Happy Halloween! If you are like me and have children with severe food allergies or restrictions, there is always some level of stress involved with holidays revolving around food. Especially this one. I’m not sure if you’ve read the excellent article on Bon Appétit re: How to Deal with Halloween Candy and a Food Allergy. If not, please do so. My kids contributed and it was really interesting for me to hear their responses to some of the questions the writer asked. The story was researched well and I am really proud of Bon Appétit for raising awareness of the issue.
Now for this week’s recipe. Last Sunday was our final Rexcroft Farm CSA pick-up. Receiving fresh fruit and vegetables from their farm has been a wonderful and eye-opening experience in a lot of ways. I loved it and can’t wait to participate again next year. I will definitely miss my weekly bounty over the next several months. The collard greens and kale were in this week’s pick up and I decided to sauté them together with some hot italian sausage and top it all with fresh breadcrumbs. Lots of flavor, spice and crunch. So good.
If you follow my blog, you know I am all about real food. I believe some who are on a gluten-free diet tend to get caught up in all of the excitement of having many new packaged and processed gluten-free items available on the shelves. It makes us feel normal in a lot of ways, I suppose, to know we can just pick some things up at the store to eat.
Interestingly enough, I am not able to actually purchase a lot of those foods because they are often cross-contaminated with peanuts and/or tree nuts (food allergies my children have). As a result, I am totally forced to make almost everything from scratch. I see this as both a blessing and a curse. A curse because I would do anything to take away my children’s food allergies, of course, and it takes a hell of a lot of time to plan, shop and cook everything. A blessing since we truly eat almost all whole foods with very few packaged snacks and prepared foods mixed in.
I’m not sure I would have been so focused on feeding my family this way if I didn’t actually have to be but I am thankful, in some ways, that I am forced to do so. However, I would love not to have any of these issues. I am very hopeful we will have cures for food allergies and celiac disease one day soon. Regardless, I promise to continue working on providing great recipes that are wholesome, full of real ingredients and absolutely delicious whether you are on a food allergy-restricted/gluten-free diet or not!
- 1 cup Schar gluten free baguette torn into pieces (about a 4" piece)
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- kosher salt and black pepper
- 1 head collard greens, ribs removed, torn into 2" pieces
- ½ lb hot italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 head tuscan kale, ribs removed, torn into 2" pieces
- lemon wedge
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
- Place torn baguette on a baking sheet and toss with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper and toast 6-8 minutes until golden-brown and crunchy
- Prepare a bowl with ice water and set aside. Fill a medium sauce pan with water and add kosher salt. Bring to a boil before adding collard greens to blanch for about 2-3 minutes, until bright green. Transfer blanched collard greens immediately to ice water to "shock" (cool).
- In the meantime, heat remaining tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and add sausage and break into pieces using a wooden spoon. Toss occasionally until browned and beginning to crisp, about 5-7 minutes. Add collard greens and kale to skillet and toss until well coated and kale begins to wilt, about 3 minutes. Squeeze lemon wedge over the skillet, season with salt and pepper and serve with breadcrumbs on top.