Creamy Pureed Greens

By the Gracious Vegan

This puree is great as a side dish, but has so many other possible uses: on baked potatoes, crackers, bread, pasta, or pizza, or as part of a bowl or quesadilla, or snuggled next to stewed tomatoes, mashed potatoes, or rice pilaf. During the early summer when I get a lot of greens in my farm share, this is my go-to recipe. I used to make it with collard greens only, but I’ve found more recently that it works with any combination of dark leafy greens.

Note that this puree has a dark leafy greens flavor. It sounds obvious, but be ready for the slightly bitter taste to grab your taste buds. I love this flavor, but some may not.

You can certainly make a smaller batch of this recipe, but I’ve found my blender (a two-quart Vitamix) only works well with the amounts listed here. A food processor works for smaller batches, but it does not get the mixture as smooth as a blender does.

Makes about 2.5 cups of puree

Trim your greens as needed. If the leaves are large, cut them in half or quarters.  (You can either compost the stems or finely slice them and add them to the mix.)

• About 1.5 pounds of any combination of dark, leafy greens (collards, mustard, bok choy, kale, turnip, radish, beet, etc.)

Steam the greens. I use my Instant Pot. See this post on steam greens in the Instant Pot. Or you can steam or boil them on the stove.

Transfer the drained, steamed greens to the blender or food processor. Add the following ingredients.

• 3 Tablespoons water

• 1 Tablespoon tahini

• 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast (What is Nutritional Yeast?)

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon salt (to your taste)

Process until a puree texture is reached. You may need to add a little more water, use the tamper that came with your blender to push the greens down, and/or stop and scrape down the sides once or twice. 

Timing: Around 30 minutes

Gluten-free