My weekly produce shopping ritual used to go something like this: I’d realize we were fresh out of vegetables or salad greens or fruit, and scrunch in a trip to the nearest ‘approved’ grocery (organic, local, etc. etc.)-Good Life, in this case, within the neighborhood. I’d get to the vegetable section and I’d work myself up into a frenzy trying to decide what to pick-even within the most fresh and seasonal of the lot. ‘We need to include more root vegetables’, I’d think, and immediately decide against it, for no amount of desire to be healthy could make up for my dislike for parsnips and turnips and such. Potatoes, carrots, radishes, burdock, etc. are root vegetables enough, thank you very much. I’d then pounce upon the idea of adding more greens to our meals-greens apart from the daily dose of salad greens, but it wouldn’t be long before I’d remember the number of times I’d lost bunches of Swiss Chard or Kale and the like to rot simply because I couldn’t find THE recipe to do them justice. I’d quietly then stick to the usual-potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, cucumber, carrots, peas, radishes, cauliflowers, broccoli and mushrooms, and asparagus in spring. Every now and then, I’d throw in a bunch of fresh Baby Bok Choy; and go back home feeling depressed at my inability to incorporate more vegetables in our daily meals.

It wasn’t long, thankfully, before I realized how ludicrous this whole ‘ritual’ was-an idle mind, indeed. The problem lay, as I figured, in my needing to prepare some complicated, tiring dish that would take away all the pleasure of cooking and eating, or feeling guilty about cooking more Indian style than any other, thus depriving myself of the opportunity to be a more ‘international’ cook. Sheesh.

But the second I stepped off of this idiotic plane of thought, I realized that there were several-hundreds, perhaps-of ways to prepare greens without breaking a sweat or having to do tedious amounts of research; many of them on a familiar home front-there is no dearth of dishes made with greens in South Indian cuisine. Plus, it would definitely meet my quota of authentic S. Indian dishes to try.

Armed with that, I scoped out the various varieties; most of which was available year-round and some others-like Escarole, Tatsoi and Purslane-being more seasonal.

1. Collard Greens:

2. Swiss/Rainbow Chard:

3. Mustard Greens:

4. Lacinato/Red Russian Kale

5. Spinach

6. Tatsoi

8. Purslane

9. Arugula

10. Escarole

The final two I have never really had to worry too much about; as all they took was some salad dressing. The others, I needed to do some research and digging for.

I fell back on my most trusted source of inspiration; cyberspace, with all its glorious food blogs, as well as perusing through some hastily scribbled recipes I had saved from my adolescence. Not too long after, I struck gold-they seemed like an ideal base for Dal/coconut masala based gravies flavored with peppercorns or chilies. Any Dal-based dish is always a great means to familiarize oneself with new greens or vegetables; the creaminess of the Dal absorbs any bitter/strange taste of the unfamiliar ingredient. In fact, this may be the only way to consume some terribly bitter greens out there, in my opinion.

My first venture down this path was Dal with Collard Greens. I was pleasantly surprised to learn how well the tow went together. A winning keeper, for sure.

Next in line to be tried out Indian-style were Swiss Chard and one of its cultivars, Rainbow Chard. These were a bit more familiar, having featured in some pastas, quiches and soups. However, I was still riding on the cloud of the Dal’s success, so I stuck with it and made the same with the chard varieties as well. Not surprisingly, they were as good as the one with the Collard Greens, if not better!

By the time I got to Kale, of which the Lacinato and Red Russian varieties seem to be the most commonly available here; I wanted to branch out a bit and find more options for greens. While the Kale varieties are somewhat different in both texture and (albeit mildly) in flavor from Chard, they didn’t require too much more research and planning. I simply fell back, this time, on some archives in the old noggin and went with something that Mum used to come up with occasionally-Molagoottal; a coconut based stew, if you will, that is a staple in the Palakkad household. Mum had been raised in a town with a large Palakkad population, where crossover recipe exchanges were quite common.

Mum saved these sort of crossover recipes for those rare times when she ran out of choices within her own cuisine, and all I can say is, thank goodness for that!

Molagoottal is commonly made with Spinach, which is another great, versatile green; but since I had a dozen other recipes for Spinach, I decided to try it out with Kale. I was pleasantly surprised to discover how well the Lacinato Kale turned out in Molagoottal!

With Spinach, it was Masial, light and full of familiar comfort.

Purslane was the big surprise this season; never realized until I tried my hand at it, that it was the same green mum used most (Paruppu Keerai) to make her own Poricha Kootu. Poricha Kootu has always been a favorite of mine. It was one of Mum’s staples, and green beans the most common addition in her version. For whatever reason though, I had made it perhaps only twice in my lifetime, and definitely never in this kitchen. All that changed the second I sat down with a steaming hot bowl of rice topped with a heavenly Kootu.

And Tatsoi, which I had fiddled around with in the past, went great with soy sauce so stir-fry was the way it went down.

This post isn’t one of my best; but I simply wanted to archive recipe ideas for greens on the blog and thus stop agonizing every time I feel as though the greens quota in my kitchen was waning.