a Dutch oven or stock pot, something with a lid that's tall enough to contain the bulky raw greens. For this simple preparation I add a few pieces of bacon to the pan, maybe 1 piece per person. It's easiest if you chop the bacon into half-inch pieces (more or less) before you cook it. Cook the bacon over medium heat until the fat has been rendered and the bacon is cooked to your liking, then remove the bacon to drain on a paper towel. Leave a tablespoon or two of the bacon fat in the pan, but conserve the rest after you drain it just in case you removed too much.
If I'm in the mood for onions this is when I add a handful of chopped or sliced onions to the pan and saute for a few minutes, until they're softened. This dish is fine without them, though. And if I'm using chard this is when I'd add the stems and cook them for a couple of minutes before adding the greens.
Add all of the greens now and stir to coat with the bacon grease. Cook over medium high heat, stirring, until the greens have wilted down to a fraction of their former size, then add a half cup or so of water or chicken stock.
At this point you would generally cover the pot and let the greens cook for just a bit, until they're as tender as you prefer them. (Don't feel that you have to cook them to death; greens are great with a little bite to them.) Depending on the maturity of the greens and the type you've chosen, you might need to cook them for only a couple of minutes (spinach), while mustard greens might take a few minutes longer, and collard greens and some types of kale might benefit from cooking for 10 minutes or more. Just keep tasting and take them off when you like the texture.
Add the bacon back to the greens and stir. Add salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, hot sauce, or vinegar to taste.
If you're going with option 2, greens sautéed with olive oil and garlic, you do everything in just the way I've described above, but instead of using bacon use a tablespoon or two of olive oil as your fat. (I tend to use this preparation most often for broccoli rabe, Swiss chard, kale, spinach—the more tender greens.) Heat it to medium and toss in minced garlic to taste. (I might use a teaspoon minced for a pound of raw greens, but that's totally up to you.) Heat the garlic gently for 30 seconds or so then increase the heat and throw in the greens. For greens with garlic I don't generally use onions, but that would be a fine addition, to be added along with the garlic and cooked for a few minutes, until softened. Follow the instructions above and cook until the greens are done to your liking. When cooking greens this way I sometimes sprinkle them with a little Parmesan cheese at the table rather than hot sauce or vinegar.

What are your favorite ways to cook greens? Let us know in the comments.